#this translator just thinks up random words and reuses them

[himetsuri]

viz WHY

[nekropsii]

on the topic of Hussie's racism translating into the comic itself: the origin of lil Cal's name came from a racist comic Hussie made in his TeamSpecialOlympics line It's titled "Rollin with lil Cal" and depicts a black character adopted by a white dad that just goes "Shit! I be 29 years old mutha-fucka!" he either re-used this character itself throughout these comics or was just lazy, but what appears to be the same og lil Cal was in his comic "Underground Funk Railroad", which ended with "Slaves Recaptured: funky swagger to blame" as well as mocking systematic racism and segregation with the racial slur negro (which, historically by white people in that time frame, was pronounced similar to the well-known n word [re-stating out of habit to keep clarification of why it's bad/an actual slur])

From my research, "Lil' Cal" as a name actually seems to extend a little farther back than that. Looks like the origin of Lil' Cal as a character- or at least as a name belonging to a Black character- dates back to around 2005-2006, with the creator being Andrew Hussie's brother, Byron Hussie, also known as Byrobot. You'll see that username a lot when poking around archives of Team Special Olympics comics. I give the estimate of 2005 or so, because Byrobot's Lil' Cal strips predate Hussie's, and not only was Hussie's edition of "Rollin' Wit Lil' Cal" posted in (late-ish) 2006, but Byrobot closed his website in around early 2006, which is where that strip was originally hosted. Plus, I've seen a couple anecdotes that it was around 2005 when that first started being a thing... Either way, though.

Unsurprisingly, Lil' Cal wasn't exactly illustrated with much... Class. Here's Byrobot's first Lil' Cal strip. This is the first iteration of Lil' Cal ever posted online.

Yikes. Yikes on bikes.

To fortify your points, though, I'll post the strips you're talking about here.

Here's Hussie's "Rollin' Wit Lil' Cal", which depicts exactly what you said. This was posted on 08/01/06, as a part of the "Scribblettes" series on the Team Special Olympics website.

And here's Hussie's "Underground Funk Railroad", once again depicting exactly what you said. This was posted on 11/02/06, but is the same story otherwise.

I understand the anxious urge to do it, but I don't think most people really need an explanation as to why any variant of the N-Word is bad. Though, since you brought it up...

Have this. 12/20/06. I needed to curse someone else with it. Same story again, this is still a part of the Scribblettes series.

Regarding the speculation on whether the reusage of Lil' Cal was an act of laziness or not: TSO's Scribblettes have many recurring characters and recurring bits, Lil' Cal just happens to be one of them. Now, applying that same train of thought to Lil Cal's appearance in Homestuck... Homestuck is chock full of references, both to random things/media, and to Hussie's older works- like Problem Sleuth, Humanimals, And It Don't Stop, et cetera. Lil Cal, the puppet, was named the way he was as another throwback for longtime fans. Lil' Cal, the TSO character, was reused during the runtime of Scribblettes just for fun.

I have nothing profound to say about any of this. This guy sucks, lol.

[demoonlady]

Chapter 211: The Ripening

// SPOILER WARNING!!! DO NOT PROCEED IF YOU HAVE NOT READ THE CHAPTER YET.

Opening words: “The "preparation" progresses! The archipelago crosses over to the other side!!”

O.O nice cameo, waiter-kun! The official release didn't include it but this dude is actually the waiter that resigned from the restaurant where Kenjaku and co. hung out at in chapter 12. We got to see his four sisters-in-law too!

Anyway, the dialogue for the right panel should have been:

》 Ex-waiter: "Was the filter properly cleaned?" 》 Sister: "Not unless onii-chan cleaned it."

》 Maki: "The preparation being completed is one thing. But according to the guy that self-proclaimed himself as Itadori's older brother... Kenjaku has captured Tengen-sama."

The term used for pre-prep is 慣らし (narashi). Actually, if yall been following the official translation, they previously used "breaking in", followed by "custom" and then "customary prelude". Now they chose "pre-prep." 😅 Really, let's not be anymore confused; it's just "preparation" or "pre-merger."

Also, forgive my nitpicking here but it's more of "capturing" Tengen, rather than "take" her in the sense of "take her away."

》 Maki: (...) "It's a blessing in disguise that the back of the Prison Realm is still safe."

The phrase in blue was 「不幸中の幸い」 (fukōchū no saiwai) in the raws. Though very rarely used as "blessing in disguise", I think it's kinda fitting in this context..? It's an expression which means a small mercy (from some misfortune) that things didn't end up for the worse.

》 Yuuji: "This isn't something we can figure out by ourselves. Anyways, let's focus on Tsumiki nee-chan first."

Throughout the mention of Tsumiki, Yuuji addresses her as "Tsumiki no nee-chan" the whole time and, honestly, it's adorable af HUWAAA LET ME HUG HIM–

》 Yuuji: "Why haven't our senpais added the rules yet?"

This one sounds better, imo.

》 Megumi: (...) "This 'removal' is done by tampering with the brain, so it basically means 'death.'"

Just FYI, the words removal and death were in quotation marks.

》 Maki: "Ok, why the hell is that possible?"

Thanks to TCB Scans for pointing out that Maki switched to Kansai dialect here. 「なんでやねん」 (nandeyanen) is a Kansai dialect word and one of the most popular phrases. It's equivalent to "why" in standard Japanese, and is used to express surprise or denial after hearing or witnessing something.

》 Hana: "It's [because of] the Angel's cursed technique."

》 Angel: "In order to extinguish the barrier technique with my cursed technique, the root of the barrier must be extinguished. If we don't know where that is, then only Hana and I can [freely] move through the colonies."

FYI, the kanji used for "barrier" and "colonies" are essentially the same (結界) but the furigana reads differently in both speech bubbles. Plus, previously the official translations used the term "extinguish" so I'm just reusing the same word here, instead of "destroying".

Nothing wrong here. Just wanted to share that Maki's last statement in the left panel contained the lyrics from Makoto Kawamoto's song titled "1/2", which is why Takaba mentioned her name in the next panel. The song lyrics that made Takaba mention her was "[kamisama wa] nanimo kinshi nanka shitenai". In the raws, Maki said "(...) nanimo kinshi nanka shitenai nda yo". [Honestly how can some readers not love Takaba?!]

》 Yuuji: "In other words, it's the same as the random transfer. It's not a general rule of the Culling Game, but a rule of the barriers. 》 Hana: Even if we add a rule to allow free entry and exit from the colonies, chances are we might still get repelled due to the barriers' rule."

The official translations totally changed whatever they said.

》 Maki: (...) "Let's proceed with "Allow players to withdraw from the Culling Game." Yuuta and the others have already transferred the points to you, right?"

Personal gripe but really, though, we never heard them say "Yuuta's team" ever. It's more like "Yuuta and the rest/the others."

Also more importantly, Gege has made a mistake [again] here. Megumi hasn't added any rules yet, so the rules part should have been reflected as 00 instead of 01.

》 Kogane: "This is a proposal with regards to the addition of a rule to the Culling Game."

》 Megumi: "Maki-san, please bring Tsumiki here [to this barrier] for me."

I feel like the official translation made Megumi sound authoritative here, as if he was bossing Maki around. If anything he was more polite than bossy. Also, in the furigana he said 「ここ」 (koko) which means here while the kanji was 「結界」 barrier.

》 Yuuji: "Tsumiki nee-chan is already a player but she's not inside a colony, right? Then wouldn't it be safer to remotely transfer the points to her and have her withdraw [from the Culling Game]?"

Official translation missed out on the "have her withdraw" part.

》 Megumi: "Players that hold points for too long also has the risk of being targeted by other players. The safest thing to do is to rendezvous with Tsumiki first." 》 Maki: "Right. But I can't enter the colony with her. (...), so Tsumiki and I will be separated during the transfer."

》 Tsumiki: "Ijichi-san, are you really going to enter the colony in my place..? I should do it myself.." 》 Ijichi: "No. It's not a good idea to reduce the number of sorcerers outside the colonies."

Okay, Tsumiki wouldn't be addressing Ijichi just by his name without honorifics (yes, even in English). In the raws, she certainly said Ijichi-san, so at least in the English version, "Mr. Ijichi" would have been decent. And as for Ijichi's reply, the official missed out a few stuff.

》 Maki: "This feels like.. a plea bargain with an inmate on death row..." 》 Ijichi: "Haha! I'd love to play along to that, but there isn't enough time."

》 Gojo: (...) "You're more useless than shit. Hurry and get your driver's license now. The manual one. If you refuse, I'll slap the shit out of you." (...) 》 Ijichi: "If Gojo-san hadn't said any of that, I would have ended up becoming a half-assed sorcerer and died right away."

》 Yuuji: "Huh, is that her!? A spot-on transfer?!"

The term Yuuji used was 「ドンピシャ転送」 (don pisha tensho) which literally means perfect transfer. "Don pisha" means "spot on", "right on", or "perfect match."

We all know how players will be randomly transferred once they pass through the barrier, however Tsumiki was teleported directly to where Gumi and friends are, which is ever so convenient and highly suspicious!

》 Yuuji: "Tsumiki nee-chan has some great luck!" 》 Tsumiki: "Pleased to meet you! Thank you for taking care of Megumi." 》 Yuuji: "I'm Itadori. No, I'm the one being taken care of."

Yuuji said 「こちらこそ」 (kochira koso), which is a humble expression used as a response when the speaker wants to repeat what somebody says to them, but in the opposite direction, or the other way around. Like, "No, I'm the one that should really be saying that." This expression is normally emphatic so it can vary by context.

In this case, since Tsumiki thanked Yuuji for taking care of Megumi, Yuuji then humbly replied that he's being taken care of [by Megumi].

》 Hana: "Great! I didn't have to do a thing. (...) Nice, Itadori! Make me sound good." 》 Megumi: "Let's finish this quickly. Kogane."

》 Yuuji: "Notice how he acts cool in front of his family. Must be the rebellious phase!"

Closing words: “A sudden rule addition.. Her true identity is..!?”

[fanfoolishness]

Interview with a Fic Writer

Tagged by @novantinuum, thank you!

__

How many works do you have on AO3?

242 works. The actual fuck??? Wow, me. Of course, this does span about 9 years, so I guess that's not that insane?

What’s your total word count on AO3

549,737! But that averages out to only 2271 words per story, haha. You got me! I think I have less than 10 fics that have more than 1 chapter. I love one-shots, what can I say?

How many fandoms have you written for and what are they?

Oh, you want to get into this? All right. We'll get into this:

The X-Files, proto-fandom, ur-fandom, first OTP ever... yeah, 15-year-old me went. WILD. Many horrible Mulder/Scully stories, and some Doggett/Scully and character study stories as well. Mostly not very good, but with occasional flashes of decent writing. Really had a difficult time writing romantic feelings between 30+ year-olds given a) I did not date in high school and b) was 17 and not an emotionally stunted FBI agent.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer - not a huge volume of stories, but definitely some very angsty Spuffy and Spike tales.

Harry Potter - just one published fic (Lupin grieving Sirius), and one with Snape and Harry having a heart to heart I could never quite get right.

Then came the dark times (vet school) where I was exhausted and hard at work for a few years and I thought, horribly, I might have outgrown fandom. Thank god for...

X-Men First Class and the undying love of Charles Xavier and Erik Lensherr! I'd never fallen for a slash ship before but my god I fell hard for this one and wrote my first fandom smut and my first real AU (mutants with zombies) that I never finished.

Then.... let's see...

Quantum Leap drabbles!

Two Avatar the Last Airbender fics!

Agents of SHIELD fics, mostly focused on Coulson and FitzSimmons, and super angsty.

Bioshock Infinite sads (god I love writing the sad bad dad)!

And then the juggernauts of Mass Effect (my longest fic to date with 30 chapters!) and Dragon Age, which were endlessly productive and are still productive given the variety of different protagonists you can create, different choices, and different relationships to canon characters. I'm still working on a Hawke/Varric fic in the back of my mind here.

There's one random Gravity Falls fic (wish I could have got a little more obsessed with it, or gotten into it while it aired) of Stan sads, and one tiny Avengers ficlet of a sad Tony and Peter.

There's one Wheel of Time fic! Dammit I wanted Rand and Tam to reunite so much sooner than they did.

40-odd Steven Universe fics! So many SU fics!

One random Schitt's Creek fic of David and Patrick!

And finally, The Mandalorian, with 47 fics. Phew!!!

What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

1. The Invitation, The Mandalorian. Din Djarin finds himself in dreams that seem realer than real, reminding him of his loss, but he begins to find a sense of hope again. A promise is kept.

2. The Outstretched Hand, The Mandalorian. Din Djarin is a man of action, but sometimes, the quiet finds its way in. Din reckons with the aftermath of the events of Chapter 14, the Tragedy. (My very first Mando fic!)

3. Not the Sentimental Type, Steven Universe. Priyanka Maheswaran has long prided herself on keeping her emotions in check. But a mother's love can only grow, and sometimes it expands to people she never anticipated. Like the Universe boy.

4. Translation, The Mandalorian. Din Djarin was a man of few words, but many languages. Some might have thought the Child had no language at all. Din Djarin and the Child grow to understand each other.

5. Full Disclosure, Steven Universe. Just as the world begins to recover from Spinel's attack, Steven starts having nightmares. The more he ignores his fears, the worse they become, until he's left with no other choice but to ask for help. (My thoughts on what would drive Steven Universe Future, and I wasn't far off.)

Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

I really try to! Even sometimes years later if I realize I've missed some. I appreciate each and every one, and have definitely made friendships through comments <3

What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending?

Oh, hell... I'm too lazy to link these but if anyone wants to read them let me know or find them on my AO3!

A Stopped Clock from Bioshock Infinite has Booker DeWitt ravaged by Korsakoff's amnesia from his long-standing alcoholism. Is Columbia real or imagined? Hard to say.

The Viscount's Way shows Varric Tethras having become his parent, and a cruel, hard viscount of Kirkwall.

Songs in the Key of Red shows how Cullen fared under the dark future in Redcliffe in DAI, and they write happy endings, don't they? shows what happened to Varric. Both horribly depressing in different ways!

Two by Two, Hands of Blue shows a not unexpected end to lyrium addiction :( Poor Cullen, he got a lot of angsty developments, didn't he?

Do you write crossovers? If so, what’s the craziest thing you’ve ever written?

Never really got into crossovers or AUs. Just... meh for me!

Have you ever received hate on a fic?

No, I don't think so.

Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

Charles/Erik, Shepard/Garrus, Shepard/Liara, Shepard/Tali, a mess of different f/f femShep drabbles, and most of my Dragon Age pairings have gotten sexytimes. On the other hand I helped start the NoRomo Mando tag for the Mandalorian to help find non-pairing Mandalorian content. Depends on the pairing and the fandom, for sure.

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Nope, thank goodness!

Have you ever had a fic translated?

I think so! There used to be a Spanish-language wiki linking to some of my old X-Files stories XD

Have you ever co-written a fic before?

No, but friends and I definitely will beta each others' things to help with sticky points.

What’s your all-time favorite ship?

ALL-TIME? Just, why? So many ships I loved in years past turned out to have pretty damn problematic elements I didn't see at the time, so it's hard to say... Mulder/Scully actually has a ton of issues, Buffy/Spike obviously has issues... so maybe Hawke/Varric (except not canon!) or Garrus/Shepard or Brosca/Alistair.

What’s a WIP you want to finish but don’t think you ever will?

Still need to finish my Hawke/Varric fic for after Adamant! I have 3 chapters written that I haven't posted. Maybe posting them will help inspire me....

What are your writing strengths?

Dialogue and POV writing from different characters; I feel fantastic writing Steven and Greg, though totally at sea trying to write from Connie's POV, randomly. But I think my dialogue and emotional beats are what people tend to tune in for. When I do write romance, it's usually very sweet and silly and pulled from life. I also love writing nature scenes and settings to help establish mood. Mood and emotion and catharsis are my bread and butter, and I like my poetic prose.

What are your writing weaknesses?

What the hell is a long, well-thought-out plot? Like what even is that???? My longest fic with 30 chapters is basically "Shepard has PTSD and hangs out with her crew. They have some funerals." THAT'S IT. How the heck people actually come up with plot that ties into the lore of a fandom I genuinely have no idea and it's the biggest thing that's held me back from finishing original work. I can come up with a setting and characters and then trying to make them do stuff that's more than just talking to other characters and deepening their relationships with them... how the fuck???

I also definitely have 10-20 words that I am in constant danger of reusing like every other paragraph, LOL!

What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

I don't speak any other languages so I always avoid it as much as possible. I've seen people describe sign differently in fics and picked one way to depict it that made sense to me for Grogu, but that's about it.

What was the first fandom you wrote for?

The X-Files, of course!

What’s your favorite fic you’ve ever written?

Towards Another Day, the tale of how Cullen went from being a templar in Kirkwall to commander of the Inquisition, is definitely up there.

Reverberations is one of my rare multi-chaptered fics and one of my favorite for the catharsis at the end. It makes me tear up every time. 5 times Din and Grogu encounter the Dark Side, and one time they find the Light.

Either a world for the birds (Steven develops a closer relationship with his Uncle Andy, learning birdwatching along the way) or on the subject of rocks (Steven and Jasper finally reach a peace) might take the prize for favorite SU fic.

__

Tagging (if you’re super bored and would like a fun thing to do) fellow writers:

@lastwordbeforetheend, @runrundoyourstuff, @honestlyhufflepuff, @art3mys, and @fake-starwars-fan if you would like to play!

[jupitermelichios]

What I’d change about Rise of Skywalker

To be clear, these are changes I’d make to the existing script, not what I would have written instead. We can all agree Sheev coming back was, at best, a bit dumb, I’m also fully aware that a lot of people disliked TLJ for a variety of reasons and wanted ros to retconn more stuff, but this is not an attempt to change any of that. I’m taking the basic structure of the movie and shifting stuff around to create something I think is tonally and thematically more in line with the overall trillogy.

Also i’m aware the extended universe is sort of canon-until-proven-otherwise at the moment but as far as i’m concered there was a DC style crisis and it’s now open season on worldbuilding elements

- Starting right at the very beginning, our opening crawl is now just about immortality being one of the secret sith powers Sheev kept hinting about in the prequels

- Our very first sequence in the movie is now a (short) montage of Sheev sending psychic messages to members of the First Order, telling them to join his secret sith club. It’s not just Kylo, this is a thing he’s just generally doing, Hux, Pryde, Kylo, random Storm Trooper number 7, they’re all getting this same message.

- Kylo buggers off to go murder Sheev, because Snoke never actually let him graduate (or whatever modern sith do) so he’s not actually a sith lord, but he’s like ah, new/old sith lord is in town, I go kill him and I get to take his title by right of conquest rule of one styley, and also take out a threat to my power base. Also in the one scene we see of him interacting with the first order it’s pretty clear he actually really fucking hates being in charge, so a mission to kill Sheev is looking super win-win

- The reason Exigor is sacred to the Sith now, the reason Palpatine’s able to communicate accross planets, and the reason he’s still alive (ish) are all the same - the planet “has a heart... oF KAIIIBURRRRRR!” (yes the line should be delivered exactly like that) that amplified force powers

- Instead of just being Ian McDermott in white facepaint, Sheev’s design draws heavily on Darth Nihilus or Darth Sion, his body is dead or maybe nonexistant depending on how gross they’re prepared to go. The point is, the answer to the question ‘how the fuck did he survive?’ should be essentially ‘he didn’t’; he’s a consiousness and a fuckton of willpower and not much else

- We establish a temple/cult in this universe that worships twin gods and are generally all about balance and shit coming in twos and they think force diads are sacred. I’m thinking someone at the temple has resistance information, and when Rey and Poe visit, Poe goes to talk to the contact while Rey meditates and sees Luke’s ghost who tells her how he and Leia came here together and about their belief system and how there are different ways of connecting to the force than just being a jedi, setting up the plot point of the diad, our theme of ‘the people we love are never really gone’, and also laying the groundwork for what’s going to be a second theme of building something new rather than repeating the mistakes of the past, by establishing the sith/jedi dichotomy isn’t the only possible path to take.

- Rose and Finn are bored and stuck on base while their friends are on this mission, so when they get a distress call from a minor First Order base they go off to investigate. They find Hux, who’s been ousted in a coup in favour of the First Order just straight up following Sheev after Kylo wondered off, who promises them information. At this base, Finn also sees some young storm trooper cadets.

- Back at the rebel base they all meet up and Hux (who they’ve taken prisoner) tells them about Sheev being back, which they didn’t know about because he’s only been speaking to bad guys.

- Leia is already dying, Rey is super upset about it and during an accidental mind share, Kylo finds out and tells her Sidious knows how to heal people by transferring life energy from one person to another. The healing thing is specifically a Sith power this go around. We get a moment pretty soon after during a mission where someone gets injured, probably Finn, and she figures out how to heal them based on the hints Kylo gave her

- Also this time Leia still isn’t a jedi but not because of a prophesy, it’s because she disagrees with their philosophy, which is going to be relevant later. We get a line to the effect that ‘Luke didn’t grow up surrounded by the legacy of the Jedi’s failings, I did’

- The weird knife thing isnt anymore, it’s just a hollicron now, and the whole bit with both Lando and Rey’s parents and the bonty hunter are removed to give us breathing room elsewhere, it’s just a more tradtional fetch quest now.

- In order to get the holicron translated, Poe’s like “you’re not going to like this, but I maybe know a guy from doing undercover missions”, and takes them to Black Sun to speak to Darth Maul, that’s right, Darth Maul is here now, and he helps them because his prosthetics are breaking down and Rose fixes them and saves his life. Also he’s pretty pissed at Sheev for getting him killed so he’s totally chill with them killing the guy.

- The Hollicron tells them that the last known map to Exigor was stored in the archives of the temple of Corisant.

- They go to the ruins of the temple, a place that is both nostaligic and also has actual character significance to kylo and ties into our theme of how the jedi and the sith are both a bit shit, and even though it makes more sense for it to have been cleaned up, it’s full of little baby skeletons from Anakin’s massacre, just for the drama of it

- Rey and Kylo fight, he taunts her again with the promise of healing Leia, but this time Rey uses their bond and her knowledge of how to talk to force ghosts to basically force Kylo’s third eye wide open so he’s hearing a hundred force ghosts all at one, stabs him while he’s distracted, heals him, and then she fucks off, leaving him to talk to the force ghost of Anakin, who tells him he’s a moron who’s falling for the same bullshit Sheev used on him

- Rey joins up with the others, but at the Rebel base Hux has managed to escape and shoots Leia (it’s dramatic and she dies saving someone but it’s not actually particularly plot relevant so imagine your own death scene of choice here), and obviously Rey feels it

- At this point the gang split up, Poe and Rose go back the the Rebels because they know they’ll be needed, Finn goes off to rescue the storm trooper kids he saw earlier (yeah I’m adding a subplot what’re you going to do about it), and Rey goes off to fight Palpatine

- In the temple, Leia appears to Kylo as a force ghost while he’s doing dramatic ‘i can’t go on’ kneeling pose and gives him a little pep talk and name drops the title

- Finn goes to the first order base, finds the kids, and the little ones are on board with escaping but then they run into some teenagers who actually have guns and it cuts away on a ‘will they turn him in?” cliffhanger

- Rey arrives in Sheev’s big cave thing, tries to fight him but he’s all ‘the jedi could not defeat me before, what makes you think they can now when you’re barely more than a padawan’ and force lightnings her a bit. They’re not related in this universe, he just wants to steal her lifeforce to heal himself more because she’s powerful

- Turns out that the First Order have been tracking Hux, so they know where the Rebel base is so there’s a big space battle going on, and the First Order don’t even have any fancy secret weapon but there’s a lot of them and there’s not enough Rebel ships left after TLJ. Poe’s up in the air flying even though he’s the boss now, and Rose is on the comms trying to contact allies

"This is the Rebellion, please. In the name of Leia Organa, we're calling you. Please, if there's anyone out there. For Leia Organa, for Luke Skywalker, for Amilyn Holdo, please…" and then when there's no response, in tears, she whispers, "For Rose Tico, please!"

There's a beat of silence, and then the radio crackles to life.

"Rose Tico calls for aid, and Black Sun will answer."

A moment later another, "Leia Organa calls for aid and Cloud City will answer."

and then a moment later, “The Rebellion calls for Aid and the Free Troopers will answer” and we cut to Finn in a stolen First Order ship full of the trooper cadets of all ages.

A makeshift amada joins the fight, same as in the original version, and rose and circular briad crown girl who’s also been trying to call for back up hug in celebration and have a very brief ‘oh wait maybe i’m into you’ moment

- Back on Exigor, Kylo arrives to find Rey on the floor, dying. He takes her hand and we see them as spirits, surrounded by the flickering memories of their lives, they’re seeing one another properly for the first time, and they ackoledge one another as twins via the force (personally i’d make them explicitly siblings, by force if not blood, here to carry on the proud star wars tradition of ambiguously incestuous twins, but that might not fly with disney execs in the the 21st century), and then he gives her his life force to heal her and his last words are a title drop again, mirroring what Leia said to him, because this movie is cheesy as hell

- "The power of the Jedi could have lived in you, as the power of the sith lives in me. But instead you threw it away, for what? For that pathetic little boy? He was no more a true sith than you are a true Jedi!"

"I don't need to be a Jedi. The force is with me, and I am with the force. You have the sith. I have all that was and is and will be!"

Behind her force ghosts begin to appear, but not just jedi. There is as many of the Skywalker clan as we can get (including some reused green screen footage of Carrie Fisher), and Rose's sister, and Han, and people visually implied to be Poe and Finn’s parents, and Holdo, and behind them hundreds of others. Basically if we can afford them, they’re cameoing here, alongside a load of extras. And last of all, standing beside her is Ben.They exchange a look, and then Rey strikes. Palatine tries to force lightning her but it doesn't work, and she presses her hands to his cloak, pulls the life force out if him. Thes a terrible screaming and we see glimpses of the other sith, before they dissipate and the robe falls to the ground.

And obviously the space battle also gets definitively won at the same time, this is movieland, I’m thinking Finn and Poe have to coordinate an attack that relies on Finn using the force is that vague ‘jedi’s are all amazing pilots’ way episodes 1 and 4 both used

Oh and then at the end they’re all celebrating back on the Rebel base, and Finn starts to hit on Rose and she’s like “I’m not the one you want to say that too, also you’re not my type” and smooches circular braid-crown girl who’s been in the background of all these movies with nothing to so

Finn joins Poe and Rey and they all hug in the same ambigiously-poly way they did in the original, and then Poe’s like “I’m sorry about Kylo” kind of awkward because he still hates the guy but he knows Rey doesn’t, and Rey’s like ‘I’m not, the people we love never really leave us’

and then the final scene, Rey is carrying Kylo’s lightsabre and lays Luke’s and Leia’s on the altar of the temple of the twins, and goes to ask the priests to tell her about their religion, with the implication that she’s starting to build her own new version of the jedi

(and if I was disney this would totally be the set up for a new animated series about Rey travelling around the galaxy meeting new weird alien cultures and learning about what cool force powers they have, and the knights of Ren can be the bad guys, and sometimes she’ll come and help Finn and Poe and Rose with trying to rebuild the galaxy. And then they have to take out Black Sun in season 2 and it’s all super dramatic because they were allies sort of and had cameos, and now rey and maul are forced to have super cool spider-legs lightsabre battles instead)

[ryuukia]

[Translation] Tsukihana Kagura Message Cards

If you’re one of the lucky people who got to buy this pamphlet, you probably got some message cards with it. I only got Hajime and Arata, but with Ruby’s help I managed to gather all the messages (thanks again).

I translated Tsukiuta, SQ and Alive, Ryota translated the Vazzrock and infinit0 messages. Enjoy~

Please don’t repost/retranslate/reuse my translations. Likes and reblogs are appreciated.

Six Gravity

Shiwasu Kakeru:

“Kou-kun’s refreshments are so, so, so delicious……. I’m always the first one to take my share! I-it’s not like I’m waiting in front of the desk!“

Mutsuki Hajime: 

“I ended up taking a nap while waiting, and when I woke up in front of my eyes was Issa-san’s sleeping face. I was ready to get up due to astonishment, but then I realized Shun was glued to my back in his sleep. I had to ask Haru to help me out. Stop laughing.”

Kisaragi Koi:

“The costumes are once again so cool! They’re so cool I can’t help but get excited! When I’m so excited I feel the strongest! Tsukihana Kagura, Kisaragi Koi, ready to dance!“

Yayoi Haru:

“Random Tsukipro miscellaneous knowledge: Among all our idols, those who can memorize the script fast are Hajime, Tsubasa-san from SolidS, Ryo-san from Growth, Takaaki-san from VAZZY and Ruka from ROCK DOWN. I guess I should get to work too.“

Uduki Arata:

“Why can we have team muscle training, but we can’t have team strawberry milk? Because it’ll make us more thirsty? That’s not true. Would you like to have some, Ouka-san?“

Satsuki Aoi:

“Rikka-san and I engaged in this blissful discussion about herbariums while we were waiting. We promised to go to a course about it together as soon as we’re done with Tsukihana Kagura. I can’t wait.“

Procellarum

Minaduki Rui:

“I made Russian pudding for the first time in a long while. Roa got the ‘bullet’ and I got a nice reaction from him. Rei laughed.”

Fuduki Kai:

“Kensuke and I got so pumped up after talking about ramen that we started visiting shop after shop together! The others told us to stop because we’ve already eaten too much! All these rehearsals are making me hungry!”

Haduki You:

“This scent coming from ROCK DOWN’s Reiji…… is it, by any chance…… First Love & Rose?“

Nagatsuki Yoru:

“Eichi from QUELL taught me the recipe for his Horimiya-style dry curry. I’m looking forward to giving it a try after we’re done with this.”

Kannaduki Iku:

“When I talked to Ren-kun about how Rui's been teaching me to play the piano, he said "Let's perform together someday!"... I gotta practice more!”

Shimotsuki Shun:

“Each dance reflects its unit’s personality and charm, I guess that goes without saying. …...But among them! Hajime’s! Kagura is!! Bewitching!! Amazing!!! The best OF the best!!!! That sleeve you see waving in the air is mine!!!!“

SOARA

Ohara Sora:

“Who’s been waiting for it? The day when this guy will be performing the ‘kagura’ is coming……!! I’ll dance!! With elegance! And beauty! Achoo!“

Arihara Morihito:

“Hearing Sou during the reading practice reminded me of our school days. When we talk to each other across the desk, it feels like nothing has changed since then. “

Kagurazaka Soshi:

“While we were practicing the kagura, Sora sent his folding fan flying. “Nice catch!’ my hat. From now on we’re under intensive training. Look at Ayumu-san and Haruto-san, that’s the kind of dancing posture you should have.”

Munakata Ren:

“Talking with Sou-nii and Eichi-san about training clothes got me really excited. With their build, they’d really look good in that. I wish my shoulders were as broad as theirs. “ 

Nanase Nozomu:

“It seems in this play we have traditional Japanese instruments! I want to try playing the shamisen too~! The charismatic shamisen player (?) is here!“

Growth

Etou Kouki:

“It's really fun talking to the other units’ members whenever the refreshments I bring catch their attention. The first one to notice when I bring refreshments is…… I’ll keep that a secret (laughs).“

Yaegashi Kensuke:

“This odd group consisting of Kakeru, Koi, Iku, Naosuke, Takaaki-san and I went yesterday to a shop that sells Sichuanese food~! It was so spicy I think it made me sweat more than the rehearsals did (laughs)?“

Sakuraba Ryota:

“It’s better for you to stretch properly, Mamoru. If your body is not warmed up enough, you might end up injuring yourself.“

Fujimura Mamoru:

“Ryo-kun is a demon when it comes to stretching! But I think he’s so strict with me because he cares about me! In other words, all I have to do is give my best!”

SolidS

Takamura Shiki:

“With my other jobs’ deadlines and the stage play rehearsals overlapping each other, I’m slowly starting to feel like I’m caught on a battlefield. After I get past this mountain, I think I’ll be able to dance naturally.“

Okui Tsubasa:

“Whenever we have to wait, Dai-chan and Kai from Procella always work on their muscles, but at one point the number of members increased so much that now it feels more like a club activity~ (laughs). Kai is the head and Dai-chan is his assistant!“

Sera Rikka:

“Lately, Shiki’s been in high spirits. But considering his current work situation, that excitement came to surface because this play gives him the chance to escape from reality. Whenever he’s in a tight spot during rehearsals, he ends up resorting to ad-libs.  Right now he’s in need of a lot of attention (smiles bitterly).”

Murase Dai:

“The number of people joining us in muscle training during rehearsals has been increasing. Futaba from VAZZY and Gaku from ROCK DOWN are in really good shape.  Seeing them makes me want to practice sports.“

QUELL

Izumi Shu:

“Seeing familiar faces in the training hall made it very fun. I guess it was also a good boost for Issei and Ichiru.“

Horimiya Eichi:

“The apple pie I baked together with Aoi-kun from Gravi was a delicacy! The stewed refreshments brought by Yoru-kun from Procella were also really tasty, so…… won’t you tell me the recipe after this?“

Kuga Issei:

“Since Haru-san and Morihito-san were reading something during break, I asked them to recommend some books. I want to give them a try after this. Both of them are thirsty for knowledge.“

Kuga Ichiru:

“With You, Nozomu, Issa and me part of the red team, our colour team’s dance skills level is high! I have to keep up with them!  Alright! I’ll do my best“

VAZZY

Mamiya Takaaki:

“I went out to drink with a few of my old colleagues ♪ We talked a lot about so many interesting things like what parts of us have changed and what parts haven’t.“

Kira Ouka:

“I’m still in the middle of learning how to be an actor, so I observe a lot of things in the practice hall. Arata and Aoi seem to have stage experience, so I consult with them about how to conduct myself on stage.“

Kiduku Issa:

“I’m looking for a place to sleep in, y’know? They’re practically people I’m already familiar with. Sho, Hajime, Arata, etc. They won’t mind even if I sleep next to them.“

Kiduku Futaba:

“I’m training extra hard with Nao-kun and Yuma-kun for the kagura! It’s pretty difficult dancing in a kimono, isn’t it? I’m trying hard to make sure not to have my sleeves hit me in the face… (bitter smile) “

Oyama Naosuke:

“It’s so fun talking with the other units during the joint stage! I was talking about cats with Procella’s Rui-san the other day! Yay!“

Shirase Yuma:

“I’ve gotten along with Issei-kun and Ichiru-kun after we went out to eat one day. I managed to give them their birthday present, too!“

ROCK DOWN

Onoda Sho:

“What I was looking forward to during rehearsals was tea time with Shun. We’ve been told that the ‘atmosphere feels weirdly white’ when we talk, you know?“

Kujikawa Haruto:

“Since the traditional costumes are very heavy, it can become taxing both physically and mentally. But since the back is not tied up, it feels a bit more loose. I'll try to do this with dignity.“

Amaha Reiji:

“Just watching the other units in their costume is fun. Koi and You and… Oh, Tsubasa, too. It seems like they were interested in other units too, because they ended up approaching me the other day (laughs).“

Tachibana Ayumu:

“The Japanese sweets I was given yesterday were so delicious they moved me. Like that one I got from Growth’s Kouki-kun. I’ll ask him where he bought that next time.“

Oguro Gaku:

“I stretch and do muscle training at our rehearsal hall. I’m next to Procella’s Ikkun a lot, so we’ve become friends ♪“

Nadumi Ruka:

“Signing the promo posters turned into a competition against Gravi’s Arata! I won’t lose~ ☆“

infinit0

Sukigawa Rei

“I was expecting the design of Mamoru’s costume to be a pachira, but I was wrong. Guess that’s obvious (laughs). I was really interested in hearing about your song-writing, so let’s talk more next time, okay?“

Mikaze Roa

“This is my first time putting on a costume like this! I’m so excited ☆ But Taka-chan, please stop tickling my sides~! If you do it to me, I’ll fight back! There!”

If you want to support Ryota and her work, you can buy her a ko-fi right [here]. I also have my own [ko-fi] page and [commission page] linked here.

[thornbolts]

Market Report: Blooming Day 1

Nostalgia permeated the very air as Rem’s wagon wheeled itself toward Tian Monastery, both undead horses faithfully trotting their plotted course. One year ago, this is where the @fence-macabre began to grow even bigger, began to reach even higher heights. Right here at @the-blooming-wra​ . From a small booth of three to... seven. Easily. The caravan master’s lips couldn’t help but peel back into a grin. Normally, her jagged metal jaw and yellow teeth were meant to intimidate. But here? There were no scares. There were only smiles, miles of smiles.

Scribe’s Skull (1g) x3: Scribe’s Skulls are often found in the possession of Forsaken scribes, diplomats, and archivists. This rune-inscribed skull can be placed in any area for up to three hours. At the end of that time, or if the forehead is tapped, the skull repeats every word said in its presence, mimicking the very voices it hears to an uncanny degree. In addition, the skull transcribes what it hears in real time if an ample amount of parchment is fit into its jaws. The skull is also capable of translating Azerothian Sign Language if it witnesses the hand gestures.

Bag of Colding (5g) x2: This chilly bag is about the size of a usual adventuring knapsack. Anything that can fit through the bag’s lip will be refrigerated, preserving perishable items. In a pinch, it may even be used for medical purposes like organ transportation or for sensitive alchemical reagents such as elemental water. The bag may hold a maximum of one-hundred pounds. Living creatures will be spit back out.

Dream Linking Rings (1g): The enchantment on this pair of shimmering silver rings was originally created by a homesick Silvermoon magistrix who missed her sister dearly. When worn, these rings link the minds of two people, allowing them to visit one another when they both dream. The length of the visit is dependent on how long each person sleeps, up to a maximum of ten hours. Regardless of the environment created by the pair's dreams, an empty doorway will always be present. Either person may willingly exit and return to a dreamless sleep by walking through the doorway.

Book of Sleepy Tales (80s) x1: This enchanted book is a popular gift to Nightborne children. The book links to the user’s mind when one falls asleep beside it. Once linked, the book records dreams within its pages. As the user sleeps throughout the night, the pages shift and fold to create pop-up imagery of each dream. Each dream is crafted like a personal, unique fairy tale, available to experience again when the user awakens. The book may store up to two-hundred dreams. If the book detects its user experiencing a nightmare, the book will override the nightmare with a random, previously-stored dream from its pages.

Skullduggery Tome (1g/tome) x5: A strange book with a cackling skull on its leatherbound face. The book’s pages are initially empty, but if the Skullduggery Tome’s first page is placed on any other book’s first page, it will transform into an exact copy of that book, cover, contents, and all. Its primary use was for spying, but the tome has since been repurposed to increase the availability of precious or rare literature.

Coin-Storing Ring (10g) x1 : An enchanted ring made from unassuming copper to dissuade thieves. Touching any coin currency with your ringed hand and saying “Deposit” will store the coins within the ring. Saying “Withdraw” followed by the amount you wish to withdraw will teleport the appropriate coinage into your ringed hand if available. The ring may store a maximum of 1000 gold coins.

The Bones (3g) x1 : A pair of two bone dice. Each side is carved with a certain amount of skulls. You may roll the Bones and think a number. When the bones land, the sides come up with the number in your mind. Rolling the Bones without a number in mind will randomize the outcome just like normal dice. To anyone examining the dice, they will not appear abnormal in any way.

Silver Door Knob (5g) x1 : A magical door knob which, if pressed against a solid wall, creates a door according to the user’s height. Pulling clockwise opens the door and reveals a passageway through the wall. This only works on walls thinner than five feet. The doorknob may be detached for reuse by twisting counter-clockwise once the user walks through the doorway.

Total: 37.8g

Headcanon Currency Conversion: $3780

[palegengarsiloved]

Utangatta

"You were the only one who knew all my stories. You are the only one who knew about mom."

I re-engaged with Maniac alone armed with distance. After Russian Doll I finally felt like I had the emotional vocabulary to understand what Maniac was going for. The first time I simply absorbed it, uncritically, amniotic, expecting a fairly mindless psychadelic experience with a big-name cast and a tiny-word script. Jonah Hill and Emma Stone are absolutely outstanding, as is the entire cast, but the direction and writing and set design are unexpectedly exacting and wonderful on a level that are comparable with Mad Men or Lost In Translation. I will discuss some thoughts I had about the characters and themes after my Russian Doll-percolated re-watch. *Spoilers below*

Owen, Jonah Hill's character, is dealing with mental health issues, including fixations and the inability to separate reality and hallucinations, and is completely and utterly alone, sexless, inert -- withdrawn into a shell for fear of interacting with a world he doesn't trust to be fully real, unable to talk to women or peers or family in any authentic way after a series (a whole life, really) of errors and blips. To help this, his dreams in the clinical trial revolve around being in interesting and fulfilling and complicated relationships with women (Olivia, the woman he frightened with his first blip/break, who is a representation by the supercomputer to entice him into playing the little roles and 'solving' (and eventually trapping, after the machine breaks) him, and Annie, Emma Stone's character, who is working through her own grief and loneliness). All his dream roles are reluctant stereotypically-masculine projections that he ultimately rejects in part or whole, revealing to himself that he can move away from the toxic masculinity of his father and brother and be a man in his own way. In his last dream he finally confronts and questions the presuppositions and shoddy mental frameworks he has clung to around Olivia, and realizes that she isn't the wound he thought she was; he was his own wound, his poisonous modes of thinking and his complete lack of self-worth were shells placed around the idea of Olivia to maintain his patterns and routines of justifying that he was unlovable.

Annie is dealing with awful family trauma, stuff that put her dad in a self-sustaining capsule, literally sealed from the outside world. She is dealing with her problems through self-medication, bitter toxicity towards everyone and everything around her including herself, and a defeatist attitude to the wage-slave dystopia she is crushed under day after day in every tiny petty interaction. In contrast, her dreams in the trial have her as strong people with big agency and agendas to match - spies, femme fatales, a drunk con artist elf, basically dangerous women who have been deeply wounded or wronged on some level but who persist nevertheless. Owen reveals to her that other human beings still care and are worth fighting for, that friends can still exist as friends and not pill dispensers or faces to yell into or people who will someday die or go away like everyone she has ever loved has. Annie's confrontation and reconciliation is, like Owen's, just as much about herself as it is about a figure from her past. She initially would rather die than be vulnerable to another person after her past trauma, but she realizes that she has been deliberately nursing this idea of her sister as an controlled effigy to burn over and over rather than risking the sometimes-searing warmth of human contact again. However, her journey is interestingly different from Owen's dream-breakthroughs and real-life avoidance: it isn't the shared dreams that truly bond her to Owen, but the impossible idea that Owen actually might be right with his paranoid fixations. The idea that Owen and her might actually be truly connected in some strange cosmic manner. This belief allows her to be vulnerable again in her near-suicidal hollowness, because it allows her to believe in salvation; that she and her sister and her family might all someday be reunited, sterile and plastic and neatly arranged, like the toy diarama that she so often returns to in dreams. The fact that Owen and Annie's physical and eventually metaphysical escape is ultimately achieved through about four different secret plots all running into each other at the same time does not necessarily disprove her.

I think the idea of a supercomputer-aided clinical trial is an interesting thought experiment excuse for a story, much like Russian Doll, which I also adore, in showing that people who are so unbelievably and totally alone and broken can be fixed by looking to one another, even in the face of overwhelming pain and vulnerability and loss, even in the face of a giant omniscient system that has been broken somewhere along the way into thinking that it must kill those it fixes (read: modern healthcare, consumerism-as-medication, capitalism, patriarchal values, toxic masculinity, etc etc). I think Maniac and Russian Doll are, in their own macabre and somber ways, hopepunk - stories of hope and post-post-apocalypse, a finding of a way, in a world that has already largely ended in a fascist-capitalist techno-dystopian eco-armageddon.

Who hasn't struggled with mental health and a full array of personal demons in response to comprehending this world as it is? But in some ways I believe this shape of a story, of individuals who meet under a totalitarian system and still find each other, over and over again, and fight and ultimately sacrifice for each other and themselves, is a blueprint for how to operate in the 21st century and beyond. I believe it is, like Beauvoir and Satre, or Deleuze and Guattari and Foucault, an impassioned advocacy for recognizing the soul in each other and ourselves - a very specific, individual plea that is of course at the same time universally applicable: it is how you choose to operate in the face of certain defeat, the modes of thought you allow to have power over you, the family and friends you choose to retain in a world that tries to always put you in separate capsule beds.

"For people who are supposed to love unconditionally, families sure have a lot of conditions."

Like Russian Doll, the show confidently reuses lines and material and themes, keeps pushing and probing away at them, reworking and reangling their vectors of attack. I like shows that feel truly thought-out and self-contained, variations on a theme, a text that knowingly references itself: not as irony but as an argument that all things - ourselves, included - are this dense and self-referential and synchronous, that tell us that we unwittingly internalize everything about this obscene world that surrounds us, everything that's ugly and wrong, but also funny and random and utterly mundane. It also works as an analysis of what the show is saying about parents and children: that we are in fact of course remixes and variations of them, but we are also our own people, trying to make sense of the world using all the strange broken tools that they gave us. They, like authority figures and suicidal supercomputers, shovel so much seemingly-innocuous input into us, never guessing that we might refashion their tips as spears.

Early on, Owen dreamt that he had a plan: he was going to run away together with Annie, that they were in a car and driving really fast and escaping some unnamed, totalizing entity. I couldn't help but tear up: I knew, deep down in my bones the weakness and vulnerability as he revealed his plan, the defeated mumble acknowledging that this could never happen, and I knew from Annie's big wet eyes looking on in complete empathy and understanding, that she was also searching, as much as she denied it, for a partner to escape with. This is why the final scene was real, not another dream-within-a-dream. They learned to take control and manifest their desires, and allow themselves to believe that there just might be a plan for the universe, not handed down by God or God-adjacent drugs or supercomputers but one that you could envision and execute yourself, that you can in some way, through existentialism and each other, perhaps find meaning in a desolate world.

"This is it! This is it."

[ick25]

Rockman.EXE Episode 23. Review.

When Glyde finally tries to do something for once.

We begin the episode in some place full of scientists who are all gathered around a monitor talking about Pharohman and how he has been sealed for 20 years.

I can’t take him seriously with that typo.

We then cut to the WWW lair where Dr. Wily is planning to capture Pharohman.

However, he wont be needing the World Three operators to fulfill this task.

Burn!

So Wily decides to send Bombman and Stoneman, not only have they been repaired, but it also seems that Wily has been busy with the copy and paste tool.

Wily have created an army of Stonemen and Bombmen to go after Pharohman. The World Three operators aren’t happy with this plan, but they seem to be more worried about something else.

Since when do you bastards care about him?

They are of course talking about Netto, and how Pharohman deleted Rockman in the last episode... *Sniff*

We cut to Netto’s house where his useless mom answers the door for Meiru, Tohru and Dekao who plan to walk to school with him.

Disapointed? That’s the word we are using? When someone close to you dies you feel disapointed?!

You seem awfully worried. X(

But she tells them, for everyone’s surprise, that Netto has already left to school.

Gawd, I hate this woman.

The sky gets dark for it is about to rain, they leave and Netto’s happy-go-lucky mom goes back to the kitchen where she belongs.

“Because I sure as hell can’t do anything that doesn’t involve cooking”

Anyone would argue that she was just trying to avoid making his friends worried, but that doesn’t mean she had to act all stupid about it!  In Animes like these, the mother isn’t involve in their kids life, not because they don’t care, but because they “Trust” their children. Well, YOURE STILL A TERRIBLE PARENT!!! Mariko-sensei acts more like a mom than her, and she doesn’t even have kids of her own!

But after this we cut to who really matters, Netto. We see Netto skating calmly on his way to school when it starts to rain.

As he hurries to school, Netto has a flashback of the time when he was arguing with Rockman in the begining of episode 4 about getting up on time.

Netto wipes his tears and continues on his way to school. Meanwhile, we see Pharohman who is also going somewhere.

He takes over a building by scaring off the scientists from before and activating the lockdown to prevent them from coming back in.

We find Netto back home waiting for his useless mother to make dinner as she hums a familiar song while washing the dishes.

“I don’t care why you’re so happy, I want to know where you heard our opening theme!”

The next scene is literally a reused scene from the very first episode! From Netto cheking his PET to falling face first on his bed.

Ha! You thought I wouldn’t notice?

However, something strange happens inside Netto’s PET while he sleeps. And this time it’s not Rockman downloading into his PET, this time its a small golden ring that appears in the corner of the screen. Meanwhile, somewhere in the mountains, a mysterious man recieves a signal created by the ring on his computer.

Hmm... O.O

Netto hears Rockman’s voice in his sleep and wakes up to find the strange ring in his PET, but it turns out he is not the only one since his friends also happen to find golden rings on their PETs.

Roll just looks at it, Gutsman tries to pull it, Iceman tries to freeze it, and Glyde gets a scene cutted from the dub when Yaito orders him to do something about it and he ends up getting electricuted. XD

Netto’s useless mom tells him that he has a call from a friend of his, but if all of his friends are busy discovering the strange rings, then who is it? The answer is revealed before cutting to commercials.

It’s Enzan! O0O

After commercials, Netto meets up with Enzan, but since he would’nt say anything, Netto starts walking away until Enzan reminds him about Rockman and we get a flashback of when he was deleted. Netto gets mad over this but then listens to what Enzan says next.

Aww, how cute, he thinks he can defeat Pharohman and avenge Rockman.

It’s true that Enzan and Blues are strong, but in the next scene we join the Net Agents where Commander Beef explains who Pharohman is.

The scientists from before say that Pharohman was sealed 20 years ago, but the commander says that he gain control of the network 12 years ago. HOW?! (But it could be translation mistake)

He also says that Pharohman is looking for his memory data, but we then cut to Netto′s house where he finds his friends gathered outside. They discuss about all five of them having a strange ring in their PET’s and believe it is related to Rockman somehow.

All PETs give out a high pitch sound, meaning that the data of the mysterious rings are reacting to eachother.

Back to the Net agents, the commander tells the story of Pharohman’s origin.

OML! Thats Dr. LIGHT!

Netto’s grandfather was one of the scientists that created Pharohman, he was also the one who found out about the virus and sealed him. The commander also thinks that the reason Pharohman woke up was because of Rockman and Blues’s battle. Apparently the battle was so damn epic that Pharohman got jealous and decided to attack them. 

During this, Pharohman has been searching for his missing data and finally remembers what had happend to him.

He builds himself a pyramid because he is Pharoh, duh, and starts creating chaos in the real world. Starting with attracting a swarm of locust that takes over an airport.

Because locusts are one of the ten plagues of Egypt.

But Pharohman can create natural dissasters as well, like hacking a satelite to reflect the sunrays to melt the snow of the mountains and create an avalanche.

Among other things like black outs, Pharohman watches the destruction he is creating from inside his pyramid.

Haven’t seen this level of arrogance since Bombman and Stoneman.

Back to Netto, he decides to open up his PET and propose that they all connect their PETs in order to combined the five rings.

During this, Glyde believes that the data rings are Rockman’s memories and that they are trying to send a message to them.

We cut to the WWW lair where they are all watching the destruction that Pharohman is causing, making Wily even more eager to capture him.

So it turns out that Pharohman is inside the Science Lab’s main system. Wily is sure that if he captures Pharohman he will be able to take over the world, and then starts laughing like mad scientist.

Netto and his friends were able to combine all the PETs, and the rings quickly begin to interact with eachother. They end up joining togueter creating Rockman’s Navi mark.

Meanwhile, news of Pharohman’s destruction reaches Netto’s useless mom who gives out a different reaction for once.

“The laundry is still outside!”

She runs to the yard to see the sky and is relieve to know nothing bad has happend there so far, but this was just a way of having the mysterious man from before appear on screen to be greeted by her.

We cut back to Netto trying to communicate with Rockman’s voice with no luck, until the man comes in and it is revealed to be Netto’s dad.

And the episode ends with Rockman’s Navi mark still calling out to Netto as the screen fades to black.

My thoughts?

This episode was a call back to the end of Battle Network 3 where Rockman was believed to have been deleted and Netto had to cope with the fact that his best friend was gone by going through the stages of grief, something that is shown better in the anime.

There are seven to nine stages of grief, starting with Netto being in shock in the last episode, denial when he was trying to stay chipper on his way to school, anger when he met up with Enzan thinking he would make fun of him, and barganing, which is what he is doing with his friends by thinking they could bring Rockman back. Although Netto’s dad stops him from entering the two final stages, depression and acceptance, seeing Netto go through all of this was sad, but still very important for kids to learn how to deal with situations like this.

Though Netto’s situation was different, Rockman being a computer program that can be brought back, he was still willing to move on and get a new Navi after bursting into tears in the game, until he was surprised to see that Rockman had been saved, suppoussely, by his grand father.

And yes, his design is based on the original Dr. Light from the classic Megaman games. Fun fact, Hikari means Light in japanese.

Speaking of said grand father, Tadashi Hikari was the one who created the Net Society, and according to the anime, Pharohman too. Pharohman was just a random Navi you can find in the undernet in the first game, but in the anime they gave him the role of Alpha from the third game, which was the primal form of the internet that became self aware, and the reason Rockman was thought to have been deleted. BTW, Netto’s grand father, because his whereabouts were never mention in the original version, the dub just said he was retired.

[msl4233]

A neurodivergent guide to traveling to Japan

Idk how many people will benefit from this, and I guess some of my tips will help neurotypicals as well, but its 1 am and I camt sleep so here we go. (In no particular order)

Don’t take the hotel soaps with you. In America, this is perfectly fine. They have to throw them away after each person. But in Japan (at least in the hotels I’ve stayed in), they reuse the shampoos and such. You might notice that its a normal size bottle, and has some missing. That’s because they sanitize the outside of the container and leave it for the next guest until it gets used up. There are a few things like toothbrushes, hair ties, and small packages of shaving cream that are more one use that you can take with you, especially if you’ve opened them. Those they have to throw away.

Japanese thermostats are in Celcius, so if you’re American like me they can be tricky to figure out what temperature it is inside. Google can be very helpful here and has an online converter. Some thermostats have a button to change from Celcius to Fahrenheit as well.

To board the airplane early (if you have an invisible disability and have problems with boarding like me), line up with the wheelchairs and people with small children. In America you can explain in more detail and the Tsa will ptobably ask, but in Japan (and Taiwan for that matter, I had a layover flight there), just say “Special needs” and they let you go right ahead.

Speaking of tsa, their website has a customizeable card you can print out and show at security that tells them what your disability is so they can help you get through security smoothly. Mine says I’m autistic, and my dad has one that says he has an artificial hip replacement.

Weighted blankets have to go through additional screening if they are carried in your carryon. For me this meant that it was removed from my bag and the tsa worker felt each of the pockets to make sure there’s nothing hiding in them. The worker was very respectful and did it in front of me, explaining what he was doing as he went along. He let me fold it and put it back in my bag. I’m not sure how Japan does this, since I transferred it to my checked bag after the overnight flight. Ill update when I go home and go through security again.

If you take prescription medication, check a few months in advance if youre allowed to bring it into the country. Some medications are required to be sent to Japan two months in advance for screening (like prescription painkillers). I take Zoloft and it was not required to go through this process, or be declared at customs. Just make sure you keep it on your body during the entire airplane process. Don’t ever put your meds in your checked bag, in case it gets lost.

Google translate app is you best friend. You can take a picture of anything and it will translate it for you, and if you’re having trouble communicating then you can talk or type into the app and it will translate to Japanese and vice versa. Its very fast and easy, and I used it at the angelic pretty store to ask where the changing room was. The employee spoke into the app and it translated for me, so the language barrier was nearly invisible.

Hotel water is mostly drinkable. Sometimes there is a sign, if theres only one sink. But if there is multiple sinks drink from the one that has the tea making supplies next to it. Thats the kitchen sink and potable.

Walk on the left side of the sidewalk and staircases. In Japan they drive on the left side of the road, and walk on the left side of the path as well.

Dont jaywalk. Ever. Only cross the street at marked crosswalks or pedestrian bridges.

If you’re having trouble finding your way, ask a bus driver. They know the city very well and speak English relatively fluently. Don’t stop random people to ask for directions, that’s weird and rude and they might not speak English.

If you have personal space issues, I would recommend getting a taxi or uber as opposed to riding train and busses. Depending on where youre going and the time of day, the latter can be packed like sardines. Taxi/uber are more expensive, but if this is a serious problem for you then definately make room in your budget for this.

Speaking of crowds, if you’re overwhelmed and need to get out of a crowd quickly shout “sumimasen” repeatedly while walking to your destination (I recommend a bathroom). That word means excuse me, and people will understand that you need to get somewhere quickly.

All Japanese coins are marked with the value except for the little bronze one with a hole in the center. Its worth 5 yen.

If you use a mobility aid, you might feel daunted by the amount of stairs everywhere. However, for every staircase there is an elevator, and sometimes an escalator as well. They are typically marked on the walls, but if you can’t find one ask someone who works at the place you’re at. Some crosswalks are the kind that go up and over traffic, but there is a traffic guard underneath who will stop cars and help you cross. I havent tried this for myself, but for my dad who had his hip replaced and has problems on stairs still.

When in doubt, find and information desk.

7-11 has the best atm machines. This might feel really weird, but 7-11 in Japan is much better then America. Its more like a tiny Wal-Mart.

Spaghetti in Japan doesn’t take like spaghetti. It tastes more like offbrand kraft macaroni and cheese with a slight hint of tomato. Its good, but not what spaghetti is expected to taste like.

French fries are often lightly or unsalted. You might want to ask for salt.

The trains are color coded. If you can’t find your line check on a map in the station what color it is and then follow that color.

If there is a raised step in a room, take off your shoes before going through. Slippers are often provided as well so you’re not barefoot or in your socks.

If you go to a cat cafe and talk about your own cat, you might be asked to show pictures to the staff.

Lots of shops have a ban on taking pictures. If you are unsure, ask an employee. “Camera ok?” Is understood and they will answer yes or no. If you can’t find anyone to ask, just don’t take the picture. Its not worth the risk of getting thrown out.

English swear words are common. So is sexual themes. I passed a condom vending machine walking down a main street. If this bothers you, try to ignore it. Honestly theres no avoiding it.

Most plaves have free wifi, but.renting a pocket Wi-Fi is cheap and then you always have a secure connection.

If you’re having trouble ordering food, a lot of places have the menu on the counter with pictures. Point at what you want. This isn’t rude like it would be in America.

Lots of restaurants have fake food in cases outside. I can nearly guarantee you that what you will be served looks exactly like the representation. I’m surprised every time, having grown up with the American standard of “it looks like its been sat on and ran through a washing machine”.

If a store has multiple levels, a good rule of thumb is to pay at each level.

Most stores have a sign that says “Japan tax free”. To get this, you have to show your passport when you check out. Keep your receipt because tsa might ask for it.

A lot of stores only allow tax free on purchases over 5400 yen, or about $54.

Japan tax is 8%

Wall outlets dont have the classic pig nose input. They only have the two vertical lines. Make sure your charger will work with them, or bring an adaptor.

A lot of places have usb chargers built into the wall next to the outlet.

When paying for something, put the money in the little tray on the counter. Never hand it directly to the employee. They might put you change in the same tray or hand it back to you on your receipt, it varies by shop.

100 yen is about equal to $1. It fluctuates but this is a good rule of thumb.

Dont litter. Its a huge fine and possible jail time. Hold on to your trash until you find a trash can. Most convenience stores and vending machines have one.

Thats all I can think of at the moment, feel free to send asks If you have questions. This is by no means a complete guide, just the ramblings of a very sleepy tourist.

[slapegg]

Quick Critique: Nier Automata

Nier was one of my favorite games on the PS3 and I've talked about it several times on the site, so I won't go deep on the rememberances.

I think this will sum up a lot about Automata. Throughout the beginning of the game, I couldn't read the settings menu. All of the text was garbled symbols. I spent the game thinking that was on purpose, like it was some grand joke or a reference to the android character's mental or physical state. It turned out it was just a defect in the game that some players encounter and I was unlucky enough to have it from the very beginning. It's also a game where I spent 30 minutes running in circles in a map with infinitely respawning enemies because a voice cue triggered at the wrong time and led me down the wrong path. I was sure I was missing a switch or I broke the scripting or something. If the voice cue had played properly, that would have been my signal that a door even existed and that I should have been headed in the opposite direction, but I didn't get that. Thank you, random Youtube person, for posting a runthrough of that level, because I probably never would have found my way out.

Seeing Nier 2 announced at that E3 conference had me giddy, but as soon as I saw Platinum's involvement, I got worried. I hate Platinum's games. My fears were immediately justified as Automata begins with a tedious shooter segment that serves as the intro stage and lasts for almost 40 minutes and then that shooting continues for most of the game. Even the final credits are a shooter. Nothing about it is fun or interesting, you just hold down the shoot button and your assistant does all the work for you. The shooter segments in the original Nier were weird and an interesting way to break up the combat. This one just starts with it and drives it into the ground. Nier was an action-RPG with a bit of weird bullet hell shooting mixed in for fun. Automata is a shooter with a bit of action-RPG mixed in. Most enemies dash back from you when hit or hover in the air, so your options are to constantly chase them down for melee attacks or just hold down the fire button and let the game do all the work. By trying to make combat more complex, they made it far more boring. You're not even allowed to use your sword against the final boss. It floats in the air and the game straight up removes melee combat part way through the fight. The shooting is bad enough but it's combined with a terrible camera and terrible lock-on. It breaks with every enemy you beat even when you're in a crowd, it locks onto enemies that are far away rather than the ones in front of you, and it will actually target friendly units over enemies. Friendly units that you can accidentally kill if you thought you had locked onto the enemy.

The UI is a pain with menus that go many layers deep and lots of micromanaging items, equipment, and skill chips. Nier 1 had that with the words you'd find, but very early into that game, I found the settings I liked and stuck with them. Here, I feel like I'm juggling all kinds of things but not really seeing the difference in the game. The world is unnecessarily big and full of invisible walls and one-way routes, so it's a chore to plod from place to place, and you don't unlock fast travel until several hours into the game. Even once you do have it, there aren't enough travel spots or they're bunched together so they don't cover the map well as you run through the same five areas over and over. The sidequests are mostly boring fetch quests, but if you don't do them, you won't have enough crafting supplies or currency and you'll fall far behind in levels so enemies can one-shot you. Almost every death I had in the game was due to some sidequest having enemies that were three times stronger than the story enemies, but the game gives you no warning of this. It will casually toss out enemies twice your level that you do 1 damage to without even a word of caution. And on the escort missions (uuugggh), you have to be able to throw yourself in the line of fire to prevent the escortee from dying, so if you can't tank all the gunfire, you're going to fail that mission very quickly. If you die, you have to do a corpse run back to your old body or you lose your gear. You can see the bodies of other players too, but it doesn't add anything to the game. At worst, it spoils some moments where a fight breaks out that we weren't expecting because you walked into this normally peaceful area that is now littered with player corpses, so you know something is about to go down. It really comes across as "Dark Souls is popular, so we need to get in on that". The bonuses never seem worth it and you should never use them as allies because they pick fights with non-hostile characters. I kept seeing the same player names over and over, so I'm not sure if it's even a real system and not once did I ever get a message that anybody had ever helped me. And of course, thanks to the wonders of the game playing population, during dramatic pre-boss moments, you'll run into people named "F4g". Way to go, humanity. Maybe that feature was a ploy to get me to side with the machines.

Admittedly, even Nier wasn't the tops in the gameplay department (but what it had, it did well for me) and it's all about the story. Automata most definitely does not redeem itself with the story. It does have some horrible character designs and some of the most unlikable protagonists and sidekicks you can find though. I was invested in Nier and Yonah's story from the very start of the first game. Here, I hated my partner and couldn't care about the main character. Of the mostly main characters, there are a total of two characters I took a shine to: a renegade robot that said nuts to The Man and started his own village and my lesbian android ditz of an operator that believes in astrology and has girlfriend problems. 6O, you are a-dorable. Part of the problem is that the protagonists are androids and the game begins with explicitly saying that their bodies can be copied and their minds backed up, so there's never any danger or drama. There are lots of moments where the game plays up that they're in danger, but you as a player know it's no big deal because you canonically have dozens of copies of yourself stashed around the city. Automata makes attempts at the same despair Nier had, but it's like Nier-lite. None of the sad moments hit because the stakes are so low, they keep reusing the same themes, and the plot twists are obvious on their own, but if you've played Nier already, the twists are so blatant and uninteresting. Plot twists are rarely more than "this is what we told you was going on but then this is what REALLY is going on" and its attempts at despair are so corny and lazy that it's ineffective. "Everybody dies" is not an effective way at building despair. It's predictable and actually lessens the stakes. Nier used death as a spice. It built up the characters and their stories and used death sparingly to make its punch matter and, more importantly, it set things up to where some people would have been better off dying, but knowing that they have to go on is more sad than if they died. When you're looking for the junkyard kids' mother, you as the player know she's going to be dead, but then the game still gets you by making the circumstances of her death more depressing than just the fact that she died. Automata just throws death around to the point that it's meaningless. With no grandeur or build-up, it just adds "and then they died" to so many quests, that by the time there actually was a story beat that built up despair, I was so burned out on the trivial deaths that it didn't hit me.

Nier was a game where you poured over the story, trying to wring every bit of backstory and every ounce of lore out of it. Nier made me tear up no fewer than three times. Nier's reveals were earned through great characters and storytelling, so when you finally got to see it all play out, it was like a punch to the gut when you found out what was really going on. Automata's story... just kind of... happens? It has a nonsensical backstory that the game just throws at you with a "look, this happened before the game" and then a few hours later, it completely abandons its backstory and tells you that it just doesn't matter anymore. It introduces its antagonist in a cutscene that makes no sense and finishes that encounter with another cutscene that makes no sense. And the antagonist is evil because... reasons? You meet the antagonist when it's introduced, once in the middle of the game, and then again when you face each other. That's it. This is a game where there's supposed to be a dramatic and/or horrifying cutscene of a robot eating a humanoid android, complete with ripping noises and blood spurts, but it has no emotional impact because it happens for no good reason and the robot doesn't have a mouth. At best, that robot could be headbutting the android's face into a bloody pulp, and that would have been a way more brutal way to approach that scene. Instead, the game just shrugs and decides that zombies are popular with the kids, let's turn some robots into zombies. How? Why? Doesn't matter. Even the connections to Nier aren't worth it. Several characters show up that died in Nier and there's no explanation why they're here. The appearance of one tells you that Automata takes place after Nier, but they just show up unexplained. If you hadn't played Nier or read the Japanese-only side story (again, thank you, random Internet person, for translating that) that Automata uses as its backstory, none of their appearances would make sense, and even knowing that backstory, it still doesn't make sense. 25 hours or so into the game when the reason some of the characters show up is given, it's so flimsy and pointless that I would have rather they just not appeared at all. The writing in this game is just bad. It's amateurish at best and random for the sake of being random at its worst. The moments where it calls back to Nier just make Automata look worse in comparison. There's a tedious side mission of combing the desert for invisible items that tell of the fall of Facade, but that's all it does with that idea. It's like a Family Guy callback that only serves to say "Hey, remember that this thing existed?".

I'd probably be less harsh on the game and enjoy it more if it wasn't called "Nier" Automata. If it was just called Automata and the slight references to Nier were just Easter eggs, I wouldn't have the expectations I have. Calling it "Nier" sets me up for a story, for interesting characters, lore, and a world. "Nier" makes my cold black heart feel emotions. Automata is just... serviceable. The music is fine, but it's not the original's amazing soundtrack. It has some style and some lore, but nothing engaging. Nier told a dramatic story, but still had a lot of lighthearted moments and even played around with references to Resident Evil and Zelda just for the fun of it and they were great moments, but Automata is joyless. It's just an action game with a slightly better than average story. Nier was an essential game while Automata is just another disposable action game.