#the sound quality is so bad idk what this is recorded on

[just-spacetrash]

😚

[transbee]

recording a podfic as exposure therapy bc i hate my voice so so so much

[paizau]

I started watching the @letshaveabouba livestream on youtube, I'm 2 streams in and its really nice! the only bad thing is that because its a recording of a livestream I can't really add my input or share my ideas so I'm gonna blurt it all here.

The proto inventory they came up with is this:

In their documentation they put /a/ as a low central vowel, so its a classic 5 without /e/, but I decided for me I'll make it a square system, it'll make vowel stuff easier for me - so /i/ /u/ high, /æ/ (a for ease) /ɔ/ (/o/ for ease). I also interpreted the back consonants as +pharyngeal, and split the back non stops as one being a fricative and thr other an approximant, instead of having both be both.

regarding syllable structure, they came up with CCVT. I elaborated on it and made it #CC-VCCV-T#, which stands for:

initial cluster of any 2 different consonants allowed. yes, every cluster, even /jqa/ is allowed, but /tta/ is not.

intervocallic clusters of any 2 different consonants allowed, no 3 or more consonants in a row. so /aqba/ but not /ut.ska/

word finally only single consonants allowed, and specifically only alveolars. /klat/ not /pgum/

regarding sound changes, they talked about tone, and having epinthetic vowels breaking up initial clusters and vowel lowering. These are the sound change I came up with to achieve these goals, and some other stuff that seemed cool to me:

Tonogenesis: high tone after voiceless consonants, low tone after voiced. A voiceless consonant preceded by a voiced one gives low tone, and voiced preceded by voiceless gives high tone: /tá/, /dà/, /ntà/, /kná/. Im pretty sure something similar happens in tibetan, but it has aspiration involved, and im not going to have that, so this is only inspired by it.

voicing assimilation: stops and fricatives assimilate to the voicing of a following consonant of the same cluster. now tone is phonemic :) yay: /kná/ > /gná/, /ztì/ > /stì/, but /ntì/, /lsì/ stay as is.

pharyngeal spreading: a consonant in a cluster with a pharyngealized or back consonant become pharyngeal aswell: /psˁì/ > /pˁsˁì/, /ħɡʷà/ > /ħɡʷˁà/.

epinthetic vowel insertion: a vowel is inserted between all initial clusters. its quality depends on the surounding consonants. if one of them is palatal its /i/, if one of them is labialized velar, its /u/. if its both, it depends on the initial cons. else its /a/: /ctú/ > /citú/, /skʷò/ > /sukʷà/, /wɲù/ > /wuɲù/, /tkú/ > /takú/. idk what tone the new syllable gets I haven't thought about that.

pharyngeal lowering: vowels are lowered as follows after pharyngealized and back consonants: /i/ > /e/, /u/ > /o/, /æ, ɔ/ > /ɑ/. now we have 7 phonetic vowels - /i, u, e, o, ɛ, ɔ, ɑ/ yayyy yippee I love big vowel systemsss!! /tˁicˁá/ > /tˁecˁɑ́/ etc.

/ji/ /wu/ > /i/ /u/: because I don't like those sequances. I also think /wra/ >> /urà/, /jki/ >> /igì/ is pretty cool.

Here the current inventory after these changes:

and a few notes:

phonemic destinction between H and L tones

kept the lowered vowels allophones. You could just make pharyngealization go away and phonemicize the vowels but I like this gigantic inventory better lol

Potential /q ħ ʕ/ > /ʔ ∅ ∅/, to make the vowels phonemic. maybe /q/ > /k/. or even /q/ > ∕∅/ aswell?? it'll be a bold decision to make

syllable structure - #CVCCVT#. Initial clusters are now forbidden, but everything else is the same. I think V{j, w, ɰ, ħ, ʔ}C can lead to vowel length or more qualities or something, the sequance has potential.

So yeah this is all the ideas I have in my head rn, I hope it was an interesting read lol. I also recommend you go and watch the streams yourself, the vibe is very nice and help the creative juices flow, like I'm really happy with what I came up with here based on their protolang. it was like a fun colab challenge thing :) here's a link to the channel:

[katatty]

Hi, Kat! Fellow UK simmer here - been following you for a while here on tumblr (love your MCC posts), and am currently binging all your YouTube content after recently stumbling across your channel! I have a quick question related to YouTube, if you don’t mind answering, as I’m interested in potentially making some videos of my own. May I ask what software and setup you use to record your videos? As your audio is very good, I presume you use a mic? Your screen recordings are very smooth so I’d be interested in what programme you’re using, although I’m sure your computer has a lot to do with that. I hope my question makes sense! Thanks in advance for your help.

Hello! I don't mind answering at all, I am answering it publically in case anyone else is interested but do feel free to message me if you want to chat in more detail, I'd be happy to talk shop :) I wish I had people to talk to when I started out, I was too intimidated to approach anyone lol!

(and aaaa, I'm flattered to hear you are binging my channel, thank you!! its funny (but nice!) hearing a compliment on my audio bc I am self-concious about it and think it is not the best, hahaha)

I use OBS Studio for recording, which I think is pretty standard. But I do my video editing in Vegas Pro which idk if its common (I think people usually use adobe these days?) but I used a pirated version of Vegas to make AMVs back when I was a teenager so that was what I went with XD

I do have a decent PC but also play with low cc when I am recording for Youtube, as the game runs a little smoother and doesn't lag too much, which I think looks nicer on video! I also delete all my raw footage after I have finished editing/rendering as the files can get pretty big

edit: forgot to include this (idk if useful) but my OBS settings are set to recrod at 60FPS at a resolution of 1920x1018

I do use a mic! My first few videos were just recorded on a cheap bluetooth headset I used for work but the sound quality was pretty bad, haha. TBH I don't know much about mics, my partner is a musician and has a bunch of mics & equipment so I just borrowed his stuff lol! The mic is an Audio Technica AT2020 condenser microphone and its plugged into a M-Audio M-Track Solo USB audio interface (as the mic wouldnt plug into the PC otherwise, the interface also lets you adjust the gain which is nice) but idk if you really need something that fancy. I usually see people reccommend the Yeti mic for YouTube, which doesn't need an audio interface, idk if it is actually good or not but it seems like a popular choice?

Although if you are just starting out, I would not invest in any expensive mics or anything right off the bat - since you want to see if you actually enjoy the process of making videos first before spending any money on it! (For me at least I spend a LOT more time editing footage than recording it, it's very time consuming, although I think some creators do a lot less editing so its a style preference maybe). IMO Just start out with whatever you have and you can always upgrade later.

Also, the main thing I learned quickly which I think helped me about as much as using a better mic was having good "mic discipline". That's like, making sure your head/mouth is always the right sort of distance away from the microphone, making sure its positioned properly, trying to keep the volume you speak consistant, etc. I am still not always the best at this tbh! but am getting better :D

Hope this was useful!! Like I said, please feel free to msg me if you want to chat more about YT stuff :)

[kimbapisnotsushi]

i started writing this back in the last week of december going on into january bc we had so many karasuno bdays back then so uhhh TECHNICALLY this is a late bday post honoring like four people LMAO but let's go!!

during kageyama's first birthday at karasuno he gets a mysterious series of texts from an unknown number that goes like > happy birthday > not that this means you're forgiven > just thought it was the right thing to do > i know it's your first since. well. you know > you don't have to text back or anything!!!! > fuck fuck fuck just pretend this never happened BYE

he brings up it up two years later when he, kindaichi, and kunimi are better friends and kindaichi buries his red face in his hands and screams and kageyama isn't sure why

kunimi pats him on the back and tells him not to worry about it

ennoshita has a playlist that is solely just like white noise and creaking sounds and generally just things that would make you shit your pants alone in the dark and when asked why he just goes "it's the only way i can feel anything inside"

tsukki will NEVER admit it but he ASPIRES to be the level of deadpan that ennoshita is

tanaka: "so . . . why do you like him again?" ennoshita, watching a video he recorded of futakuchi walking straight into a lamppost bc he was playing pokemon go: "he makes me laugh"

no joke i think ennoshita is a dateko celebrity bc everyone knows about the guy that futakuchi kenji pines over bc futakuchi kenji is just known in a million ways and maybe like 90% of them are Not Good

a third-year has futakuchi by the collar and they're like "all right PUNK get ready to have your lights punched out you'll be seeing stars when i'm done with you" and futakuchi just sighs longingly and goes "ennoshita has eyes like stars . . ."

daichi is that type of upperclassman who knows very single friend of his juniors' but not in like a cool older sibling way he does it in a cringefail modern parent kind of way

kogane used to be soooooo scared of him before finding out what a huge dork he is

actually kogane isn't scared of asahi bc he's so used to aone and asahi cries over it

(sorry for plugging in dateko so much i just genuinely think they have such a fun relationship with karasuno i ADORE it)

onagawa: "man idk how you do it" narita: "do what?" onagawa: "being the only normal person on your team"

yeah no narita is carrying the weight of the world as the only person with the brain cell on karasuno

sometimes it's ennoshita but he's been dead inside since first year so

suga tells the first years he knows martial arts but all he really did was go to one (1) judo club demonstration during his second year of middle school and somehow managed to flip the captain over by sheer luck and never tried again

for takeda's birthday everyone teams up to get him a really nice fountain pen, a classical poetry book, and a quality bottle of sake. for ukai's birthday tsukki leads a powerpoint presentation on why smoking is bad for you and that he really should stop, backed up with everyone else standing behind him with their arms crossed and nodding along

okay that and they also get him a really cute apron (embroidered with crows!!) for him to wear around the store and a bag of good coffee

kiyoko has all - and i mean ALL - the snacks from the local convenience store on a tier list and when the vbc asked how the fuck she managed to do that she just went "my track team was a lot weirder than you guys"

actually the reason why daichi asked kiyoko to be the manager wasn't because kiyoko was the only one with no club activities going on it was because she gave asahi a hair tie when nobody else would and asahi had been trying to befriend her since (and also return said hair tie) but was too nervous to make the first move

asahi: "noooooo daaaaaaaiiiichiiiiiiiiii i caaaaaaaan't i'm so awkward and embarrassing!!!!" daichi, with all the confidence of a fifteen-year-old constantly winging it: "it's okay, i've got this!"

yeah he's just as surprised as you are that it worked out

especially considering he pitched it to her like a used car salesman

kiyoko carries a lot of hair ties with her when she starts just for asahi and when he leaves the team she doesn't stop bc she tells suga, daichi, and the second-years, "he'll come back, just wait and see"

THEY WERE FRIENDS TOO!!!! THEY WERE FRIENDS TOO!! THEY WERE FRIE -

[magefeathers]

My full video of the Tampa Ritual \o/ Yes, I'm insane for recording the whole thing, but also I couldn't really see through the head of the guy in front of me so I'm glad I held my phone over my head for an hour and a half. Audio quality is better than the video quality as I was quite zoomed in, but it sure is the whole show.

Show highlights, in my opinion:

it's very silly, but Vessel, iii, and iv all standing with their backs to the crowd at the end of TNDNBTG was just very cool, to me. cool guys don't look back at the explosions etc etc

also silly, but watching Adam run around stage taking pictures was fun

just. the way the crowd screams when iii and iv (but especially iii) come out onto the stage, and every time they come back out. iii sure is the master of crowd control and the crowd adores him for it

Vessel's barking during The Offering, because me too bestie it's a fun verbal stim (also all I can think of is the Letterkenny bit about DMX barking)

Vessel's screams in general, I'm not typically a fan of harsh vocals but he sounds soooo fucking good live

ii raising/holding out his arms, gesturing at the audience, making what looked like prayer hands, etc. I've seen videos of him doing that but never realized how much he did it, he's so interactive back there and I feel like a lot of the time he isn't paid attention to and/or can't be seen behind the kit

I feel like iv was doing a lot of spinning!! again it might just be bc people usually seem to focus their videoing on Vessel and iii but I wasn't expecting iv to spin as much as he did, and it was fun to watch!

iv was also hanging out on the little stand the keyboard was on for a lot of the time, it was very cute when him and Vessel were playing together up there

Atlantic. Jesus Christ. I was tearing up not only from the song but from the amount of blue lights in the audience, which the video does NOT do justice (I realize in hindsight, it's because I was so zoomed in, I wasn't capturing the full view of the stands)

watching the Espera grooving, especially during the beginning of Hypnosis and the breakdown in The Summoning, they looked like they were loving it as much as the crowd was

The beginning of Alkaline, good god. The camera drifts because I was so entranced by Vessel's stage presence that I wasn't looking at my phone for a while. The way he pulls the mic away from his face and kinda hisses on the end of desire.... I am unwell. I can't tell if you can actually see his fucking grin in this video or if it's just the lights on his face, but if you haven't seen the closeup vid someone else posted of this moment, please track it down. I've been compromised.

Missing Limbs. Fuck. I was crying. Everyone was crying. The way he sings the "without you lying next to me" and "like I've got missing limbs" broke my fucking heart. I adore this man. (bonus: you can hear me saying hell yeah at the beginning bc my bestie @/vacationbiblestudy came back from the merch booth with a shirt for me! he's the one that says "it's pretty" lol)

I'm not gonna lie, I kinda rolled my eyes at the INSANELY noticeable increase in crowd response at the beginning of Chokehold, and then again at the beginning of every TMBTE song, but honestly? The TMBTE portion of the show was genuinely my favorite. All of the songs went so fucking hard. Vessel's voice just got better and better as the show went on, idk how the hell he does it. He started the show amazing and ended the show phenomenal. Witchcraft.

The Summoning. Everything about the Summoning. It wasn't my favorite when I first heard it, but it grew on me, and god it fucks SO severely live. It's incredible. Vessel's voice, his screaming, the Espera dancing, Vessel squatting down to examine iii's playing (and the way he stands up stock straight afterward?? lmao), the DRUM SOLO!!!! and the way everyone waits for Vessel to do the damn Will Smith pose by ii and just screams for him on command, the way Vessel carried the "bad" in "make a good girl bad" god damn, everything.

iii got a mosh pit during Granite, maybe one day he'll get a real wall of death, but at least he got something lmao

the rain sound effects during Rain are really amped up live, and combined with the lights it's just so atmospheric and beautiful

Ascensionism live ALSO fucks severely. I'm surprised the camera wasn't a lot more shaky with how much I was straight up throwing ass. And the lights looking like stars against the ceiling of the stadium was so pretty, even though it didn't translate well in video. And I know I already mentioned ii's hand motions, but especially during Ascensionism, from "my redemption, eternal ascension" until the drums kick back in, ii was FEELING IT back there and I was having so much fun watching him

The bucket hat situation during TMBTE lmao I need to get a clip of just that bit and post it separately. Someone threw the hat on iii's side of the stage while the lights were down and iii was over on iv's side of the stage, and when iii came back he just picked the hat up and immediately put it on. He wore it for a while, then put it on Vessel, who also wore it for a while before just. throwing it on the fucking ground LMAO and then he proceeded to, essentially, dance around it until the song ended and a crew member threw it back out into the crowd

EUCLID!!!!!!!! GOD. GOD. I was getting teary eyed and then the way Vessel sang "do you remember me" just broke the dam and had me sobbing. iii getting the crowd clapping and then stopping them because they weren't on rhythm, and making them start again, iii wearing Sleep Token Mickey ears???? THE NIGHT BELONGS TO YOU!!!! and Vessel literally on his fucking knees for the whole end of the song 😭😭😭😭 and again, Adam in the bg taking pictures (god I hope they get posted at some point)

THIS GOT A LOT LONGER THAN EXPECTED............... THE WHOLE SHOW WAS A HIGHLIGHT. The fact that you can't hear me singing along, or screaming, is a highlight, because I absolutely fucking was. The whole show was fucking incredible, 100000/10, would recommend until I'm blue in the face, worth every goddamn penny I spent and ounce of financial stress the trip put me in. I will never fucking forget it. Especially since I have video evidence lmao

[dykeseinfeld]

please please please may i ask how/where you managed to acquire cassette tapes & player & how do you record onto them because that sounds cool as FUCK and id love to do something similar but i can’t find anything about burning tapes or even buying them anywhere (or even burning cds tbh)

i got the cassette tape player from retrospekt! they sell a lot of refurbished vintage tech including diff kinds of walkmen and record players and film cameras and tbh. everything's a Little expensive and there are cheaper options out there, but i saw they had very consistently good reviews on products showing up and actually working and i was paranoid abt getting something that doesn't work And i don't know how to fix. i chose the peanuts beagle scouts one for $99, but they have other refurbished and even a couple newer tape players that have bluetooth and such for a bit more money, whatever she's cute

as for casette tapes themselves i already had a bunch bc a lot of record shops will have a section that sells them for like $1-5, and i liked to pick up movie soundtracks as a cool way to have merch even before i could play them at all lol. even if i don't want to listen to the tape, i figured i could record over them with anything i want, but this option are used tho and most of those will be decades old and thus quite warped and fucked, so i finally caved bought a pack of 10 tapes on amazon for like $15 which is still not bad at all (retrospekt and other online sites sell prerecorded cassette tape albums of more modern stuff but they are SO overpriced when you see how cheap blank/used ones are)

for recording over a cassette tape it's very easy, especially if you don't mind your music sounding super fucking shitty lmao. (if you want high quality recording tips i recommend reddit's r/cassetteculture, tho they are all gearheads and spend a lot more money on dedicated tape decks and such than i'm willing to).

get your tape. identify whether it's blank, or if it is a pre-existing tape you're recording over. if blank, skip to step 3.

you're going to see two holes on the outside edges (picture below). these are what prevent a pre-existing tape from being overwritten, so you're going to want to straight up just cover these up (i use scotch tape, shoving crumpled up paper in there also works)

3. grab a male-to-male audio jack (i got mine at best buy). plug one end into the headphone jack of your laptop, the other end into the microphone jack of your cassette tape player. 4. make sure the audio output of your laptop is to "outside headphones" (aka your cassette tape). hit record, and press play on your music! that's it.

side note: if you are recording over! i recommend first recording over both sides completely with silence, just to minimize on ghosting and to straighten out the tape a lil

regardless the audio will be janky, but adjusting what volume the output is helps a lil. idk i'm a Super Novice who is basically in this for the aesthetic and so that i have an excuse not to bring my phone to the library

[raptorsgust]

hello! so i was lucky enough to snag a ticket to the tgcf donghua s2 fan screening right here in singapore, so here's a short report on the happenings! under the read more as there will be spoilers including those from the novel

arrived at around 1:20pm and it already looked like a full house! lots of people queueing at the photobooths and stuff, LOTS of cosplayers, mainly hualian and beefleaf. after a while i asked an usher about the merch booth but it was already closed due to the long queue, so i just went to find my seat which was near the back (in front of a bunch of cosplayers haha)

the hall had at least eight screens but none were positioned in a way where i didn't have to turn/crane my neck lol i can still feel the strain

the screening itself started at about 10 minutes past 2pm! we first had some voice actor greetings first, both of shi qingxuan's voice actors seemed to have received the loudest cheers from my pov! all of them ended their greeting with 天官赐福，百无禁忌

there was also a quick announcement of another tgcf collab cafe in 2024! sg just keeps winning and winning

after that we finally started the screening with a recap of s1 starting from the cart scene all through the banyue arc. xie lian's lines were all newly voiced by his new voice actor deng youxi, and he sounded alright to me! (note: not 100% sure that he did replace jgt's voicing but that's what i remember, correct me if im wrong!)

more than an hour of s1 later, we smoothly transitioned into the first episode of s2, and the following are some highlights and points:

s2 is still based on the unrevised novel as far as i can tell

everyone loves shi qingxuan!!

ghost city is very extravagant and fun! lots of quirky ghosts, there's joss paper flying around everywhere

xl's 不举 was omitted even though it's already rated m18 lol

the part where hc teaches xl to shake the dice has a lot of hand touching and cute reactions from the ghosts and sqx and lqq

a LOT of teasing leading up to the reveal of hc's true form, they'd show part of his face, his hand, his boots, and when he stepped out from behind the curtain and xl laid eyes on him for the first time there were shoujo bubbles

also A LOT OF SCREAMING FROM THE AUDIENCE tbh it was already loud enough throughout the gambling scene it was just hilarious

frankly i couldn't see hc clearly cuz, bad seat, but we all know how he looks like anyway

idk if it's just mE but the audio of the entire screening had its pitch raised, all the songs were a key higher, everyone sounded higher-pitched...... to ward people from secretly recording it?

feels bad for fulgur cuz it feels like most of the audience didn't care about him? half of them left their seats for the photobooths during his q&a segment

quiz time was interesting......

for "what is hc's weapon?" the host accepted the answer E-Ming, as in the person who answered said cAPITAL LETTER OF THE ALPHABET E which i would personally not accept as correct but o wells

the last question was "what did hc give to xl at the end of s1?" and the lucky person who answered very precisely said "his ashes in the form of a ring" and the host went aRe YoU sUrE and tried to make us recall an oBjEcT and i think we were all second-guessing ourselves there lmao please get a host who did their homework next time

pretty sure that was a huge spoiler for donghua-only fans tho HAHA

after the event was over i hung around texting friends and then tried to see if the merch booth was available but all the nice merch was sold out, and frankly just thinking of trying the queues at the photobooths was mentally draining so i just left haha

overall it was a great experience! watching and reacting together with so many other fans is truly a rare experience and despite going solo i had fun!

excellent door gifts too, the acrylic stand is of great quality and is now set up and sitting on my mxtx shelf~

[whositmcwhatsit]

Hi!

Idk if this sent the first time, the wifi i’m using is really bad, but anyway…

I’m not sure if you’ve already done this, but I was wondering if you had any recommendations on books about Elvis? I’ve already read Last Train To Memphis but that’s just about the only one.

I’m a relatively new fan, but he’s so magnetic and interesting — I’d love to learn more about him 🫠🫠

Thank you!! xx

Hi there! So, it's really a case of what you're looking for, because there are lots of different entries into the world of Elvis. Heads up, first of all: Everyone and their elderly third cousin twice removed has written a book about Elvis. They all put themselves at the centre of Elvis' life and decisions to some degree or another. They all talk about his excesses and problems as if they were not just as heavily involved and partaking just as much. Some will quote conversations with Elvis as if they are verbatim. A healthy dose of cynicism is needed throughout. Also, don't bother reading anything by The Stanleys. This is my golden rule. So, I assume you're going to read Careless Love by Peter Guralnick, but I'll recommend it anyway. It's a hard read towards the end, and Guralnick's own feelings kind of color things in contrast with the more 'objective' Last Train. Still, I consider it a must read. If you're looking for more of an overview using more than one voice, I'd recommend Elvis and The Memphis Mafia by Alanna Nash with Billy Smith, Marty Lacker and Lamar Fike. They tell a good story, they are 'characters' in their own right, and they give you a strong idea of the vibe around Elvis. Disclaimer: facts are sometimes less important than a good yarn. Like I said, most of his friends wrote about him at least once. Some are more entertaining and readable than others. Lots of people like Joe Esposito's books, such as Good Rockin' Tonight and Elvis- Straight Up, because he comes across as personable and more respectful. Just remember that he was reporting back to The Colonel and good friends with Priscilla, Lisa and EPE. Same with longtime EPE employee Jerry Schilling's Me and Guy Named Elvis, but I like that he was quite different from the rest of the Memphis Mafia and this colours his stories. I really enjoyed Larry Geller's If I Can Dream. While the man loves the sound of his own voice, he also gives an insight into Elvis' struggles in the mid-60s with losing touch with himself and the life he is living. He saw Elvis in a way that most of the other guys couldn't comprehend because of their backgrounds maybe. Some of his stories also have a weird surreal truly Elvis quality. To get a glimpse into Elvis's upbringing and strongest relationship, Elvis and Gladys by Elaine Dundy is a good one. He makes much more sense when you feel you understand where he came from, at least to me. In terms of the women, Linda Thompson's A Little Thing Called Life is a fun read. She probably got to a more intimate insight into Elvis as a famous boyfriend than any of the other women, including Priscilla, in my opinion. She knows how to spin a tale too. June Juanico's Elvis: In the Twilight of Memory is a swoonworthy dream. She is a great writer, and got to sample some pre-superstar boyfriend Elvis. I also enjoyed Joyce Bova's Don't Ask Forever. It gives a view of how it must have been to be one of his side-chicks- Elvis had a new phone line installed in her apartment just for him and would try and get her to skip work (At Capitol Hill!) because her work was less important than his! If you're interested in any of Elvis's work, I highly, devotedly recommend Ernst Jorgensen's Elvis: A Life in Music. This man is the one who should get all the credit for Elvis's legacy continuing so far. Forget EPE, RCA, Sony, all of them. He is the supreme Elvis historian, has scoured and catalogued the vaults for all Elvis' recorded material. He is involved with the FTD label, which rescued and released all the outtakes, alternate versions, studio banter, concert soundboard recordings, everything. He is my hero. I think everyone has a different version of Elvis that they love, so if anyone else has any other recommendations, please chime in! And remember, we don't read a Stanley. Thank you for reaching out. Let me know what you end up reading next, I love a book discussion!

[coralsgrimes]

Ok I'm sorry but the music video is so lame and cringe. But holy fudge, the max quality is 480p??? Was this recorded on a potato??? Ben, I hope this cost you 20 bucks cuz YIKES. (PS. Now I'm scared my shrink will throw her cardigan at me and turn the room into a karaoke, then try to kiss me. Thanks Benny).

CORAL DOES NOT RECCOMEND WATCHING ESPECIALLY WITH THE SOUND ON!!1! BEWARE HEALTH HAZARD

So after reading the lyrics to that song and watching the music video without sound (imma not a masochist muffins) am I right in thinking that the message is supposed to be about music being a form of therapy and self love shite cuz Benny decided based on a feeling and having parents with some degrees that music can help you just fine enough ye just gotta love yourself well enough? like similar to ye know just random example like dancing can help you cure incurable disease. Idk how came with that statement exactly tho, a NOTbel prize winner probably.

Yeah I appreciate the message but it feels like it's done with the sensibility of a brick thrown at a car from a highway overpass, and emotional capacity of 14 yo girl who believes she knows the real world cuz she watched Euphoria while mommy picked her up from school so the poor baby won't have to walk home on her own......

Like for fucks sake the intro seems like an opening to a bad porn, it's like a fucking fanfic opening paragraph #pornwithouplot #deaddove

Yeah I would say even though he be running around screamin that his parents are therapist, I doubt he ever been to actual therapy lol

It's actually very ironic coming from Benny cuz at the core he's a whore. Like literally he's a presentational performer - what he's doing is ego driven, his need for acclaim and being noticed whatever whatever. He's a try hard. You can clearly see when he actually performs, he's doing it to get his dick hard and elevate himself, not to make audience engage and feel like a representational performer would. Look at all the overexaggerated faces, all weird dances (both made it to the mv too!) and making the audience believe that they have deep connection with him by telling them what they wanna hear exactly. He needs them to be in awe. No catharsis from Benny, just a show pony and not even a very good one. Check that out actually, there are papers about it lol

Oh and obvi everyone can tell that the budget was 100$ and a shoestring glued together with chewed up gum. Another freebie from the last friend he didn't get to fuck through yet, and he paid the director with experience time for portfolio... And yeah Imma gonna save ye the trouble, the max quality is indeed 480p. Tangerine was done with iphones and it was good, but this? This is just worse than film student second year project lol that homemade porn singing he made in his bed was better quality for fucks sake

And that grandpa cardigan x.x Imma out

[qllie]

Okay my thoughts on crypton super pack:

I think it's unfair to compare them to current more realistic AI vocals (synthV, CeVio, etc) since that's clearly not what Crypton is going for? I mean they said in an interview about NT (sorry I can't find it) that they didn't want an overly realistic AI vocal because then it would sound like Saki Fujita rather than Hatsune Miku. So I think it's pretty clear they're not trying to make ultra realistic vocals, so criticizing them because they sound voice acted is ridiculous. Also, criticizing them for being overly processed is a little silly, because like yeah I think that's what they're going for.

With all that said, though, these do sound pretty bad. I mean, they've made several vocaloid voicebanks for all of these characters before which sound way better without sounding like hyper-realistic replicas of their voice providers. Like, I think the transitions sound bad (not because it's unrealistic, but because it's choppy), I think they sound kind of nasal, etc etc

I guess what I'm saying is the voicebanks don't really need to be incredibly realistic (if they wanted realistic they would have made AI banks, be it V6 (which they are doing for Miku?) or Synthesizer V or whatever). But they should be quality? Like in the terms of quality of other concat voicebanks, like smoothness of transition, clarity of vocals, consonant noise, etc. It kind of just sounds like they took NT renders/data and threw it into vocaloid and sold it as New Super Pack...

I mean I think you should have at least some standard of quality if you're selling these... Although they are somewhat discounted (apparently the pack is 23,100 yen, typical vocaloid voicebank ~11,220 yen). I mean, still if you're selling a product you shouldn't just be selling trash? I'm not like extremely outraged (I think other vocaloid companies have sold trash for much higher prices and worse) but I think it's a little bit... idk.

I mean, to me it's just that these specific characters have multiple better voicebanks (released years ago) so it's kind of disappointing that the new banks are worse quality than like Vocaloid 3.... I mean the old voicebanks are still able to be bought and used, so like what's the point of releasing worse versions now you know?

I mean, I'm sure you could make these voicebanks sound good. Like I've heard NT sound good, and I dislike NT lol. Pretty much any half-decent voicebank can sound good with enough effort in the hands of the right person.

I'll also say, I don't think just saying "the characters voices sound different now" is a valid quality complaint. Like it's a reason to dislike them, but it's not really a valid criticism of the quality of the voicebanks? Like I think Luka/Meiko sounding like Miku is only a really "valid" product criticism for 2 potential reasons:

1. Makes the superpack worth less, since three vocals sound similar 2. They could have potentially reused Miku's recordings for Luka and Meiko which is obviously bad because they said these are 3 SEPARATE VOICEBANKS?

However, I honestly don't think they used Miku's recording for Luka or Meiko (I think it's more of the way they processed the voicebanks similarly, or maybe used Miku as the basis for the NT platform). And these voices do sound distinct, like Meiko & Luka still have some of their distinct sound in there (but like mixed with Miku lol).

What I'm saying is that "sounds choppy and low quality" and "voices sound very similar" are valid criticisms of the Super Pack, while "I don't like that they sound different now" is more of a personal opinion (valid to complain about, but still)

[liu-anhuaming]

《我是歌手》 Season 1——Thoughts and Feelings

I finally finished rewatching 《我是歌手》 season 1. It only took me 4 months...

Anyways. I've put together some thoughts I have on this season (with some spoilers about eliminations and whatnot).

Here's a link to the YouTube playlist of every performance from this season (I'm pretty sure I got them all). It's 111 videos. For some reason, the 芒果TV account had like none of 羽泉's performances posted (maybe a copyright thing?), and they were missing a few other performances, so sorry if the quality on a few of the videos isn't the best. I went with the best versions I could find on YouTube.

Here's where I watched this season. It was actually kinda difficult to find a place to watch this season for free; a lot of the other seasons were on YouTube for free when I first watched them (though some have been removed since then). Thankfully I found this site, and the quality is really good. There's some funky sound editing moments, though it's unclear if the original recording is bad or if it's the video on this site. Either way, it's the best quality version I've found to date.

Also, advanced apologies to any 沙宝亮 fans out there.

The singers in this season all seemed to be more established and well-known. I mean, 齐秦 alone is wildly famous, and then there’s 羽泉 and 黄贯中 (from Beyond). That’s not a bad thing, since all of them were really talented. However, I personally think the show is at its best when there are a few newer or lesser-known singers thrown into the mix. It makes the competition even more unpredictable, and a lot of these singers bring some pretty unique performances to the stage. I think the only reason I have this preference and this stands out to me is because I watched all the other seasons before season 1, so my expectations of the show had already been set based on what they’d done in later seasons. So I’m not judging season one too much for this, and I understand production would want to do what they could to ensure a decent viewership.

One of the things they did this season that never shows up again in other seasons is have one episode where everyone spins a wheel and picks their next song that way. I thought it was an interesting one-off episode idea, and it gave us a lot of great performances. It pushed some of the singers kinda far outside of their comfort zones, and I always like to watch when singers pick challenging songs. A really great episode came out of this idea. As much as I love the singers getting creative freedom, sometimes it’s fun to watch them struggle a bit. Idk, maybe that’s mean of me to say lol

There was also one episode where each singer picked one of 齐秦’s songs to perform, and it was sort of like a tribute episode since he had to leave the season early? And at the end 齐秦 performed his return song, which he never got to do when he left. I liked this episode since I’m not super familiar with 齐秦 (I’m more familiar with his sister, the absolute goddess 齐豫), so I got to hear more of his songs. As much as I liked it, I don’t know if it’d work every single season. 

胡海泉 was also a really good host. I found all of his mistakes really relatable because I, too, cannot fucking speak. 

In terms of the singers, the ones who stood out the most to me were 林志炫, 黄绮珊, 尚雯婕, and 杨宗纬. I already knew about 林志炫 and 黄绮珊 before starting this season, so I knew what to expect from them. Every performance from 林志炫 was perfect (what else would you expect from the One Take King?), but my favorite performance of his (and actually of the whole season) was 《没离开过》. 黄绮珊 was also really great to watch. Even though I personally didn’t like a couple of the songs she chose, she was consistently killing every performance, even when she was sick. 尚雯婕 was pretty unpredictable in terms of genre, but I liked a lot of her performances. My favorite from her was 《Dog Days Are Over》, and I think it’s a shame she didn’t get to perform that before she got eliminated. She was really creative with her picks, and I really respected the risks she took even if I didn’t fully enjoy it sometimes. (Also, she was definitely this season’s fashionista. Those shoes, man) 杨宗纬 was a really unexpected favorite, since he wasn’t around very long before the resurrection round. But he really chose some good songs and put his everything into the resurrection round, and kinda won me over at the last minute. 

The rest of the singers were good, but I wouldn’t go so far as to say I really loved or hated them. With one exception, that is.

沙宝亮 is a very talented singer, and I think he put on some very good performances. However. I personally could not stand the man. You know how sometimes you just see a person, and immediately think, “I do not like this person”? No good reason for it, there’s just something that you personally aren’t a fan of? Yeah, that was me with 沙宝亮. Every time he was onstage, I felt uninterested. Each time he spoke on camera, I did not care. This man did nothing particular to earn this from me, yet here we are. I was glad when we didn’t win the resurrection round, only for him to come back and torment me in the final episode. Despicable. Since I just spent this whole paragraph trashing him, let me be kind and say his performance of 《Someone Like You》 was quite good.

Now that I’ve discussed all the singers, let’s give out some “awards”.

My favorite performance: 林志炫《没离开过》

Best Fashion Moments™: 尚雯婕’s ensemble in episode 7 （非常的French）, 沙宝亮 in episode 9 (it was just ugly, sry), 周晓鸥 in episode 10 (that snakeskin vest? thing? was a Choice), 黄贯中 in the resurrection round (zero effort put in to covering that tattoo and it’s pretty funny imo)

Best hosting moments from 胡海泉: episode 1 mixup between 字zi/zhi, episode 3’s ze样一首歌, doing tongue twisters as prep in episode 4, this quote from episode 5 “看完明姐的表演，我宣布辣妈时代正式到来”, and episode 10 when the subtitlers really committed to spelling out every mistake he made

Most noteworthy episode: episode 5 (lots of great performances, the aforementioned 辣妈时代 comment, the lights in the confessional scene needed to be adjusted bc 周晓鸥’s bald head was too shiny, the guitarist Tommy was not wearing glasses/sunglasses which dealt me a deep psychic blow. 我是歌手 superfans will understand)

So overall, I did enjoy this season. I liked a lot of performances, and hated very few. Even though it was pretty good across the board, I don’t think it has a lot of rewatch value for me. There are certain seasons I know I’m excited to see again (like seasons two and three 👀), and I don’t think this would be one of those. Instead I’m probably going to just return to a few standout performances and rewatch those (I’ve already watched 《没离开过》 an embarrassing number of times).

[spacexcowgirl]

italian soda andddd sparkling water :)

hiiii ty :)

Italian Soda : Describe your dream date

omg the idea of a first date with like someone new is so stressful to me, so imagining it as not a first date, or one with someone i’m already friends/comfortable with. I really like just quality time and something calm, so probably like cooking together? I feel like I picture music playing, like ABBA or something, and just like making vodka pasta and talking and then eating and drinking wine and watching a movie. I really don’t need much to be pleased? like exploring and going to a museum or a picnic in a park also sound lovely, but i’m gonna be the most comfortable and content just spending time with someone I like alone and happy. idk!

Sparkling Water : Describe what qualities you look for in a person

okay so like traditionally I have had a very bad track record with the people I choose to date or be with in any capacity lmao, so i’m going to put that aside and just think of what I’d like in a person, rather than what’s drawn me in in the past.

I feel like number one is always someone who can make me laugh, like being funny is kinda important to me. I also really like the idea of someone I’m friends with first, someone I’ve seen and known in one capacity that I can then see in another capacity with time. I want someone who is smart, and who doesn’t tell me what to do or try to control me ig? I do not want to be taken care of and I don’t really want to take care of someone beyond an equal exchange, like I want us to have our own things and space and independence. I also again really seek out quality time so ig just someone who makes it clear they want to be around me or talk to me or whatever. this all feels kind of vague but?? yeah. it’s hard for me to meet someone and be like “them,” it’s really just something that builds through knowing someone for a bit for me.

looks aren’t like a huge deal to me, no one I have been with even remotely has anything in common in that aspect. with the whole friends first thing, I tend to start finding someone attractive as I get to know them, so that’s just kinda that.

[buzbu]

I’m watching ‘Ladybug and Chat Noir: Awakening’ (you can watch a really bad quality bootleg recording on most pirating sites right now), these are my reactions while I’m watching . A lot of the points won’t make sense unless you’ve seen it too I’m sorry 😭

If you don’t want to watch the movie but want a vague idea of the plot, here u go

⚠️NEW MIRACULOUS MOVIE SPOILERS⚠️

- master fu is soo dramatic

- THIS IS A MUSICAL???

- whoever the singer is for marinette sounds so noticeably different to her it is throwing me off

- the character designs are so cute

- brand placement: 1

- Adrien is brooding so hard with his headphones. I bet he’s listening to something emo

- omg gabriel agreste backstory right away

- Luka cameo

- whyd they make plagg a fart monster

- there are more than 4 background character designs this is crazy

- whyd they make gabe kinda fine

- gabes first musical number as hawkmoth is so insanely Dr Facilier

- they made him such a good villain omfg I’m actually rooting for him he’s got the whole ‘a villain who would sacrifice the world to save her’ thing going for him

- oooo they have the mime villain from season 1 (?), and they are actually showing how op his power is. He could create literally anything and he just made a wall and a gun, he couldve done so much more. They did him justice they made him kinda fine too very Danny Bailey from Schmigadoon

- chat noir calling himself a sidekick is my villain origin story

- didn’t know how much I needed an action montage with a rock cover of the miraculous ladybug song until now

- a slither of adrienette in the montage

- brand placement: 2

- I’m an hour in and chat noir hasnt called ladybug milady ONCE

- oh my god they have the play fighting trope where they end up pinning eachother against a wall this is so them

- I don’t think the songs are very movie like, the words are pronounced like radio songs so you can’t really understand what they’re saying a lot of the time without captions (I don’t have captions 💔)

- the romance feels a lil rushed. Because they spent the first half hour almost exclusively on marinette and setting up her character/insecurities/etc and all the romantic development was in a montage. Now there’s a love song and theyre in love and it feels very underdeveloped to be at this stage already

- this song is cute though I can’t make out the majority of the words but in-love ladynoir content has my heart

- no marichat so far . Waiting patiently

- they haven’t set the love square up to its full potential 💔💔

- ok nevermind they kind of have, ladybug rejected chat noir for adrien, she asked adrien out and he rejected her for ladybug. But there has been no ladybug + adrien interactions or chat noir + marinette interactions yet

- omg gabriel adrien angst omg gabe is so much less of a dislikable character, they actually gave him some depth . Adrien is full on yelling at Gabriel and gabe actually looks like he cares about his son

- this bootleg is terrible quality but even with the bad quality the quality is so obviously good

- I’ve gotten used to the marinette singing voice and now I just love it

- this movie is so dramatic with the love songs and songs about insecurities, I feel like it’s that movie ladybug made fun of in the show

- GABE AKUMATISED HIMSELF AND ITS SO COOL THIS IS SO MUCH BETTER THAN THAT WEIRD IPAD VILLAIN HE WAS IN THE SHOW

- adrien just said ‘the less interested you are, the more they run after you 😒’ because ladybug called him for help after she rejected him😭😭😭😭 bro rlly said all girls are the same

- idk if this bootleg is just clipped together but it keeps randomly turning french with no subtitles and it’s confusing me so much. I don’t know french, why must they be in paris

- these boss fights are so well animated

- chat noir is so bitter god damn

- ladynoir angst but it’s actually high stakes im loving this

- LADYBUG SAVE YOUR CAT WHAT ARE YOU DOING

- SHE LET HIM FALL WHAT

- gabe just turned the water they fell in into lava this is crazy

- they just turned french again I have no idea what they’re saying

- MARINETTE / HAWKMOTH SHOWDOWN

- nevermind

- I’m sorry marinette would pick this dialogue to shreds it’s so corny

- GOT THE TINIEST SLITHER OF MARICHAT I AM HAPPY

- YES YES YES GABRIEL FORCED TO FACE THE FACT THAT ADRIEN IS CHAT NOIR

- HES SELF REFLECTING!!! REALISING EVERYTHING HE DID WAS INSANE AND HURT ADRIEN WHEN HE TOLD HIMSELF HE WAS HELPING HIM. THIS IS WHAT THE SEASON 5 FINALE SHOULDVE BEEN

- THIS IS PERFECT

- this is what ppl wanted for the show . adrien being resentful at first, Gabriel hit in the face with his own guilt and mistakes, having a genuine moment of self reflection, adrien forgiving him and gabe changing instead of getting his wish and being remembered as a hero, plus all of paris finding out hawkmoth was Gabriel, etc. I love this

- brand placement: 3

- omg there’s a masquerade ball everyone looks so good

- so marinette knows that adrien is chat noir but he doesn’t know shes ladybug yet ? That better change in the next 2 minutes

- HE KNOWS!

- marinette is so pretty I’m actually so happy with this

- OHHHH NATALIE VILLAIN ARC ????

- oh theyre talking in french again I have no idea what this ending means

FINAL THOUGHTS!

obvs it isn’t canon but I love this adaptation. The superpowers are portrayed as powerful as they actually are, there’s more drama and angst which I needed, the timeline is VERY different to the show. Marinette stands up for herself to chloe the same day that ladybug and chat noir reveal their identities, so it’s like the origins episode of season 1 mixed with one of the various identity reveals from season 4. Also she’s not friends with any of her class other than alya, adrien and nino, so it’s also kind of pre-origins vibes. Idk, it was really good and I can’t wait to watch it in better quality, with captions, and without ads playing every half hour

Also I’m forever thankful that there was no lila rossi storyline

[urfavnegronerd]

Your argument is that he “fell off.” But considering he currently breaking records for a charting song proves other wise. Thats all I am saying.

tl;dr: i miss when jack harlow was on that dorky white-boy hip hop swag type shit, similar to mac miller, without being disrespectful

music brain rot because i'm teaching myself to learn how to produce music for college application purposes

okay yeah no i completely get that, he's doing really well music chart topping wise (is there an actual word for that idk), it just feels like the quality of music (from my standpoint, and i was also someone who could identify what pac and biggie sounded like before i knew wtf the alphabet was so i may full and well be biased) kinda declined. i feel like we watching a post malone type jawn all over again, like he kinda used the hip-hop sound to get recognition (?) and then kinda drifted into pop???? idk lovin on me is very shopping background music-y idk if that makes sense but that's just what it sounds like. like im saying mans occasionally drops something that has me like 'well... shit i guess white men CAN jump' (im sorry that was a bad joke but very much needed). like that whole luv is dro, already best friends, whats poppin era did him so good and i think that's an era that he needs to return to. like that specific sound did him so good like, he js has that dope-ass white boy swag that we ain't really seen since mac miller and boy do we need that back, and the sounds he was using (bass heavy type shit(i might be dragging it but yk what i mean), light synth kinda). and it could js be 100% that he was working a lot more w/ statik (hope he's doing better)

dont get me wrong i still stream the songs i like but he js isn't as appealing as he was w the records he's currently putting out. and its not to say that people shouldn't aim to express themselves artistically and experiment with who they are, its just (from my standpoint) that by going in the complete opposite direction rather than experimenting with different subgenres of hip hop (there's a lot, s/o my extra credit research paper) he lost a pretty big demographic of listeners

thats all :)

[idleglowingpixels]

I finally got my schedule aligned with a friend of mine to watch Monster High 2 (the live action movie sequel) and I have some thoughts about it

(Keep reading only if you're okay with spoilers, I go into a lot of detail)

Monster High 2 was a solid experience altogether. The previous movie was in a similar vain, but I think the special effects budget got amped up, because everything looked stellar and just generally better than the first movie. It's still not cinema film level quality but these aren't meant to be compared to that. It's a TV movie, and for what it is I thought that (almost) everything rendered out beautifully (idk why they keep having Lagoona do the oAo thing but okay).

As per the previous film, there were lots of highs in the comedy (Frankie is always the highlight of these movies for me, Cleo taking her job as campaign manager so seriously was kinda funny to me, and a lot of the Heath shenanigans were so reminiscent of G1 to me ESPECIALLY the teasing about Clawdeen being Deuce's girlfriend and general himbo behavior), but it's also a kid's movie, so there's bound to be misses too. Comedy isn't personally my forte, but I got enough chuckles and laughs here and there that it didn't really matter to me.

The songs sounded pretty nice! I went into the movie this time without hearing any songs in advance like the first movie, and was pleasantly surprised. None of them were particularly bad to me, but I think my favorite one was the very-poorly-disguised friend breakup song with the main trio. It reminded me of a similar song in Descendants 2 ironically enough, but I don't mean that as an insult, I love the Descendants soundtracks too!

Okay, now the story of the movie…I don't really know where to begin, there's so much to talk about. I guess I can start at the beginning.

I've seen a few people complain about Clawdeen blowing up on social media and going viral when the characters would regularly go viral or get tons of views on their not-YouTube channels in G1. I know the Internet was different back in 2010, but it wasn't THAT much different going viral back then as it is now imo. I found it an odd complaint personally.

While I have no idea how a half-human ghost can exist in the first place, I ADORED the little bits where that new character was. Unfortunately I neglected to remember her name, usually I'm better with keeping up on this stuff. But she was so goofy, like yeah queen, walk through the door and immediately hit it on the way back out. 💖

The whole thing with the prefect is kind of irrelevant for the most part, so I don't mind it as much. I have an irrational love for the whole fire and water thing Heath and Lagoona got to do for it together, and I noticed characters like them actually have something to do in the movie instead of just awkwardly showing up at the end to record Komos and stand guard I guess??? And they had much more dialogue this time around (very few exceptions, I can only think of Ghoulia and Abbey but who knows, maybe they'll get to be main characters in the third movie I presume will release next year).

Torelai being a general nuisance was amazing, and here she really did feel like her G1 counterpart…if said counterpart was British lol. Her outfits were really nice, felt super edgy and it was a plus for me. I also liked the mention of her scarring from the witches in France, where she'd studied abroad, but I do think they repeated the point of her bringing it up against witches in the song was too quick after the initial mention, perhaps it could've been reserved to the song and have her sing-song her way through explaining the wraith silver.

Draculaura was the main focus in the film, and I really enjoyed her story. She's got every card stacked against her, even those she trusts, it feels like they turn on her in her point of view (Clawdeen and Ellis specifically). I've also seen characters like Ellis a billion times, but as generic as he is, he served the purpose he was in the film for (lowkey thought the name was a reference to Elphaba/Wicked Witch of the West).

Seeing Dracula as much as we did this movie was amazing, loved that, though Zamara kinda fell flat with me as an antagonist. Making a comparison here, but it felt like they were trying to replicate what they'd done with Komos in the previous film, just adjusting her to fit the new narrative, but Komos was much better executed imo (I promise this isn't my bias to Jekyll and Hyde characters showing, I just think his dynamics with the students flowed more organically). I found the whole thing about witches marketing herbal products as remedies with magical healing properties to exploit humanity's fears of appearing healthy to be funny with Z, but that's about it. I also could tell she'd be the villain a lot faster than I did with Komos haha. Seeing Apollo play a significant role here was nice too! I really like how the adult/parent characters can be just as important as the teens, as I find the lack of parent appearances in G1 to be too sparce for something so integral to the characters' stories.

As with pretty much anyone who's seen the film, it seems we were all shouting at Clawdeen towards the end to just turn human to avoid injury from the wraith silver bars (I was so confused lmao), but I think she was so desperate to save her friend that she was in too blind a panic to control that or think rationally. Frankie is in a similar vein; I thought their upgrades would've caused more pain than it'd be worth, and since we saw the electricity from their arm separating from the rest of their body earlier in the scene, it might've triggered a rush of pain to Frankie or their energy would've been zapped out like a light. Also, y’all, they thought their friend was going to forcefully commit genocide, I don’t think either of them were safe from having irrational/impulsive solutions to a situation in which their friend is literally gonna die if they take time to think critically. I do think there could’ve been better execution with the scene, especially how important it is for later, however. I may be explaining the thought process of my only other point of contention here, but it wasn’t thought out all too much imo — Deen could’ve tried to shift back and find it doesn’t work, Frankie could’ve tried to detach their hand/arm and found themselves getting hurt (but not scarred since that’s really the were-girls’ common thing).

But when Clawdeen died just from touching the bars for too long, I was so shocked it was happening from something so small, I figured the explanation was that it might drain a monster's life force or something. But I COULD NOT take the grim reaper thing seriously. Genuinely laughed my ass off cause WHAT WAS THAT??? It seemed so out of place for the pacing to me I guess. I felt like it could've been a perfect opportunity to have Komos reach out to her through his petrification, especially with how much she hangs around his statue during her troubles and looks to his statue for guidance, but I knew going in he was like 99% certain to be a one-off villain. 🥲

Anyway, Torelai and Clawdeen's little trauma bond moment with the scars at the end was very wholesome, a nice tie back to the "not afraid to show my secrets or my scars" line from Coming Out Of The Dark. And for once the franchise acknowledges were-animals as having kinship, like don't get me wrong, I know it's mainly for the cats vs dogs thing, but they're essentially the same monsters. I always found it odd that they were treated as completely different monster types entirely when all they are is just a human base with animal features and abilities (speed, agility, heightened senses, etc.).

A lot of people have a problem with Clawdeuce being a thing, but I don't mind it personally. It's a different gen, nothing has to stay the same as G1, so I’m just going along with the vibes. And I can tell Deuce leaving is going to be where we follow through in the next movie (unless he got tossed into the underworld in the end credits scene, I have no clue). To be honest I really like his prominent inclusion in the roster of characters, especially with how erased he’d get in the G1 movies (they literally cut his part of the rap out and it’s so apparent q-q).

But back to the point about the after credits, when I saw the grim reaper actually CAME BACK and just threw Deuce to the side (or maybe through the portal idk) I instantly freaked out, no laughter to be had, like "WAIT OH MY GOD WE WERE SUPPOSED TO TAKE THAT BIT FOR REAL—"

I know the third film is looking to be centered on Frankie (They 💖) but I do worry with how much elements they're taking from G1 movies to make up new/similar narratives (Drac's Sweet 1600, the previous gen's self acceptance narrative but specifically with a half human character, the emphasis on Jekyll and Hyde shenanigans, vampires vs werewolves but make it vampires vs witches instead, etc.). I just don't think another Freaky Fusion thing with Frankie sacrificing their life energy should be necessary. Especially considering the new antagonist is very clearly gonna be this Grim Reaper dude. And since the Underworld might be the main location for the third film, I wonder if the whole thing about Heath being Hades's son in the TV show will come up in the movie. Ik they're different canons from each other, but It'd be pretty interesting to see how they'd create a MH version of Hades. (I found his design from the cartoon after typing all this up and I mean, okay then I guess 🤷 Don’t love it but don’t hate it either, he just looks too nice to me haha. I love when Hades is actually a nice character, but his appearance and Resting Bitch Face make him out to be a huge dick.)

As of right now, that's basically everything I have to say on the movie. I personally prefer the first one, but I will not deny that it's because I liked Komos more as an antagonist than Zamara — antagonists are just as important as protagonists. He has the Jekyll and Hyde thing going for him too, which is just overall a favorite trope of mine (Though his change wasn’t as literal). I do think this movie had more going on and much higher stakes, what with characters almost committing mass genocide, suffering injuries and nearly outright DYING.

But I don't know, it was a solid 7/10 for me I think, on the higher end of 7 but Zamara keeps me from giving it a higher rating (sorry y'all I just REALLY didn't like her character, not even in a love to hate way, and villains’ likability matters too much for me personally). I guess my ranking for the first movie would be a low 8, but it’s based more on how much I enjoyed it than how objectively good or "perfect" it is.