#watch little clips and stuff. i love being invested in things without actually consuming them ♥️ and i love shauna shipman sadecki. and i am

[pepprs]

a little inappropriate to say perhaps given how unfathomably her character is suffering but. sophie nelisse your big (fake.. sigh) brown eyes and rose petal lips hath bewitched me mind body and soul

[estelofimladris]

The Healer: Critical Role

[ warning: here follows a long rambling story of feelings about losing a fandom and finding new love and happiness in an unexpected way ]

Here’s a little personal story about how some fandoms hurt and some heal. It goes from Fillory to Exandria. (It feels really right when I say it that way.)

I wasn’t ready for the healing that I got, but it’s here now. Thank Sarenrae.

Everyone loves that thunderstruck feeling when you fall in love with a fandom. It’s literally like all the tropes about falling in love. You meet and sometimes there’s just a spark.

That was me with The Magicians. I spent a year immersed in a welcoming fandom in a show that made me feel seen and whole. I had friends in the fandom as well as the friends irl who were into the show. I got to dive into it when I really needed a fandom to help carry me a little through a hard time.

It was heaven. Until it wasn’t.

In April of 2019, The Magicians broke my heart. Again, just like all the tropes about love. Just like a bad breakup, there’s things about it that I really enjoyed, but at the end of the day, I can’t go back to the way things were with that fandom. No matter how welcoming the fandom remained, I couldn’t go back because the show had cut me so deeply.

Then through 2019 and into 2020, I drifted through some new loves and lived in my love of some of my oldest fandoms. Lots of Star Wars. New excitement from Good Omens, The Dragon Prince, and The Old Guard. It’s not to say that I don’t love these things, but at least two of my new favs are, for the time being anyway, done. And, though Star Wars (and in the same breath my other love Marvel) are never really done, I like loving them in a bubble because as anyone in those fandoms knows it can be a complicated relationship.

Also in late 2019, my buddy @wittynamehere1443 decided she wanted to try and run a D&D campaign for our family of misfits. I hadn’t played since high school (D&D 3.5) and was super excited to get back into it. I picked up quite a bit while prepping to play from a mix of reading, remembering old things, and watching some tutorials and stuff on ye ol’ YouTube. I had dabbled in tabletop, but never thought I’d go charging back in, but once I started I couldn’t stop.

I immersed myself in as much as I could, but I’m really a visual & kinesthetic learner, so eventually I was going to have to supplement my book-learning with some real-play to really understand. I played as much as I could as I delved deeper, but even as I dove, I realized I wanted to do more. I started to write my own campaign setting and adventures. I suddenly found myself needing to just know how D&D worked without having to always have the books open.

Now, I had been lightly introduced to some real-play before I really understood what it was. A buddy of mine had shown me a clip of Critical Role out of context quite some time ago and I really didn’t understand how so many people I knew and shared a lot of crossover interests with could be so obsessed with watching 8 people play D&D.

My buddy who was now my DM had consumed all of The Adventure Zone and had very lovely things to say about it and I had the lingering curiosity about Critical Role form the many people who had recommended it to me as well as the complete mystery attached to why people loved it so. And me, being a big lover of visuals and being at home because of COVID, dipped my toe into real-play with the first episode of Critical Role back in late June.

I did it completely on my own at first, which is rare given that most things I watch, I watch them with my best friend and roommate, @hawkeyekate.

( Also, as a weird note, I’ve managed to deftly avoid most spoilers about Critical Role up to this point and I’m not completely sure how. I know one big one in Campaign 2, but until yesterday (when I watched the first episode of Campaign 2) I didn’t even know the classes of 1/2 of the Mighty Nein. I didn’t even know Sam played Nott until about three weeks ago. That bubble has come in very handy. )

I immediately began to get out of it what I was originally there for: great real-play with explanations of rules (especially vs. house rules and the whys of everything). Watching the cast fumble through transitioning from Pathfinder to D&D 5e was very helpful to me because I had some similar questions from the figments of memory I had from 3.5 as well as my other random tabletop experience. I was completely inspired and found myself cranking through pages upon pages of my own world and campaigns as well as delving deeper into my characters that I’d been honing already.

I quickly noticed that I was worrying less about the rules when I played and was getting to enjoy my character for who he is. I was starting to craft interesting mechanics and not just story in my adventures I was writing.

Lightning had struck and suddenly I was in love in a way I hadn’t been in a long time.

As I was watching Critical Role, I definitely wasn’t just learning to be a stronger DM and a better player. I found myself able to tell the twins apart. I was invested in the mysteries as they unraveled in Exandria. I hung on Mercer’s every word.

Then without warning, when the party said goodbye to Pike in Vasselheim, I found myself in tears. I don’t know why but I remember being so struck by that moment. I knew it was partly because Ashley was leaving for New York, but the story for Vox Machina hit a soft spot for me. I was no longer just watching 9 people play D&D. I was invested in the story, the characters, and the world.

I was suddenly a Critter.

I think notoriously at this point, when I fall for a fandom, its often connected to a character. I saw in Vax’ildan a lot of things that really sucked me in from the beginning. He is at the same time like many of my favorite characters of my youth and like many of my favorite characters as an adult. I feel like he’s my heartstrings manifest in a lot of ways, complete with many of the flaws in that.

Then what was a slow crawl accelerated. I would occasionally ramble to @hawkeyekate about the adventures of Vox Machina and it would be on when she was around, but she wasn’t exactly watching it with me. Then at some point during “The Trial of the Take”, she was suddenly sitting with me to watch. She was asking me to pause when she had to go do something - and wait for her.

We were watching together.

We were acutely aware of how the twins echoed things in us and that often we are referred to in the same sentence in the same way. I had my Vex’ahlia.

Only a little over a month later, we’ve battled Briarwoods and now we’re hunting Vestiges and gathering allies. It is a rare day that we don’t watch a little Critical Role. I sport my “Gilmore’s Glorious Goods” shirt. I’ve read Vox Machina: Origins and am making plans for two cosplays already.

I’ve also DM’d six sessions of my first adventure-turned-campaign in my own world I’ve built, Perlen. I play tabletop two-to-three days a week with my friends via the internet. I hoard dice.

I’ve fallen in love again and this time it feels safe.

I know good and bad things will come for Vox Machina ahead. I know the same can be said for The Mighty Nein in my future as well, but the Critters in my life have been so welcoming and it’s been so nice to have something new to talk to my friends about. And I trust the cast of Critical Role not to destroy things just because they made them like The Magicians creators did, a trust I didn’t think I would grow back any time soon. I know that some of the pains in Critical Role aren’t just scripted but are actually to chance, which gives me comfort, too. People live and die by the dice in tabletop and I can abide that. It doesn’t mean I won’t cry and ache every time something bad happens to them because I love them all.

So I will go running through Tal’dorei and look forward to Wildemount while I carve out the mountains and seas of my world of Perlen. I’ll cry when they hurt and smile every time Pike and Grog talk. I’ll be healed the way that stories can in ways I didn’t expect, which has now happened much more than once.

I’m here now and I love it.

[ special shout-out to the Critters in my life that have been so welcoming. Especially my super-enabler, @oniumbra. ]

[seraphicwiing]

THE POSITIVE & NEGATIVE; Mun & Muse - Meme.

fill out & repost ♥ This meme definitely favors canons more, but I hope OC’s still can make it somehow work with their own lore, and lil’ fandom of friends & mutuals. Multi-Muses pick the muse you are the most invested in atm.

My muse is:   canon / oc / au (I have one AU which can be read here!) / canon-divergent / fandomless /

Is your character popular in the fandom?  YES / NO.  

Is your character considered hot™ in the fandom?  YES / NO / IDK.

Is your character considered strong in the fandom?  YES / NO / IDK. 

Are they underrated?  YES / NO.

Were they relevant to the main story?  YES / NO.

Were they relevant to the main character?  YES / NO / THEY’RE THE PROTAG.

Are they widely known in their world?  YES / NO. (He’s a damn HERO!)

How’s their reputation?  GOOD / BAD / NEUTRAL. (ALL OF THE ABOVE >:D) 

How strictly do you follow canon?

For me it’s a little weird since I originally intended this blog to be just about Sephiroth from Crisis Core to FF7 and Remake. But as I grew around the blog and began writing with more people, I felt the need to just fill in all of the blank canvas that was Sephiroth’s past. So I guess you could say I do follow canon to a certain extent? But 55% of my stuff is not considered canon and are just things I’ve added to add a little spice to my son! But yeah, canon wise I follow Remake as my main verse which considering the theories may just be the same Sephiroth we’ve known for the last 20 years. 

(Placing under a cut from here on out, I don’t want to make your dash messy) 

SELL YOUR MUSE! Aka try to list everything, which makes your muse interesting in your opinion to make them spicy for your mutual.  

Okay, I don’t know how long this is gonna be but I hope I can get through all of the topics I wanna talk about without looking like I’m waffling. Firstly, a lot of people seem to forget that Sephiroth wasn’t just a monster, Messiah Complex psycho. Before his downfall, he is shown to be a kind hearted and gentle warrior, he had a heart and had support from his friends throughout the entirety of his military career. He was genuinely happy. 

If you’ve seen the clips of him in Crisis Core, I want you to pay close attention to Sephiroth’s facial expressions before Nibelheim. He has a natural smile, he’s calmer and more relaxed, his face is clean and no bags at all underneath his eyes and his hair is more well kept and tidy compared to his more deranged and haggard look in Remake. He tells Zack to take care and genuinely treats him as if he’s known him for years once they get close. Sephiroth clings onto his allies as if they were his own family. 

There are so many factors to consider when it comes to Sephiroth’s eventual descent into madness, it wasn’t just the books and reports underneath ShinRa Manor that drove him insane. While it played the biggest major factor in it all, other events still have to be considered.

 Genesis who became an actual IDIOT of a person tells Sephiroth that he was a monster. A man that he saw as his older brother, a close friend and comrade swooping in with the intention of using Sephiroth just to heal his degrading body asks for his help but not before legitimately TEARING into Sephiroth’s birth. It was insulting and incredibly disrespectful seeming as at that point Seph had already seen the failed experiements and JENOVA’s chamber. It all came in a huge wave all at once, and the ShinRa Manor discovery only served to be the final nail in the coffin. His entire life, a mere lie. 

When he goes insane, he’s ruthless. He’s scathing. What remains of the old Sephiroth can only be seen from his brute strength and his skills with a blade. He will end you if you even so thought about trying to stop or question his ideals but not before toying with you mentally.  He will break you, one way or another and he won’t stop until you are either. 

It is honestly one of the most heartbreaking things watching a good man who appeared to be fine physically, but mentally was so incredibly fragile. Deep down, he always felt detached from people even with the friends that he made. He tried so hard, but his mind was weaker than his body. He was consumed by Rage and an eldritch monstrosity whispering things in his ear.   

Now the OPPOSITE, list everything why your muse could not be so interesting (even if you may not agree, what does the fandom perhaps think?).  

Maybe the tragic villain is something that’s played out too often? It’s definitely a trope that’s used quite a lot in media and Final Fantasy is no stranger in using it a lot in most of the main line games. Maybe people wanted more from Sephiroth that he just didn’t have character wise. 

I don’t know, I just feel as if some people might not like his motivations. I put it down as his mental state being so damaged from all the wars, the loss of his friends, and the cold hearted reality of his origins drove him insane but surely his rage could’ve been diverted to the true culprits which was just ShinRa?  For someone so strong why did he succumb so easily? Did Nibelheim really have to be burnt down? Could he have been sensible about it? Probably. But his mental psyche was utterly destroyed. 

What inspired you to rp your muse?  

My inspiration to play this muse honestly stems from my love for roleplaying villains. Sephiroth in this case was quite a unique specimen because of how many paths you could take your portrayal in. This character is easily one of the most complex I’ve written mainly because he’s two characters in one and both Sephiroth’s before and after Nibelheim are completely different. I honestly love the contrast. Like I’ve always wanted to muse him, but anxiety and worry that I wouldn’t be good at portraying him really took a dampener on my wish. Until now.

I love Sephiroth so much, everything about him just gels well with me. I get to write a hero and a villain. A kind hearted man and a psychopath. I get the best of both worlds. He’s such a flawed and tragic character and I just love exploring his psyche. 

What keeps your inspiration going?  

I have a playlist dedicated to Sephiroth that I smetimes listen too when I’m writing, I always try to rewatch particular scenes from specific games that he’s involved in to get into the muse. For example, pre Nibelheim I watch the Genesis vs Sephiroth vs Angeal fight and post Nibelheim I watch scenes from Remake. I also like to look up art and musings for Sephiroth, it definitely keeps the muse chuggin’! 

Some more personal questions for the mun.

Give your mutuals some insight about the way you are in some matters, which could lead them to get more comfortable with you or perhaps not.

Do you think you give your character justice?  YES / NO. (According to my mutuals and friends ;u;)

Do you frequently write headcanons?  YES / NO. 

Do you sometimes write drabbles?  YES / NO.  

Do you think a lot about your Muse during the day? YES / NO. 

Are you confident in your portrayal?   YES / NO. (Sometimes I doubt myself, it honestly depends. These feelings can be pretty sporadic)

Are you confident in your writing?  YES / NO. (Same reason as above)

Are you a sensitive person?  YES / NO.

Do you accept criticism well about your portrayal?

I always accept criticism if it’s constructive, I will always ask for it when needed because I really do want to improve and make sure that my portrayal is as perfect as possible, but if you come to me spouting hate about the way I portay the character please don’t. Respect my portrayal, critique where applicable. 

Do you like questions, which help you explore your character?  

100% yes. Send development questions at me, I love them. 

If someone disagrees to a headcanon of yours, do you want to know why?  

You are entitled to your opinion. I don’t care if you disagree with my headcanons, I don’t care if you disagree with my ships. I am here to have fun, and my intentions are for you to have fun with me. But if said person disagrees, why bother following me or reading my stuff? The door is open for you to leave, you can find another Sephiroth that appeases you. 

If someone disagrees with your portrayal, how would you take it?

A similar answer to the one above. My portrayal is my own, and I am proud of what I have achieved so far and the interactions I’ve had, and the ships that I have planned out on here. I love it so much and if they disagree with that, then they can unfollow me. Hell, if they want too, block me. They’re entitled to their opinion as long as they don’t flaunt it around. Just don’t be a dick about it tbh? 

If someone really hates your character, how do you take it

More power to them, hate Sephiroth all you want I won’t indulge these petty arguments about how Kefka was a better villain. I’m just gonna slurp on the salty tears and relax while writing about my favourite heartless boy. 

Are you okay with people pointing out your grammatical errors?  

I am always okay. I have a habit of never proof reading my stuff before I send it so my grammar is all wnky and over the place. I always want to improve as a writer and continue to grow as one, we can do this together should you wish <3 

Do you think you are easy going as a mun?  

I like to think I’m very easy going, I’m quite a shitlord when talking OOC. If you don’t mind me thirsting over my muse than we’ll get along just fine. I’m perfectly open for chats and whatnot, I’m a good listener. Sometimes I do end up being pretty clingy though, soooo... Let me give you hugs all the time. 

That’s about it, congrats for filling out!

[shadowsong26x]

TLJ Reaction Post!

Putting everything behind a cut just in case, to avoid spoilers. Also, any TLJ-related posts I either write or reblog will be tagged as listed here.

Feel free to reply/reblog/ask/whatever if you want to discuss!

So, that was an experience.

First, quick reaction--while I was watching it, it was overall engaging/good. I had some issues even in the moment, but most of what I’m going to write up here was of the fridge logic variety?

Things I liked:

- Leia getting a STRAIGHT-UP ACTUAL JEDI MOMENT. Yes, I am talking about her flying through space like Mary Poppins and yes it was ridiculous but again it was a Jedi Moment sooooooooo there it is.

- All of the combat scenes/lightsaber duels in particular were really well put together. The throne room duel (which I’ll talk about that whole scene in some detail later), Finn vs. Phasma, Astral Projection Luke vs Kylo Ren (side note: I had seen a poster or clip or something before this, and I was Very Annoyed that Luke’s lightsaber was blue pretty much for the same reason I get irrationally irritated when Padme is tagged/drawn in the Gothic Peacock dress and the fact that elbows don’t grow back oh my god--minor continuity details that make a difference but don’t really matter in the long run; but the fact that Luke chose to project himself with the Heirloom Lightsaber(tm) that blew up ten minutes ago made that make sense and was delightful in hindsight) the space combat--the red dust on Crait, though, so cool the way it did visual things.

- Pretty much everything to do with Finn and Rose’s plotline (except I was sad that there was no Lando cameo at Canto Bight)

- Most of the stuff with Amilyn I liked a lot too. Especially her flipping badass Last Stand. (I also liked the fact that the bulk of high command was women, and they made a point of showing off all the lady piliots)

- Luke and Leia’s reunion moment made me bawl in a very good way. (Side note: I’m pretty sure she knew all along he was Astral Projection Luke. In part because how else could he have gotten there, in part because, as my friend who I went to see it with pointed out, he projected himself exactly as he would have been the last time she saw him. Also the much shorter and darker hair which I feel is very impractical to manage in an X-wing cockpit)

- That little kid on Canto Bight. Oh, that little kid on Canto Bight, who reminded me so much of TPM!Anakin I can’t even. (There’s a whole potential Thing here, that my friend pointed out to me, re: Light/Dark/Balance a la Daughter/Son/Father from Mortis where we might be going for Kylo as Dark, Rey as Balance, Tiny as Light? I’m not sure if I actually want the story to go there or not but it’s at least interesting as a vague concept!)

- I love Poe. Just...Poe was delightful in this film, as he figures out exactly how Being In Command works, his relationship with Leia, his back-and-forth with Amilyn...

- I liked that the bridge/whatever between Rey and Kylo was clearly set up to parallel Luke and Leia, rather than anything romantic--to the point where Luke and Leia had a Twin Moment that then immediately cut to one of the shared dreams and that can’t have been an accident.

- There was a lot of really great dialogue in this film. Just in general. “Do you think you got him.” “I don’t think they like me very much.”/”I can’t imagine why.” “What are you looking at me for? Follow him!” Leia and Amilyn’s goodbye (which, side note--I read the Leia novel, and I definitely thought she and Amilyn had more chemistry than she and Kier did, also there’s a...something percolating in the back of my brain about Kier and Lando and the similar choices they made when their people were in danger and they felt their backs were against the wall, and what that might mean in terms of added context for Leia’s choices/actions in ESB, but that is a topic for a different post)

- While this was not the Force Ghost(s) I was looking for, I enjoyed Yoda’s appearance a whole heck of a lot.

- Rey and Poe finally actually met! And it was a very nice meeting!

- The fact that, once again, the last intelligible dialogue in the film went to Leia (because Tiny was speaking in another language)

Things I am neutral about but I feel bear mentioning:

- The reveal(?) about Rey’s parentage--I’m not sure whether or not Kylo Ren was lying, but I’m honestly okay with it either way. I mean, I’ve been on team Rey Kenobi, so to speak, from the beginning [partly because I think it makes a more interesting narrative than Rey Skywalker; partly because Obi-Wan’s line of descent, if he has one (and, whether it comes from Korkie and Satine or not, I think it could be credibly written that he does)...it makes much more sense that it would be lost the way Rey’s backstory establishes than either of Luke or Leia’s children being lost. And the potential alternatives (i.e., Shmi having had a child before Anakin and they were sold separately or something, or Anakin’s DNA being used to sire another child because Reasons, would require a lot more setup than we’ve got); also I kind of like the idea of Finn Skywalker though that ship has probably sailed]. Where was I...anyway, while I prefer that story, I don’t actually dislike any of the potential theories (except the reincarnation one). And Rey Nobody (I think is what it was called?) has its own appeal, definitely. So...I guess my reaction to that is a nonreaction? Especially since I can’t make up my mind whether or not it’s true...

- I wasn’t super invested in any shipping in this trilogy, but honestly as far as I’m concerned we now have a third possible endgame pairing for Finn and I like all three. (I’d rather not discuss this particular point in overmuch detail, because as I said I’m not super invested in any ST ships and I know a lot of people are and I’d rather not get argued at on the subject).

- I have no idea how I feel about the Heirloom Lightsaber(tm) being destroyed? But the crystal seemed to be intact sooooooo we’ll see.

- Snoke’s ridiculous golden bathrobe???????

Things I liked less:

- I’m not thrilled with how Luke was written. Like...I can make it make sense. I can draw the roadmap in my brain of how we got from the Luke I know and love to the Luke we saw in this movie (including in the flashback) but it takes a lot of backhacking, so to speak. Honestly, if I ever get this far in a canon-aligned fic timeline, I would definitely go in a different direction (frex, if Masks ever comes back off hiatus and I get to Martyrs, which is the third part of that AU and is set in this timeframe, it would no longer be an In Spite Of A Nail AU from here).

(This sort of ties into...look, if I was going to assign a cardinal narrative sin to each of the trilogies (looking only at how the story is structured here), the PT has pacing issues, the OT was made up as it went along and it shows in several points; but the ST? The ST relies way too much on It’s All There In The Manual. I’ve read some of the Manual, but not all of it, because I mostly hang out in the PT corner of the fandom, but it was an issue in TFA and it was an issue again in TLJ. Amilyn and Leia, I think, suffered from this the most, but Luke’s headspace probably did, too.)

- I’m not super thrilled with the fact that we got introduced to a lot of interesting new characters, and almost all of them just...died. And I kept looking for familiar faces from TFA in the background of the Resistance and...yeah, they weren’t there.

- This is...this is maybe not going to come off as super articulate when I try to explain myself, but it actually bothers me a lot. And that’s that...there’s...there’s no...

Look. To me, above all things, Star Wars is about Redemption. It is about finding the spark of light in the darkness, and fanning it into a flame. And I say this even as someone who primarily hangs out in the PT part of fandom, which is in some ways structured as the opposite (i.e., find the speck of darkness in the light and feed it until it consumes all). Because it’s still there at the end. We still have that spark--in the twins, and in their guardians--and we are nurturing it until it is ready to burst into a proper flame and it also set up Anakin’s motivations in a way that led to/added to the credibility/impact of the eventual redemption arc. (Like I said, I’m not sure I can articulate this well, but it’s a Thing, okay?) And, yes, I get that the ST is coming at this find-the-light-in-the-dark theme from a different angle which is fine, I guess, I just...I just...

There is no antagonist (who has been at all developed) who is redeemable at this point.

Like--I didn’t really care about Kylo Ren as Kylo Ren. I cared about his (potential and now thwarted) redemption arc because see above about how that’s what Star Wars is to me. And where we left off at the end of TFA, he could still credibly be redeemed. And now, even without all the explicit ROTJ parallels (up to and including straight-up quoted dialogue), that door is closed. A redemption arc for him from here would not be credible.

And no one else in the First Order is developed enough for it, except maybe Hux, who also has credibility issues (to draw a comparison, that would be like trying to write a redemption arc for Tarkin, aka essentially impossible without an AU breakpoint when he was like twelve or younger at which point it’s not a redemption arc it’s a completely different story.) Phasma (assuming she isn’t actually dead, which I think she’s not but ehhh she might be) isn’t developed enough. No one else in the First Order who’s still alive has an on-screen not-All-There-In-The-Manual name, so it wouldn’t have the necessary emotional/narrative payoff.

And that’s...that’s...I don’t like it. I really don’t like it. I mean...it actually weirdly bothers me less than I thought it would, when I was trying to talk about this a year or so ago? I have no idea why, because like I thought that would be something that would make me completely break away at least from the ST era/corner of the fandom. And yet it’s not. But it’s still...Star Wars has always sold itself as straight up Good Vs Evil, but has had that...coming home. Or something? Like I said, not sure I’m too articulate about it. But I don’t like that this happened the way it did.

And also, just...like, think about what it would have been if they had just gone ahead and played the ROTJ aspects straight. If Ben Solo had come home, the way Anakin Skywalker did--without dying. We would get the story we never got with Vaderkin, of clawing his way back and atoning and making amends. We barely even got it with Ventress (side note: there’s a Thing in the back of my head that I’m not sure I can get out in any articulate way about the parallels between Anakin and Ventress because man.) (Also I think there might be a plot like this in Rebels, but I haven’t seen it yet so IDK for sure.)

Sigh. I don’t know. I think we’re going to get an interesting story about the way things did go, which may be part of why I’m less upset than I thought I would be. But I am upset.

(Side note: I do think that Snoke’s death was really well-put-together/well-played. I genuinely didn’t see it coming until the Heirloom Lightsaber started turning. Like...I pretty much figured that it wasn’t going to go how either Rey or Kylo saw it, because (even before Snoke said he made the bridge between them) I pretty much figured they’d both seen what they wanted to see/their ideal ending for the confrontation, so I knew it would be some kind of third option, but I did not expect the one we got and the way it was presented/approached was extremely effective; I just have serious, serious issues with where it went from there).

- I wish there had been more Leia. And Maz. And Phasma.

- I wish it had done more to expand on/develop the relationships/answer the questions/etc. established by TFA. In some ways, it feels more like “this is a series of events that happened in the wake of that,” rather than a continuation? This was mostly a problem with Poe’s storyline--Rey’s did okay at that, though if the backstory reveal was true it was a little disappointingly presented and if it’s not it didn’t resolve enough; and Finn’s did reasonably well. (Also, there were supposed to be Knights of Ren???? Were these the students that Kylo Ren left with after burning Luke’s Temple? What happened to them? Were those the people he and Rey killed in the throne room?????)

- On a much pettier note--what the fuck even was up with the timeline???? HOW SHORT ARE THE DAYS ON AHCH-TO? WHAT ABOUT FREAKING TRAVEL TIME--FTL TRAVEL IN THIS UNIVERSE IS NOT INSTANTANEOUS AND THAT IS EXPLICITLY REFERENCED IN THIS VERY FILM. Congratulations, Star Wars, you now have a film with a timeline that makes even less sense than ESB. [ROTS doesn’t, either, although that one’s more a question of ‘exactly how long is it between the Invisible Hand and Utapau because I don’t buy the ‘less than two weeks’ from the novel, but beyond that it could be anywhere from like a month to like three or four...but that makes sense, it’s just unclear.)

And, because I like to end on a positive note--there’s a lot I do genuinely enjoy/like/even love about this movie. Is it my favorite? Probably not; I don’t know exactly where I’d rank it, but probably in the Bottom Tier (I have sort of three tiers in terms of ‘Which Of These Puppies Licking My Face Am I Most Likely To Take Home If I Can Only Have One’ and they fluctuate a fair amount other than ESB, AOTC, and ROTS are consistently in the top tier). But there’s enough about it that I liked that I’m going to see it again, and while the things I disliked were for the most part serious issues, they weren’t enough to make me want to avoid the film itself. I’m hoping the next movie answers some more things, I’m hoping Phasma and Baby Canto Bight Jedi come back, I’m looking forward to Force Ghost Luke (and maybe the others fingers crossed).

[wanderingfan]

To Anyone Invested in the Current Pewdiepie Drama I Have Some Things to Say

I Have a Horrid Confession to Make...I was one of those kids that watched peediepie religiously. (yes I misspelled his name and no I won’t change it)

Don’t get me wrong. I stopped watching him in like my second year of high school. But it’s not because I realized he was a awful glob of wood glue right then and there.  This was almost a decade ago, before his antics made even gaming new sites, and while I was aware he made some awful jokes (namely ones about periods and that one Ao Oni video that I sincerely hope has been deleted by now) it didn’t stop me from simply moving on to the next video.  Sadly what stopped me was just that I got bored of him.  I, unaware of myself, quietly grew out of that phase of my life where I loved when he’d mentioned barrels and looked at deviantart to see how people depicted a pig and a golden statue from Amnesia. 

I was one of those embarrassing commenters who’d talk about the bro army and how we should be mad at barrels instead of each other and yes I deleted my entire account because I had the same one for five years and Youtube wouldn’t let me delete all my comments at once.  I did similarly embarrassing things for the Nostalgia Critic and MatPat too.  And like Pewdiepie, I grew out of that phase before their crap caught up with them.  I didn’t have the ability to reflect on my watching habit until my third year of college, and that’s because I was a closeted white girl who didn’t know I was closeted, who didn’t have a tumblr account until I turned 18, and had a high school history teacher that compared Pearl Harbor to the Atomic Bomb that was given the Best Teacher Award every year (she was fired eventually but it was long after I graduated.)

I think the name Wandering Fan suits me because while I fixate of certain sources of entertainment I move on fast.  When its good it can pull me back to series I loved (Undertale dont at me, Fruits Basket, The Last Airbender, ect.) but oftentimes when I look back on the stuff I used to obsess about I’m mortified (Ib, Twilight and Host, that one film about the two headed dragon that wore an Elvis outfit, god I can’t believe I told my family about Vampire Knight, ect.)

And I think as a wandering consumer I’ve gotten lucky to not put all my eggs in the wrong basket, but don’t think I’m fooling myself or that I think I’m above the people who are still in that eggs-in-one-basket phase.  If Pewdiepie did his anti-semite antics and his “oh i didn’t MEAN to promote a neo-nazi” spiel back when I was in middle school I absolutely would have been one of his defenders who thought his critics were just a little too mean to him.  Because I was part of the “bro army.”  Because I invested myself to watching his videos daily, even at the expense of the numerous things I could have done to improve myself, like actually reading the assigned books or practicing music.  I couldn’t have wasted my time watching him.  He was “important” to me.

But now I’m 23 years old.  I’m not the teenage girl who was encouraged to be kind and understanding to the worst kinds of people anymore.  I’m not the very smart very intellectual young lady who tried debating sexist boys younger than me when the new hip new thing to say was “not all men” and “sjws hate all men” and every girl who complained about character designs.  So when I learn that the people I currently follow and look up to do a bad, I can move on pretty easily.

Here’s the thing though.  While I naturally grow out of phases, I still had to actively learn to change how I view people and what it really takes to be observant.  I can still be nice, but I can also refuse to play polite when I know people are being malicious, unawares or not.  People have to actively learn to do better and be better for others, even if that means stepping on a few toes and letting go of the people you like.  Pewdiepie is 29.  As far as I know he never had to learn to do better, so he won’t be better.  There’s no incentive for him to.  There will always be young fans who will always watch him, because even if these fans move on there’ll always be younger fans to take their place.

All of this to say if you’re a 13-16 year-old mad at people being mean to Pewdiepie, you’re not an awful human being because the person you enjoy is in trouble and you want to defend them.  But he’s not worth it, and you’re going to grow out of him.  Pewdiepie is not the hill you’re going to die on.  People do not die on the hills they’ve claimed to be ready to die on, because eventually they’ll forget why they’re there and climb back down.  They’ll move on to other hills to die on, or they realize they can’t die on this hill, and will just enjoy the view for what it is.  But the people around them also don’t forget how they’ve been hurt, and threatened, and scared because of people who’ll die on the hill at the expense of everyone else’s safety and well-being.

But while Pewdiepie’s the hill you plan to die on I’m going to give you a bit of advice: next time you go on Youtube, search for something random, it could be about a game you’re interested in, or an animal you like, or a Simpson’s clip you heard referenced tons of times but never actually saw firsthand, or that vine where a guy high-fived a bumble-bee.  Do about three searches for different topics, then pick a video out from the suggestions page from an uploader you’ve never watched before.  Then go back to a Pewdiepie video.  You might realize you forgot about Pewdiepie for awhile, and maybe, just maybe, you’re interest in him will slowly but surely fade out of you’re mind.

And maybe a few years down the line you’ll be a little more ready to reflect on the people you looked up to and what you did in the time.  Look at your old comments and/or videos defending Pewdiepie and saying what he did wasn’t as bad and didn’t really hurt anyone, and anyone criticizing him is just an overreacting pc sjw.  Look at the people you might have hurt along the way and ask if they deserved it.

Self-reflection isn’t an ability that can grow without your awareness, like your nails or your hair.  Its like puberty.  It feels gross, and uncomfortable, and it’ll make you feel like a rotten apple a lot of times.  It’ll hurt.  It will make you feel bad, and you will not want to do it, and there’s a lot of people online who won’t make the attempt until they hit their twenties like me.  But the earlier you do it the easier it’ll be to avoid being fixated on people like Pewdiepie.  You don’t have to force yourself to hate Pewdiepie.  You just have to realize he’s not going to do better, but you can do better than him, and you no longer need him in your life.

Sorry for impromptu Ted Talk/ You’re-Not-Even-A-Mom-Stop-Acting-Like-One Lecture I just remembered my really embarrassing bro army comments from way back when and the fact that I deleted my account and had to resubscribe to like 200 channels ADD A DELETE ALL COMMENTS OPTION YOUTUBE PLS THX. 

[chorusfm]

Angelo Fiaretti of Mighty

In a year full of promising debuts, Mighty’s self-titled LP stands out. It captures the gritty energy of the debuts by fellow southern indie rockers All Get Out and Microwave – look no further than lead single “Safe and Sound” – but with a charm all its own. Last week I had the chance to speak to bandleader Angelo Fiaretti about writing this album. The album is out this Friday and if you’re interested you can pre-order it through their label. Since this is your debut full-length, it’s probably going to be a lot of people’s introduction to your band. For any of those potential new listeners, can you describe your sound in three words? Probably…”grimy, disappointed trainwreck.” I’ll do trainwreck as one word. I hope you’re talking about the lyrics of the record, and not the record itself. Hey, there’s some parts of the record where you want it to sound like a trainwreck. [laughs] So the bio that came with my copy of the album said you’d been working on it for two years and you scrapped the first version of it. Well, it wasn’t even a version of this record, it was a completely different record. Completely different songs and everything. We ended up with goals that we wanted for the record and set a bar that we wanted to reach and ended up scrapping the whole record. I know you also said the song “Undertones” was the one that sparked that shift. Could you talk about how that song came to be and what it did for the record? So I grew up riding motocross, and I had a family friend who had a track – we’d known them forever and always been around their family riding their track. I ended up seeing a news clip from my town and he was being accused of molestation. He was a gymnastics coach, and so he was spending a lot of time with these younger girls. It was all accusations at that point, but I was so pissed off. My buddy called me and we talked about it for a while and then I wrote that song. After we recorded it, it showed that I could really pinpoint an emotion in my writing and I needed to focus more on that than just trying to write catchy songs. Not that there wasn’t emotion there before, but it was like, “Shit, look, I can do that.” You know? Yeah. Could you talk about the song “Eugenia?” That one’s another more graphic song, lyrically. Yeah. [laughs] It very much is. I was on YouTube and some video came up of this popular YouTube star named Eugenia and I got sad watching this video. It was a video of her responding to hate comments and a lot of the comments were, like, pointing out her weight, and she’s, like, skin and bones. I don’t know. It was hard for me to watch her read through these hate comments and try to be cool and make these snarky remarks. Like, first of all, fuck the people who’re hating on you and giving you shit about a problem, like a health issue you have. It made me sad that nobody’s fucking helping her. Like, her mom’s in these videos sometimes. It just confused me and made me sad. I wanted to write a song about it. It’s just my depiction of what I saw, and how these people treated her, and how she said she thought about herself. It’s weird to write a song about someone you’ve never met before, but I had a lot of emotion in that. It just sucks in every way. Even if you don’t know her, I think most people definitely know someone who’s been in a similar situation. Oh, for sure, yeah. It’s really sad. People can be horrible. Yeah, that’s my whole thing with it. Like, these people on the other side of the camera, they don’t give a shit about you. Stop investing your time in these people who don’t care about you or your wellbeing. You’ve got to look at yourself and be happy with yourself. And it’s the same thing with Instagram models and shit. How many of them stopped doing that and came out and said, “I was depressed, I was really unhappy doing this. The attention never got me anything.” I think a lot of people just don’t think about the people who make the things they consume as people who think and feel the way they do. When you’re scrolling through your feed, or even if you’re listening to someone’s album, you probably don’t think of them in their personal lives or what they’re doing or feeling outside of that moment you’re witnessing. Yeah, exactly. It reminds me of an interview I read with the band Pianos Become the Teeth, I’m not sure if you know them. It was sort of funny. They said, like, just because they’re singing about sad things doesn’t mean they’re miserable all the time. Right, that’s like Julien Baker has that merch that’s like, “Sad songs make me happy” or whatever. Her songs are some of the most depressing I’ve ever heard, and they’re brilliant, but she’s not doom and gloom all the time. [laughs] I know Daniel Gleason from Grouplove produced the album. Grouplove is a very different band from Mighty. That seems like a very interesting pairing. [laughs] So how did that happen? Yeah, it might seem a little bit weird on the surface. I knew Dan back when he was playing in a Favorite Gentlemen band, Death on Two Wheels, and he had just started filling in in the band All Get Out. I ended up booking a show for Death on Two Wheels in Pittsburgh, and Mighty played with them. That was in 2012, and we stayed in touch. Later on he told me he always hated my music. But then he heard some acoustic song I put on the internet and he told me he thought I was starting to get it. So everyday he was texting me, “You need to get a producer, you need to do all this stuff, you need to do an EP.” It got to the point where I was just like, “Look, why don’t you just do it?” [laughs] Then he did. He wasn’t planning on it, but he ended up liking it and wanted to do more. We started working on the EP right after the record came out. That all makes sense. I remember when the Manchester Orchestra and Grouplove split came out, being super confused, like, “Why are these two bands putting out a split?” Yeah, they’re all good friends. Grouplove played The Stuffing twice, I think. Once for sure I know. And this goes back to my point about assuming musicians don’t have personal lives, because I would never think that these two bands who sound so different would be friends. Yeah, right. [laughs] I wanted to ask about one other song, “Disc Jockey.” That’s one of my favorites and it doesn’t sound like anything else on the album. How’d that one come to be? That was kind of a whirlwind of shit. My grandma had just died of cancer and I had deconstructed my life in a long-term relationship with a girl I was living with, and that’ll confuse the shit out of you. Like, “Am I doing the right thing to focus on myself?” So I just ended up in a very worried state and I just wanted to feel love. The song came from an off-kilter view of that. It sounds like a love song, but it’s not, really. I don’t feel like it’s about any one person or thing. There’s so much going on in the lyrics about death, self-deprecation, being in love in general, wanting to be in love. A love song about the feeling and not a person. Yeah, honestly. Just about being in love with love. I feel like a lot of humans deal with an addiction to affection in some way or comfort. Genuine comfort from other people. That’s where that came from. Do you have any song you’re proudest of on the album? I really love the first three tracks. They really covered a sound I wanted to be doing with Mighty from the start. For a while I wasn’t able to do that, since I was working without a band. But once I got a solid group of dudes together and we had that chemistry we were able to pull that off. Definitely the last song we recorded for the record, called “Drip Drop.” I ended up slaving over that one. The band helped out a lot on that one, like, “Hey dude, you’re trying to make that a verse but it’s definitely a chorus.” And I wouldn’t have seen that since I had my head so far up my ass. That song, lyrically and tonally, I’m very, very proud of it. Good call on the chorus there, because it’s probably the catchiest on the album. Right, right. Our bassist was like, “Dude, fuck you. Why are you trying to make that the verse? It’s the chorus.” I was like, “I don’t know, man.” [laughs] What’s next for Mighty? So right after the album comes out we’re putting out a video for “Drip Drop” that we have filmed. Then we’re going on a run from Nashville to Chicago, playing with Grouplove in Chicago, then coming back down through the Rust Belt to Georgia. After that I think we’re doing another music video, keeping that train rolling. We might do a run in August. How do you think Angelo from when Mighty first started would view the self-titled album that you’re releasing now? Oh, I would be trying to make the most chaotically self-indulgent music and rarely actually singing. I have so many demos from before the EP and stuff where I would just scream through every song. I was basically just yelling. Singing but very abrasively. That was a problem Dan had to work out. He was like, “Dude, no one’s going to want to listen to this shit.” I think on your next record, you should just give yourself like thirty seconds of one song to just go crazy.  Oh man, I love doing that but you’ve got to wait for the right moments or you’ll just burn people’s ears off. [laughs]  --- Please consider supporting us so we can keep bringing you stories like this one. ◎ https://chorus.fm/interviews/angelo-fiaretti-of-mighty/

[topicprinter]

I grew up watching a show called Ali G. It’s undoubtedly one of the greatest masterpieces of the early 2000s. If you haven’t seen it you’re either 13 years old, over 65, or have terrible taste in TV. Seriously it’s that good of a show.The show involved a guy interviewing a bunch of intellectuals and acting like a complete dumbass during it. Guests even included a young Donald Trump [1], to who Ali pitched the idea of an ice cream glove. Needless to say The Don didn’t invest.Ali would dress like a moron, mispronounce the simplest of words, and say the most absurd roll-on-the-floor-funny things. If you’re not familiar with the show go to Youtube and watch a few clips. [3]Here’s the crazy thing. 90% of interviewees came away thinking Ali was the moron. The idiots couldn’t identify the clear-as-daylight joke being played, nor could they see the fun side of it all. They were so rigid and detached from reality they took everything literally. In turn they came of looking like complete morons..The Dumbest People Always Think They’re The Smartest.Despite the interviewees coming off as stick-up-the-ass stiffs to anyone who watched them, rest assured they came away believing they were smarter than ever. After all meeting such a buffoon like Ali only reinforced how smart and intellectually superior they were.In short they were blind to reality.This is exactly how 90% of the entrepreneur community is. Complete morons. Yet they can’t see it. Let me explain.The whole theme of the entrepreneur sphere is work work work. Focus focus focus. Sacrifice everything. Work 18 hour days, work 7 days a week, work holidays. Don’t buy coffees – instead save the $3 and invest it. Discussions about whether being married or having girlfriends affects success. Don’t take vacations. Sleep 3 hours a day…. And so on.Basically live a life like shit.Don’t get me wrong, I get the premise. The thought being work hard and sacrifice a good time now, for a phenomenal time in the future. I understand the theory completely.The problem with this is two-fold.First, less than 2% of budding entrepreneurs ever become even financially well-off. By this I mean having enough money and savings to live out the last 15 years of their lives without working. The success rate is rock bottom.Second, it’s nothing short of insanity to work away the best years of your life. Time can’t be replaced my friend. It’s about the only thing that can’t. If you’ve ever look back on periods of your life and thought you should’ve used them better – or ever felt old – then guess what this horrid mentality will bite you in the dick later on. This high-work mediocre-pay setup is the ultimate waste of life..Don’t Work Away The Best Years Of Your Life. But Also Don’t Give Up On Earning Money.The world is beautiful baby. Friends, people and lovers are what makes life worth living. There’s fun in the simplest of things. Splashing about in a beautiful clearwater ocean, “wasting” a lazy Sunday afternoon watching a dumb comedy eating pizza, getting drunk and acting like clowns with your friends. That’s what life’s about.NEVER sacrifice all of that just for money. But at the same time understand pizzas, vacations, and hauling your drunk asses into taxis cost money. And the more money you have the more you’ll be able to enjoy the world.Money matters my friend. Anyone saying otherwise is deluded (or wishes it were true so they could be at ease with their lack of money).I’ve always hated the saying “Money can’t buy you happiness”[3]. That’s asking too much from money. But there’s no doubt money helps support happiness if you used smartly – whereas poverty doesn’t..So… What Should You Do?.I didn’t write this article to give you a step-by-step solution. It’s simply a reminder to balance what matters in your life.I quit my office job three years ago because it was killing my soul. I was working something I hated, and giving up my health, relationships and livelihood to do it. I was missing out on the world and what really mattered to me. It’s why I left to work for myself.Admittedly I much preferred working for myself, but it was still at the expense of everything else. I was working every day and barely did or met anyone else. At least before I had my weekends.My bliss came from learning to cut down my hours, by learning to charge a shitload more.In 2014 I was charging between £20-30 an hour – and worked around 45 billable hours [4]. It brought me around £3600 a month. It was mayhem. I felt burnt out. It was shit.Compare this with last year where I worked 19 billable hours total per week. I charged between £100 to £205 per hour and got all the work done from Mon to Wed, giving me four days off to do what I wanted. I brought in close £11,000 a month, and had the time to do more of what I loved. As a result my friendships and relationships with my wife and family have deepened, not to mention I look and feel great.This year I’ve got 4 hours billed at £280 an hour a piece (that’s £4480 guaranteed a month). And I’m hoping to pick up 4 or 5 hours more. And I’m going to get all my work done and dusted on a Monday, and take the other 6 days off to do whatever I want. I’m expecting to earn £8,500 a month.It’s less but who gives a fuck when I get 6 days off. It’s more than plenty to cover expenses, live a life of relative luxury, and put away a big chunk so I can retire hopefully in my 40s (I’m currently 30 years old).For me learning the skill of charging more for what I do has single-handedly transformed my life..The Art Of Charging (Lots) More Money Per Hour.Not everyone is comfortable with charging more money. They either feel secretly guilty to charge so much more than they currently are, or think it’s not possible to get anyone to pay them the kind of fees I’ve talked about.The guilt is a personal issue. Some people mentally can’t bring themselves around to charging a higher fee – even if they have someone who’s willing to pay them. They just wouldn’t be able to quote the fee. If that’s you, I can’t help with that. Either you feel guilty or you don’t. If you do I doubt it’s possible to charge the “super-fees” I’m talking about.If you’re ok with charging the money, but don’t think it’s possible to charge that much – then my friend you are wrong. I understand the thinking, but it’s absolute rubbish.Most people think you need to be an expert to charge mega bucks. They think it takes years of qualifications, experience or you need to have some sort of “reputation” before they have the right to charge even double the average. This is utter crap. You’re self-employed. Nobody chooses this but you.For the record I work in the UK, in an industry where the national average is £22/hour for what I do. You’ll barely see anyone charge even £35/hour. For some reason £30/hour is considered the top-end.As mentioned I have charged £205/hour for what I do. In October I have 4 hours confirmed at £280/hour. Grab a calculator, that’s over 12 times the national average. And remember I only have 3 years of the supposedly sacred “experience” under my belt.Don’t make any mistake about the quality of my work. I’m good at what I do. Truth is most people in any field are shit at what they do. The “average” market rate reflects crap work. If you’re not shit at what you do you should be charging more.There’s always someone willing to spend big money to find the right person. Believe me people piss away big money on dumber things all the time… (Just think of low income people queuing up in their thousands to buy the newest iPhone).Anyway that’s enough for now. Hopefully this little ramble has opened your eyes to the dumbness of working your life away, and more importantly to that you can and should charge more (assuming you can actually do what you claim to).SIDE RAMBLE POINTS FROM POST ABOVE[1] I’m not pro-trump nor am I anti-trump like much of the fundamental left-winged corners of internet and by no means want to be associated with that crap on either side. I respect any man who’s made something of himself – but have absolutely no care for politics. Saying that watch Ali Pitch to Trump here – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkuOuxRD1Bc[2] Who knows, maybe this birthed Dragons Den (or Shark Tank for you American readers)[3] Trust me it’s better than the poor ball-less excuses for comedies like Big Bang Theory and How I Met Your Mum[4] A tired cliché spewed by many including my mum. Did I mention we grew up kinda poor for a while? (Now I think about it, she seemed to say it less once my dad made some more money. Hmmm…)[5] I say billable hours, because I worked outside of that preparing stuff. I estimate it was around 15 hours, so likely worked 60-odd hour weeks. It was a piece of shit time..If you want to learn what I've learnedIf you liked the post and found it helpful or insightful in some way then please upvote and leave a comment. It takes a buttload of time and effort to churn out one of these articles. You pour your heart into it, and a comment means the world to a writer. Otherwise it's like writing for a brick wall.I'm also in the process of writing my new ebook The 10 Dark Laws of Charging (and Getting) Monster-Fees.You can grab it by heading over to my site The High Fee Club and entering the asked details in the sidebar (or bottom of page if viewing on mobile).I warn you in advance that I will ask for your email. That's completely your choice. Remember, I'm not sticking a gun to your head.The book contains the methods and strategies which have worked for me. Every word in the book comes from personal experience. The material inside isn't always pretty, but it works. You won't see me regurgitating material I know nothing about. It's 100% Free but I do ask for your email address. (Simply enter your details into the website sidebar - or at the bottom of the page if you're viewing it on a mobile device)By all means feel free to ask any questions. I'm out and about the whole day so won't be back for a good few hours, but I'd love to answer any cool questions once I'm back.

[gavinbowman]

With the Switch arriving, I’ve been trying to clear out some of my in-progress games to make room for zelda. And also because it sucks when you’ve been playing a few different things and taken an extended break and feel kind of detached from them. I didn’t want to abandon them or leave them hanging for months. So here’s a round up of my recent plays.

Fire Emblem Heroes - iOS Played all the current content, countless hours

This was a good one for me when I was waiting around for baby stuff, I could pay attention to other things and even play one handed. I’m conflicted on it, because I had a lot of fun with it, it didn’t cost me anything, and yet I find myself at the end wishing I’d bought Fire Emblem Fates for the 3DS and played that instead. But a lot of the time I spent playing this I probably didn’t have my 3DS handy, so it’s probably moot.

This is a F2P game, but it’s crazy generous. There’s a lot of content to play through, and you get a lot of free premium currency just for playing each day and for completing the content and the various quests. The main use for the premium currency is the gatcha “spins” to get new characters. 4 and 5 star characters have additional moves and skills that are helpful when you get to the higher end content, and you have to get lucky with a summoning to get them. There is a path to upgrade lower level characters, but it requires a lot of a very scarce currency.

I would have liked to have been able to buy a round of character summons for a reasonable fee... that probably would have wound up costing me a lot though. As it is, it costs about $13 for a set. And you can get a set most days you play if you’re playing the earlier content and charging through it at a fair clip. It gets much harder to save up for a set of characters towards the end, the challenge gets higher faster than your characters level up, and you tend to get stuck with a fixed roster of valid characters because leveling up a second set to the point where they’re useful is a big time investment.

There’s two areas where I really enjoyed the game the most. Leveling from 1->20ish, either in missions while I had them available, or in the duels or training rooms. You gain skills and your character grows regularly, it’s a rewarding time. The second was in the high level maps, either the main story or bonus/special content. It was fun trying to find a way to beat the scenario with what I had. And it wasn’t possible to just grind up a couple of levels and stomp all over it, and it wasn’t trivial to try to bring in a ringer who would be better suited to the map. That was some fun stuff.

Although I’m done with the game, I’m not really done with it, I’m still playing the various challenge stuff and popping in for rewards, I’m still excited when I get saved up for a round of summons... but it’s definitely on the down low unless there’s a significant amount of new content. I’m excited to see how the new inherit ability feature works in the coming update, I imagine it’ll require some scarce currencies, for fear of being over used, but it could definitely open up new strategies and options.

Super Mario Run - iOS Finished main game to purple level and bonus levels

This was a fun one for me. It was great having a one handed mario game, great having mario on my phone, and I liked the game plenty. Sure, it’s not as good as a full mario game. And I could see why some people would complain about the amount of content available. If you don’t make any effort to play for the coin challenges, you’d probably blitz through it in 1-2 hours.

I played a bit of the toad rally thing early on so I could unlock the extra characters. It was sort of fun, but it definitely lacked something and the economy was all over the place. I’m sure it was the beginnings of a f2p concept that just didn’t come together or got shifted over to a premium feature early on. Although rally tickets are kind of scarce to begin with, once you play a little bit, they become too plentiful if anything, I usually had the maximum amount, and had bonuses in my kingdom that would more than restock any amount I could use. I think they rebalanced it,  but early on I felt like the amount of toads you’d lose when you lost was way too high, it was hard for me to build up a little stockpile of any without grinding on similar levels I knew well enough to win most of the time.

Anyway, was good fun for what it was, I have no regrets about buying it or spending time playing it. I’m not doing the black coin challenges though, those feel way too much like work.

Mighty Switch Force - 3DS Finished main story & bonus levels - ~7hrs

I kinda fucking hate this game. Bear with me. It’s good, I had fun with it. But fuck, my lasting association with it is not pleasant. It’s one of those games where the initial impression is really strong, and the core mechanics feel great and are interesting, but as you progress through the game it goes in a direction that just makes each level progressively less fun. The fun chunky run and jump and shooty stuff gives way to levels that feel more like puzzle based versions of donkey kong country barrel sequences. It’s still kind of fun for the most part, but there’s a lot of stuff where you’re just killed and then have to remember the sequence next time... it just doesn’t feel as fun as the early levels promised. It’s mostly still okay though, because the levels are maybe 3-5 minutes long (target times, not counting multiple retries and longer times to grok the lay of the level at first), and if they’re big levels, there’s a lot of boosty things to cover large distances quickly. And then you get to the last level. And then it goes from fun shooty platformer that gradually changed into less fun puzzle and timing based platformer, into full on rhythm action puzzle platformer. And the level length increases. And the difficulty increases. So you’re stuck playing with this new mechanic in the hardest and longest level of the game. It left a really bad taste for me anyway. After I finished it, I played the first of the bonus levels, and it was like the early levels, so that left me feeling a bit better about it. And then I played the 2nd one and it moved significantly towards the puzzle things I hadn’t really enjoyed. And yeah, the 5 bonus levels basically play like a greatest hits accelerated evolution of the game mechanics from fun -> fuck you. So yeah, I kept playing the bonus levels so I could hopefully leave the game with a more positive impression, but instead they made me relive the whole journey of gradual disapproval all over again in a condensed way. 

The ironic thing is, I can totally imagine being in the design meetings that made the game this way and totally approving of all the choices, because they increase the depth and variety and force the player’s mastery, and therefore presumably sense of achievement, to improve to progress, and yet here I am hating it all. Was interesting for me anyway. The main thing I’d definitely change is the rhythm action bit on the last level. I get why it feels good and import though. Maybe put it on a shorter level. Or increase health drops, or just save it for a post game challenge room kinda deal or something. Even if the bonus level version of the rhythm mechanic was the final level, I’d have been less down on it, because it’s a shorter level. It’s still hard and frustrating, but in a more manageable quantity. Anyway. Good game. I kinda hate it.

Megaman X - SNES via Wii U VC Finished main story ~12hrs

Really bummed that I had to take a break from this at the point where I did, I was some random distance into sigma’s fortress when I stopped and I forgot what all the weapons and upgrades did by the time I started back.

I was playing this to get a good sense of where things went in this franchise, I really enjoyed Megaman 2 recently, and this felt like the obvious one to play next. I love most of the changes and evolutions. The bigger spaces worked out nice. I don’t know if the slowdown is all just preserved from the original, but damn, that was intense.

Main differences I noticed, side upgrades were handed out as more of a big deal, rather than just a random bonus after some of the levels. There were more permanent upgrades. The main upgrades from the bosses were a lot more effectively balanced. There was way more of a sense of an order to the boss fights, I bounced out of 3 or 4 before I actually managed to complete one and start to make progress. I liked that. Mid level checkpoints were less well placed than the NES game. There were a few places where I could have really done with not having to play some stupid challenging section again before the next stupid challenging section. I confess I used save states to make it though this game. I doubt I could have done it today otherwise, not without a major time investment. At that point I’d probably have been better off watching a speed run on youtube.

Oh, and I really liked the way the energy tank mechanic worked here, once I realized how to use it. It’s basically like finding zelda bottles, except they automatically fill up when you collect excess energy, and they don’t kick in automatically when you’re about to die, you have to watch your energy and use them yourself. I thought it was great.

I guess “now fight all the bosses again” is an established megaman trope... and I actually was okay with how it was implemented here. Checkpoints were a bit more frequent than I remember from megaman 2, and the bosses were spread out over a few tiny levels rather than just all packed into a room.

The final boss was very challenging, again I doubt I could have made it through this game today without save states, at least not with any hair still intact and without it consuming my life for months on end.

My ideal Megaman so far would definitely fall somewhere between this and the NES versions... but after having to drop this mid-way, I’d probably have to play both again to settle on exactly where.

Land’s End - Gear VR Played story mode - Maybe 1hr actual game time? Hard to say because of all the time I spent updating my android phone, or charging it, or waiting for it to cool down enough so I could keep playing, or taking a break because my head hurt. Even if it was around or under 1hr, it was enough.

I’ve been trying to play this one for ages. Since the Gear VR was the only VR headset in the house. It’s probably fair to say that I’ve had a samsung phone and a headset sitting on or around my desk for over a year because I wanted to play this.

And it’s fun, I liked it a lot. It’s a shame it hasn’t been reworked for higher end headsets... but I can understand why it hasn’t. It’s fully designed around gazing, there’s no other inputs, so once you put it on a higher end device with more complex input systems, it’s going to feel a bit restrictive. It’s not like it wouldn’t still be fun, but you’d have that weird feeling of having a controller or hands of some kind that don’t do anything.

But it looks lovely, and it’s a shame that experiencing it on the Gear VR with it’s low res screen and no head tracking etc is the only way to enjoy it. The puzzles are fun, if it’s not pushing the limits of the device it looks like it should be (great design, it’s low poly and low detail and it really nails the aesthetic). There’s a great sense of space and discovery as the levels open up around you, or when you enter some space that you didn’t see a few steps earlier and there’s a whole new room or area.

It’s very short. But that’s good. You get to enjoy something wonderful, but you don’t have to spend a lot of time using the Gear VR to do it. I need to spend more time playing VR games this year. I bought the PSVR specifically with the hope of doing that, but it hasn’t panned out so much so far. I really want to play more of Eagle Flight, I love what I’ve played so far.

Anyway, that’s me all caught up. Sorry to spam 5 games into one post, I’m not sure I even played 5 games last year... but I’m hoping this will free me up to play more zelda and start some new stuff.