#weird Minecraft scene

[edwardos]

[froggychair05]

Do you think that any of the MCSM characters would buy something so odd/stupid that the cashier would look at them like they're insane? I want your take on that situation

Oh, definitely. Axel goes out and looks for the weirdest stuff on purpose just to have it. Jesse, too—he would get the goofiest thing he could find, just because he finds it funny.

Ivor, though, would get it completely unironically.

[siren--squid]

Going Through It in a way that only danvis can fix I think

[quirkle2]

“I’m home,” Shigeo calls emptily, and when he doesn’t hear a response, he looks up the stairs across from the mudroom. “Ritsu?” He waits in the silence, soft thumps sounding from his shoes hitting the floor as he slips them off. The house is dead and quiet, no lights on and no sounds of televisions or electronics. He prods through the walls with his aura—no Ritsu. Shigeo lumbers up the stairs as he searches through his pockets and finds his phone. In a way, he’s sort of glad Ritsu isn’t here—that would mean he doesn’t have to explain the blood on his uniform, or the bandages around his fingers—but he finds it a bit odd. Student council meetings usually end by now. Maybe he went to Sho’s. Shigeo flips his phone open, squints through the fizz along the screen that’s ever-present nowadays. His only new message is from Tome. [5:52 PM] tome tomato ! : we are Absolutely talking about that. btw. but sleep first or else [5:52 PM] tome tomato ! : and u better not be doing homework. if ur not in bed in the next 18 minutes i am coming over there and i am beating u up He gives his screen a tired smile.

[unholyphish]

It's not just modpacks though.

There's like a whole new wave of minecraft youtubers who's content exclusively revolves around chillmaxxing the vibes of nostalgic minecraft.

TL;DR: Play games how you want to, not how other people say.

It's funny to watch some people tell you how it's meant to be played and whotnot, by looking exclusively at certain snapshots (not literal) of the development history that were at most for a MONTH in existence before the game changed again.

But like the whole point of the game is that you play it how you want to, not how others tell you to?

Then there are the people who are bored because they min/maxed too much. Then there are the people who look at it from a game design point of view far too much (game mechanics abuse, boss fight design and progression).

Both those crowds I feel see it more like an RPG to get through rather than a journey to be experienced. At least the discourse makes it feel like that.

Minecraft is one of those universal sit down and do anything games that nearly anyone can play, which is why the niche internet people probably complain about it too much. It's not hyper specialised to them anymore.

i havent watched this video so like no hate but why do minecraft modpacks sound like "we need to go back" trad memes sometimes

[kooldewd123]

so some scattered thoughts on the minecraft movie...

honestly? the set design actually looks really good. the trailer was a horrible cgi-fest and that's not a good sign for the movie, but i think if they leaned more on the practical stuff it could actually come out pretty good, visually.

the weird crafting scene with jason momoa was supposed to be nonsense, and having seen the extended scene now... why didn't they just use the part with jack black making the sword? that makes much more sense as a trailer shot instead of giving us a punchline that doesn't work without the setup.

"we've always said that steve isn't really a character. steve is what you make him, right? and we've all been steve and embodied steve and done different things." wow, what an genuinely insightful analysis of what steve represents to the game of minecraft. hopefully the next sentence out of your mouth explains how you hope to represent that in the movie. "so, uh, our steve in the movie is jack black."

"we wanted to do live action because minecraft creators have already done so much with animation" (paraphrased). yeah??? there's a fucking reason for that!

actually i'll give them the "normal people thrown into the world" thing. their logic of using it for a theme of escapism makes more sense for minecraft than it would for basically any other video game.

i feel like i had more to say but i don't have any more mental energy to spend on this for now

[quicksilversnails]

Took some notes from the Wild Life retrospective episode of the Imp & Skizz podcast featuring Grian because I thought the behind the scenes info was really interesting!

(3:15) The wild cards were all kept totally secret from the players (apart from Grian), with the exception of the superpowers and finale (as they required the players to set keybinds)

(3:45) The players were given files containing the required mods each week, which were named things like "creeper rain" to throw them off

(4:12) Wild cards were a combination of data packs and mods

(4:38) Grian told them not to read the folder name to avoid spoilers (which is kind of impossible), so everyone fully believed there would be creeper rain lol. Grian was saying it in jest but everyone took it seriously and were apologetic about having seen it, to which Grian told them not to worry

(6:58) Grian originally contacted a data pack dev called Brace for help with programming the wild cards. Some, like the shrinking/growing could be achieved with minecraft attributes, but the snails were too janky and unusable. Grian still liked the idea though, so he reached out to mod developers Henkelmax and Breadloaf, who designed the pathfinding/behaviour from scratch

(8:49) They had a debugging mode used to test the pathfinding of the snails, shown in the podcast and in Grian's credits

(10:09) Grian wants most of the credit to go to the development team and artists, as he was mostly in charge of ideas & organization!

(10:39) Grian's only regret with the snails was that they were too fast in session 3, leading to unexpectedly many deaths. They were apparently not so difficult to get away from during testing, but perhaps the testers were more used to them than the players were

(11:44) Grian: "We did develop to the lowest common denominator" ie. prioritizing how players would struggle over how worrying about if players would do too well

(12:56) Oli's voice for the snails was iconic. It cost Impulse a life because he intentionally stayed closer to it to hear the voice lol

(13:42) Danny was in charge of the snail models and animations

(14:11) During testing, the snails just sounded like Oli, which made it feel weird. They pitched up his voice so that it'd be less immediately recognizable

(15:18) The snails' jumping attack was meant to be clearly telegraphed: they would stop, wiggle, make a "ooeee" sound before jumping. Many players had their friendly creatures volume turned very low/off (as cows and other mobs are loud), which made this attack much less obvious for them

(16:57) The growing/shrinking had the least testing done for it, as it was the simplest conceptually and to program. This meant that the falling off of blocks due to the shrinking hitboxes wasn't anticipated

(17:55) Before the 1st session, Grian told them that he didn't think anyone would die to the wild card. Pearl's death made Grian pretty nervous, as he didn't want everyone dying too early in the season

(19:29) 6 lives were given, knowing that many of the death to the wild cards were unexpected/unfair. The intent was for ~3 lives to be allocated for wild cards, and ~3 for PvP.

(21:13) The developers were all fans of the Life Series!

(22:43) The shrinking/growing was intentionally pretty simple to ease players/viewers into the concept and build up toward more dramatic wild cards like the snails

(25:38) In the hunger episode, Grian didn't know which foods would be good

(25:58) Grian thinks that "it's unfair that Grian already knows everything" is valid criticism, but that it's important for him to be involved with the ideas. Having someone else do that is like having someone else record his videos: Life Series is his brainchild

(26:35) Well before the season began, while they were still developing the concept, Grian asked the other players for wild card ideas that would meet a few criteria. All of them ended up being unused for one reason or another. Impulse thinks his ideas were very "inside the box" because he was viewing things through what was possible in vanilla Minecraft. His idea was to have a scavenger hunt where the players would search to find a relic. The first person to find it would get a buff. Skizz's idea was for every player to turn into a random passive mob for every given interval of time. They would have to find every other player of the same mob type as them or else the whole group loses a life.

(29:44) The food qualities were weighted by the rarity of the item, so very common blocks like dirt and cobblestone would never give anything good. The other items were randomly selected

(30:23) Regular blocks/items cannot be made edible normally, so they had to circumvent that and custom code a fix for items not stacking correctly

(32:41) While a lot of players do want to win, the main priority is creating entertainment, which prioritizes playing recklessly

(33:20) The food wild card wasn't included in the finale because it would've felt like "too much". There was a higher risk of technical issues since it changed the data values of items, and Grian didn't want someone's last death to be because they ate their sword. In his mind, it was a good and fun wild card, but didn't need to be repeated in the finale. Impulse points out that they all would have collected more rare items by that point, removing the incentive to search for blocks to eat

(33:46) The wild cards in the finale were nerfed from their original sessions. The shrinking/growing had a smaller height range, the snails moved slower, etc.

(36:21) The personalized snail skins were a late addition by Danny, who made 18 skins very quickly

(36:49) Grian did not anticipate the snails becoming as popular with fans as they were. After the session released, they had the idea to release the snail merchandise, which directly funded the rest of the season

(39:20) Grian spent what "felt like every day" testing with the developers. They'd record the sessions on Tuesdays, meet up with the dev team, talk about what need to be done, testing, bugs, etc, edit and upload on Saturday, and would get a few days grace before starting again

(40:01) After the snail session, Grian was worried that the season would be very short due to all the deaths. They were considering toning down the later wild cards but ultimately didn't change them too much

(40:36) The time wild card was carefully balanced. If it had gone even a little faster, many players likely would have died because they wouldn't have time to react to threats like baby zombies or creepers.

(40:57) While sessions normally run for a variable amount of time, session 4 was hardcoded at 2 hours. Grian ended the session ~10 minutes early, just after they hit max speed, because he felt like things were getting dicey

(42:46) When the wild card first activates, it looks a lot like the server had frozen or crashed. Grian told the players before the session started that it would look like the game was broken, but that it isn't broken. Skizz tabbed out anyway and missed the beginning 😔

(43:30) Having the rain start just as the wild card began was a good visual indicator of time slowing down. This was a suggestion from the dev team (probably Brace)

(44:41) Impulse and Grian "cheesed" the end of the session by going branch mining. Grian wanted players to take advantage of the wild cards (eg. mining quickly, helping to kill someone), and not have them just be an annoyance.

(45:30) Keeping the client and server-side time stay in sync was challenging. The sky's motion was changed to be smoother on client-side. The players were also not as fast as the server (around 2x faster), the server was going faster than that, and the time of day was even faster

(46:56) The sounds were pitched up/down based on the speed to add to the effect

(27:46) In testing, if the players were made 7x faster, it would be basically unplayable, which was why it was capped at 2x speed. This made mobs very dangerous, as they were now faster than players and could catch up to you and kill you easily

(49:01) On several occasions, they had to extend the fuse duration of creepers to make them more fair. In the time session, their speed was only increased by ~10%

(49:39) Usually, Grian was the one to test the wild cards and notice when things like creeper speed would be an issue, since he was the one with experience making videos

(50:50) A challenge with balancing wild cards is accounting for the playstyles of so many players: reckless players like Scar and Skizz, "kind and gentle" players like Bigb who would stay off to the sides, and "the sweat squad" (Scott, Impulse) who play very cautiously

(52:48) Trivia Bot was the only wild card that was not planned in advance. Grian was struggling to come up with a wild card for that episode, and wanted to have a wild card available that could give people lives in case many people died to early wild cards without it feeling cheap.

(53:33) Trivia seemed a little boring on its face, so presentation was essential

(54:34) This one made Grian the most stressed due to all the moving parts involved in making it (coding and pathfinding mostly by Henkelmax, visuals by Hoffen, audio/music, questions)

(55:08) Trivia Bot's design was based on Grumbot and Mettaton from Undertale. Hoffen drew concept art shown in the video

(58:32) They show Trivia Bot's custom animation for becoming a snail and it's really cool

(59:12) The music was the most stressful part of the project. Grian spent 2-3 days looking through Epidemic Sounds for a Trivia Bot theme song and couldn't find anything good. He commissioned Zera @hopepetal for a theme song, which is played in the podcast. However, Grian realized he needed a full audio package, so he commissioned Oli late in development, who created the final soundtrack and many audio variations

(1:01:38) Grian wants to send appreciation for everyone who worked on the project, even if their work ultimately went unused

(1:02:58) Skizz was happy to give back however he could by staying on standby in the final episode as a zombie, as the players were able to "reap all the benefits" of the hard work of the development team

(1:05:21) Grian didn't know any of the trivia questions beforehand, which were done by fans of the series. The goal was for ~50% of the questions to be answered correctly, which was approximately met

(1:07:11) Players couldn't get questions about themselves because it would be too easy. This would encourage players to leave their bot, allowing other players to mess with them

(1:07:57) Grian felt a little left out from the discovery element of the wild cards, and decided to mess with Scar by hiding his bot. He wasn't expecting Scar to die from it, and could tell that he was genuinely a little upset by it. Grian felt bad about it, which led to a genuine in-game alliance between them

(1:12:32) Grian was very close to letting Trivia Bot give lives as rewards, but decided it would feel too cheap

(1:14:38) Mob swap was slightly toned down, with more camels and sniffers spawning

(1:15:07) Evokers didn't drop totems anymore. Instead, there was a minuscule chance a warden or wither would spawn, which would drop a totem if killed. Grian was a little disappointed that the warden got cheesed in the end

(1:17:45) Having the mobs start passive and turn hostile was mostly for the presentation, building anticipation, and so players could predict where mobs would spawn and react accordingly, making things feel less unfair

(1:20:32) There was no superpower made for Skizz (or Mumbo presumably)

(1:20:38) The superpowers were another late addition. There was a large design doc where Grian created all the powers, which were handed over to Henkelmax and completed over 4 days

(1:21:42) Grian avoided superpowers involving strength, that could cause someone to die easily. Most of the powers were social or movement-based, which couldn't be used for offence as easily

(1:22:25) Some powers were randomly assigned, others weren't. Impulse's was random. Cleo's, Bigb's, Lizzie's, Grian's were assigned.

(1:24:25) Grian gave himself the mimic because it could easily backfire (like in Grian's fall damage death), and because it would've been confusing for a player who wasn't aware of the other powers. They likely would've spent the episode just figuring out how everything worked and not actually using the power to its best ability

Lots of discussion about the superpowers and how they interacted in the episode itself, go watch if you're interested :)

(1:33:38) Talk on how the series "standard" rules evolved since 3rd Life. There was no keep inventory, and no restrictions on enchanting levels or potions, which created slow or unbalanced fights

(1:36:23) 3rd Life was designed to be an experimental series, which made Grian eager to improve it. For example, some people just weren't dying in 3L, leading to the boogeyman in LL, and so on

(1:37:17) The goal with the seasons isn't to one-up the previous one, but to create a different experience every time, which keeps things engaging for the creators

(1:38:31) At the end of each session, Grian would ask the group if they had fun and how they felt about the wild cards. According the Skizz, the answer was "a resounding yes"

(1:39:08) Grian had moments throughout the season where he personally felt like things didn't go well for him, and was anxious for the rest of the group's episodes. Things worked out while editing the raw footage, though. His issues were never with the wild cards themselves, but his own actions (traps not working, spending too long branch mining), but would always find funny moments in his footage

(1:43:41) Everyone in the Life Series cast genuinely likes and genuinely respects everybody else in the group. This allows them to make the show and get mad at each other, because they know it's all just in-character

(1:44:50) It'd be hard to top Wild Life in spectacle, and Grian doesn't want to start an arms race with himself. The next season could potentially be closer to 3rd Life, but Grian's not sure yet. For Grian, Wild Life was the most enjoyable

(1:45:20) Grian: "As long as people keep enjoying [the Life Series] then I'd love to keep doing it"

(1:49:35) With the finale, Grian knew how the wild cards played out the previous sessions and was able to adjust them

(1:49:56) Grian's goal was to create safe chaos where everyone knew what was happening and wouldn't die to them, which didn't go entirely to plan. The snails were 60% of their original speed and people still died

(1:51:03) Grian made a precise timeline of when each wild card would start/stop, it wasn't randomized.

(1:54:16) All the superpowers were randomized, with Bdubs' power being removed from circulation because it didn't have much use in a finale setting

(1:56:10) It was important for Grian that in the final moments, the wild cards were removed, so there were no interruptions. The timing worked out well because there were a few people left and it ended within ~10 minutes (this implies that the change wasn't based on # of players alive, as people had speculated based on Gem's death)

(1:58:48) The players all randomly switched to zombie skins throughout the session to mess with people on NameMC. Well-played :)

[notachair]

TENNIS

Haven't been here enough to know if this whole clip's been posted once without any edits like this but- I don't care to go check so- ✨️ BEAR WITNESS ✨️ (+ challengers score on top, 🫡 to you, jester)

They were really not playing nice 😭 got me gagged far too many times- the delivery is so iconic though, I've been watching this and most of the other scenes... how many times already?? Like cocomelon or whatever to me

i am my own court jester. episode 12 argument + challengers score

[boxheadpaint]

playing Minecraft horror themed mod packs as of late to sort of taste test all the scary mods in groups. Sadly yeah most of them are pretty much derivatives of the dweller but usually louder, and the variation between designs is pretty much just in like… number of teeth. The knocker though is neat, got me pretty good at one point and does a bit more than Play Loudest Sound On Earth And Insta Kill You.

horror elements mod is a common one that is Immensely funny. from the outside it’s unnerving with the over the top gruesome models but in game they come off as like your Minecraft world turning into a neighborhood-wide haunted house competition. Structures of violent scenes pop up everywhere but don’t actually do anything and occur at such a high interval that they have no impact. It’s mostly just a fun mod for creepy decor so while I do understand why someone would include it in a mod pack it more detracts from the fear factor

“cantbreathe” is a dweller-type that’s fairly popular last I checked and though I think it’s mainly for the design. It’s cute but other than that… the noise gets you one time and is just annoying after. There was one mod I don’t know the name of yet that was doing something neat, intentionally or not, of spawning their creepy figure further away from the player and vanishing after idling for a bit. Never jumped out at me like the others but kept me on edge way better.

another mod in development currently is “in your world” if I recall correctly, and it’s doing some pretty weird things in a fun way. Rather than being hounded it makes itself home In Your World of course and you have to seek out what the deal is. Makes the scare a bit more impactful, and im wondering where they’re going with it. Interested 2 see

and of course from the fog is a similar one that’s already a classic- herobrine haunting your ass for real, never jumping out and attacking you but stalking from nearby and making changes around you. The effect doesnt last the longer you play and it ends up coming off more as your creepy roommate who shows up to ask what youre making I fucking forgot my spaghetti I forgot I was cooking spaghetti my fucking spaghetti is stuck together my spaghetti is stuck together now Jesus Christ

[stirpicus]

Hi Eric, I'm a big fan of Minecraft Story Mode, and the question that I'm about to ask is a really weird and stupid question, do you think Petra and male Jesse like each other? Or are they just best friends? Because with how much they prefer to be between themselves, I just had to ask. Thanks for reading this.

One of the beautiful things about MCSM being a choice-driven game is that - even though a lot of the capital-P Plot is set it stone - you get to shape and tailor the relationships between Jesse and the other characters. That doesn’t mean special scenes or different endings or anything like that, but it means that the way you play through the story allows room for interpretation.

The game is literally designed to allow you to read as much or as little into anything as you want - and to make the choices that suit the way the Jesse in your head behaves and treats the people in their lives.

so when I avoid answering questions like this it’s not because I’m being coy or trying to ragebait or anything - I just think that giving answers kind of defeats the purpose, yknow?

there are people who believe various pairings of characters are madly in love, others who believe they’re just friends, and all of them get to be true based on how you played them. And I think that’s neat.

have a great day, okay? Thanks for the nice message.

[ondeemand]

Transformers One Review

For the sake of convenience, I’ll be referring to the characters as their new names (Optimus Prime, Megatron, Bumblebee) instead of their old ones (Orion Pax, D-16, B-127).

Also, I didn’t grow up with Transformers, so this will be mostly from an outsider’s perspective. I can’t tell what possibly was or wasn’t a retcon or how accurate to the source material it was, but I think the background info on their world held up very well and they were able to explain it clearly to new viewers like me. It definitely would have hit harder if I grew up with Transformers and knew more than just facts from cultural osmosis, but I still enjoyed the movie a lot.

Notes/Things I’m Neutral On

Very weird to hear my name (Dee) being said throughout most of the movie by Chris Hemsworth’s bad American accent.

Also, I forgot that Megatron has transformed into ground vehicles before. I only ever knew him to turn into a jet, so I was kind of confused that he was a tank in this movie. I hope we get to see him get upgraded to a jet in the next one, but the tank is still cool.

Pros/Things I Liked

Simple but effective color theory with their eye colors. Main good guys have blue while Megatron has yellow, sitting between good and bad. Still a friendly color at first, but slowly turns closer to orange and then fully red as his anger and hatred consume him (and after he met the red-eyed Starscream, a cowardly man who ends up enabling Megatron‘s more violent/aggressive tendencies)

○ Also I don’t know if I was just seeing things, but it looked like Megatron’s eyes got more yellow whenever he looked at Optimus which is so sad and so gay.

I really thought they were gonna push a romance between Elita and either Bumblebee (goofy manchild x competent woman trope) or Optimus (male lead x female lead, blue x pink), but I was pleasantly surprised that they didn’t. Sadly, there’s still time for it in future installments, but I can dream.

Not to be gay, but spider woman sexy. Airachnid was so obviously evil that it was funny, but I can’t fault Sentinel for having her around because I, too, would want a deadly goth woman to be my right-hand lady. They felt like the evil, less developed versions of Mustang and Hawkeye. I am in love.

The animation is gorgeousssss. The environments, the character designs, the fight choreography, the transformations, the lighting, the texture, mwah mwah MWAH STUNNING!!!

○ Sorry, I’m never gonna stop talking about this. The way they were able to make square/blocky figures move so fluidly was fantastic (and proof of concept that a fully animated Minecraft movie would have worked). ○ The camera angles were also great for framing both the dramatic, intense, and/or high-action moments like fights or chase scenes, while also adding a lot to the comedic moments. Like when the camera stays tracking Optimus’ face when running through the forest, only for him to suddenly fall down a cliff neither he nor us saw coming, only to then zoom out to the perspective of the guards below, showing them stumbling and falling. ○ The contrast between the mechanical and organic elements on the surface were really cool, and the way it was introduced was able to convey this idea that organic life was this strange, alien thing. ○ The way the surface just rebuilds itself into these jagged, blocky terrains was really unique and interesting! It felt like a glitched computer model because of its rougher shapes which really added to the fear and hostility of the surface.

90% of their jokes landed and they landed hard. The bit where Optimus looks like he’s about to transform and then just fucking books it is incredible. The audio and camera work help add to these as well, like the music building as Optimus pretends to transform, the camera zooming in close to different parts of him, only for all background noise to cut out as it shows Optimus running away. I won’t name every joke and quip I found funny or we’d be here all day, but they’re certainly a highlight of the movie.

I love Keegan-Michael Key, but I wasn’t a fan of him as the comic relief character of Toad in the Mario movie. When Bumblebee showed up I got a little nervous, but I really loved his performance of the character.

I really liked the midpoint pep talk about hope. That’s a really nice reason that Optimus is the leader despite not being as skilled as other people. He has the hope for a better future and it was a core part of his character from the beginning, and I really like the idea that a leader is someone who can envision a brighter future no matter what.

Alpha Trion transforming was SICK AS FUCK!!! I love that he was more animalistic when the rest of the cast become vehicles. His final fight was so cool, and it actually made me kind of emotional to see him at the end with the rest of the Prime ghosts.

The stabbings? The beheadings?? The branding??? The way Megatron tore Sentinel in half and then ripped his heart out on-screen holy shit???? This movie was incredibly brutal and I loved it. It’s such an interesting phenomenon that children’s media is allowed to be about as graphic as they want as long as it’s against robots, even incredibly sentient ones like in the Transformers series.

○ I watched the 1986 Transformers movie for a class earlier this year, and while it also had a lot of brutality in it’s fights, the new movie felt more intense. Part of this could be attributed to me watching the 2024 movie on a big screen vs the 1986 movie in my living room, but there are other reasons as well. The 1986 movie had more upbeat songs playing over the fights, specifically songs like The Touch and Dare, which helped keep the tone lighter and more exciting. The 2024 movie didn’t have anything like that, allowing the action, while still cool and exciting, to take on a more serious tone. This is also emphasized by the graphics of the movie being 3D instead of 2D. While the 2D 1986 movie is a stunning masterpiece, people still view it with the idea in mind that, since it’s a cartoon, the stakes and story will be less intense. The 2024 movie being 3D with very detailed graphics and lighting already has more visual intensity. The characters are still these bright, poppy colors, but they can come across more moody and dark due to the environments, lighting, and textures that the 3D medium more easily allows. And while the painted backgrounds and cell shading of the old movie are great, the CGI backgrounds are a lot closer to realism, so the harsher elements like metal and rock, which make up a vast majority of the environment and characters, look real too.

The way Megatron’s hate consumed him to the point where he started acting more villainous and, while not entirely similar to Sentinel, still ended up hurting innocent people was tragic. Trying to push away and deny everything about a person only to wind up being just like them. This was perfectly shown in the end credit scene where Megatron is branding himself and the new Decepticons with Megatronus Prime’s face. To him, it may be him reclaiming the traumatic experience and literally using it like a badge of honor, as well as thinking he’s honoring Megatronus Prime. But in reality, he’s just inflicting the same trauma done to him onto others, just like Sentinel. Such a cool way to show how every villain is the hero of their own story.

The doomed yaoiiiiii I’m never gonna get over them. The only other Transformers media I’ve consumed is the 1986 movie, which kills off Optimus Prime in the first 25 minutes and Megatron becomes Galvatron, so I never knew the depths of their homoerotic relationship.

I’m a sucker for “the hero and villain used the be friends (and maybe even lovers?)” trope, so Optimus and Megatron’s relationship and the general premise of the movie was already a slam dunk for me.

I’m also a fan of legacy stories like Avatar and She-Ra. While this movie didn’t get as in-depth with the concept, I enjoyed that they played with the idea of legacy and taking up the mantle of the former Primes.

I absolutely loved the end message that Optimus gives us. Hope, freedom, and autonomy are incredibly important things to learn, and as a trans person who very much wants to keep control over what I do with my body, I really resonated with that last one. I think it’s really cool that they included a message like that in this children’s movie about robots that turn into cars.

Regarding the message of autonomy, I love that it gives the term Autobots a new meaning. Auto meaning “automobile”, since they transform into cars, and Auto meaning “self”, as they are now fully their own bots with control over themselves.

Cons/Things I Disliked

Mid vocal performances from everyone except Brian Tyree Henry and Keegan-Michael Key. And as I mentioned before, it was hard not to focus on Chris’ attempts at an American accent, not to mention how recognizable his, as well as Scarlett Johansson’s, voices are.

The plot felt a little disjointed in the first 1/3-ish.

○ Good setup with the main characters being an oppressed working class with one dreaming of better things and the other hesitant to fall out of line or take risks. But then suddenly there’s a race, and then they’re in it, and then they lose, and then their leader wants to promote them. At first it feels like there are hints that he’s a scummy celebrity-type and that meeting their hero is what will spur on the disillusionment with their society. But then some random douchebag that doesn’t like them reassigns them which goes against their leader’s command, and that’s how the plot kicks off? ○ Also, Elita’s involvement felt kind of rushed/hand-waved. They all get stuck on the surface, but instead of trying to make her way back to report them like she was saying she would for the past few minutes, she makes a complete 180 and heads the expedition herself. ○ It all just felt a little strange, but once it got going the rest of the plot felt fine.

Megatron’s descent into “evil” felt kind of rushed. I understand that he feels betrayed and I really love where the character ends up by the end, but it felt like a real 180 without a lot of build up.

Some jokes fell flat or felt annoying and kinda cringe. That’s the territory of children’s movies though, so par for the course.

TLDR

Overall, this movie was a really fun watch and I’d love to go see it again. While some parts fall a little flat, the movie is lifted from mediocrity by its many Pros. From the stunning visuals, to the quick humor, to the tragic origins of two friends driven apart by their ideals, I’d recommend this movie to anyone interested in animation or the Transformers brand.

8.82/10

[froggychair05]

Was there a specific scene that made people thought that Lukas would be a good cook/baker in MCSM? I’ve seen multiple people agree with that hc (including myself) but I can’t remember if there was any scene that started it originally or if it was just a vibes thing dhdhdhdh

I can’t recall if there was a scene in the games that highlights it, but there was a post from Eric Stirpe where he said Lukas made the best cookies of anyone in the New Order.

For me personally, though, I go insane over the cookie scene from the first episode and so I just associate cookies with Lukas (and Jesse) in general. I also just really like baking, and that kind of bleeds into a lot of what I’ve been creating lately.

[bloodsadx]

sjws DID ruin video games. the only thing that could possibly make bloodborne better is if u could get a weird gore bikini. but everybody had to complain abt boob cup armor. and now when i play resident evil the characters asses are only 30% of juicy as they used to be. no more boob armor in video games but every game has a fishing mechanic and a 3 second obligatory dog petting animation. what a fucking loss. its crazy u can explode a guys head off by sticking grenades in his mouth but god of war 2 is the only video game with a sex scene in it. they should make a version of minecraft for adults. they should make a version of diablo for adults. every video game should have a hot coffee mod. every video game should have a postal pissing mechanic. every video game should have leon kennedy in it

[makeit3]

Darlin (and Sam + pack) head cannons (sorta?)

sorta suggestive? idk just be careful i guess nearing the end

darlin knew sweetheart before sweetheart joined the pack/met milo

after darlins parents left, the shaws brought them into their house, so darlin was sorta raised as David's younger sibling

darlin took it especially hard when Gabe died because he was such a mentor for them when they had no one else

darlin and Asher definitely had something going on when they were teens. Asher is the same age as David and Milo and darlin is younger but they are still close enough in age that it wasn't weird

continuing from that one, Ash and darlin were each others firsts. im sorry if this weird people out but thats just what i head cannon

David was definitely protective over darlin when he found out about them and Ash (in that cute brotherly way tho)

darlin started drifting away from the pack when they met Quinn, Ash and David took that especially hard

the jacket darlin wears was one of David's jackets that they stole when they were younger and just never gave it back, and David never asked for it back

when they were with Quinn they were purposely asking him to bite them because they felt bad for leaving their pack and their family

when Sam came around darlin started to be a happier person but was never able to come clean to Ash about everything Quinn had done while they were still "seeing" each other

Sam knows about Ash and darlins past and he just thinks its funny because they are still such close friends

Sam asked David's permission before fully confessing to darlin (because David is basically their older brother)

darlin finds Sam's accent so attractive (they liked him when they first met him)

darlin accidentally shifts during the night (especially when they have a nightmare) and used to feel really insecure about it, but Sam told them it was okay and ever since they just fall asleep shifted to begin with (also cause its like really comfy for the both of them)

save a horse ride a cowboy.

darlins locks screen changes between a picture of them with Sam and then a pic of the whole pack (on a game night or something) because they like to keep their special people close at all times

darlin reads smutty books (especially cowboy romance books because they remind them of Sam) (they really like Elsie Silver and Lyla Sage)

darlin has definitely asked Sam to recrate some of the scenes from their books...

darlin and angel read the same kind of books and are always talking about their books and lending them to each other

darlin also askes Sam to read some of the parts from their books just to see how the characters felt in that moment (definitely only for that reason)

darlin definitely has a type for older men

darlin has started using some of the slang Sam says/uses

darlin likes to play video games. likes to play a multiplayer world on Minecraft with angel (and all the mates), the sims (definitely has almost all the packs including werewolves and vampires) and definitely plays stardew (also as a multiplayer save). maybe even plays baldur's gate (loves Astarion) and has played A Date With Death

idk where this has gone ive kinda just started rambling, anyways!! love yall

[ender1821]

shinyduo/gempearl post-SL is sooo funny because before SL they were the typical "friends who like to do pranks with and against each other, partners in crime, really adorable sometimes" and then SL happened and they became OBSESSED with each other (really obvious from pearl's side since gem was more subtle) and innuendos started to appear left and right. now after WL they are not only obsessed they are also 10x times freakier and flirty. it's gem's fault a lot of the time but pearl enables it and digs herself into a deeper hole so she gets a wack too.

i am pleading to the sky for the fated shiny duo alliance to happen this year because 1) i am sure gem's possessiveness would get multiplied by 20 even if she tried to not show it and that'd be really fun + pearl would like it 2) their dynamic is so complex that they could be anything (codependent or healthy or possessive or die for each other or kill for each other or-) and 3) the aftermath of them teaming would be funny asf and the streams would be horrendous

thank you for coming to my ted talk 🙏

the freakier being in bold and italic is really getting to me for some reason lmao. anyway

you are right in the shift of them pre and post-SL, like, they are STILL giving cute partners in crime but also they’re. so. abnormal about each other??? thats not to say they weren’t flirty/making innuendos before the life series but god did all of that get worse after. also, it has kinda been shown how Gem is the one saying most of the questionable things, but Pearl definitely contributes a lot as well. lets not forget the pickles

of course we’re all manifesting for them to properly team up. its not even subtle at this point they both know that. the only things stopping it from happening really are luck and Gem’s homophobia (/j) cough. i mean. they would definitely get time to resolve what they failed to address back in WL if they’re allied together and can have time to talk. it could also make things worse but we’ll be seated either way. and then we’ll be questioning our existence again when the streams inevitably come

BUT. imo the alliance i really want is them + any other player. yep. i want a third wheel. it can literally be any other player because i think having someone else to affect/witness their dynamic is always entertaining, allows for exploration of new potentially fun dynamics between Pearl/Gem and another player while still offering plenty of opportunity for them to be. weird (/aff), and generally just gives the team a new spin instead of just Murder Camel 2.0. like. i’ve put way too much thought into this so there’s a whole ramble under cut about some of the potential trios and why i think they could be cool for a new life series

Jimmy: originally my life series s6 team predictions was pearl/gem/jimmy </3 mainly out of wanting more pearl + jimmy interactions, but i think having gem there helps just keep the team together. i thought they would be a nice team for jimmy in terms of support (think the SL scene where jimmy finds out he’s not the first out and they’re the ones there cheering him on) but well. thankfully we still had bamboozlers… anyway gem’s ego will get even worse if she had this team, and don’t we all wanna see that

Lizzie: PLEASE. impossible minecraft sent me to the point of no return because now i’m BEGGING for more pearl/gem/lizzie interactions. please. the girlies. we just need more gem + lizzie interactions in the life series imo, and we’ve already seen what happens when pearl + lizzie are together. i can’t tell you for sure if i think any betrayal will happen in this team but it would be really funny if there was, mainly just so lizzie and gem can bicker while pearl is just. There like a sad puppy. it’s cool if there isn’t though, i can see them thriving straight to the finale. cmon. think of the yuri

Ren: hey. hey. remember that one ren stream? you know the one. the wedding. do you see where i’m getting at. do you see the dynamic. it’s so funny to me ok. and we haven’t even mentioned the times where ren has mixed them up. i think it would be a horrible time for him to have to deal with these two and that’s so entertaining. if i picked jimmy because i thought he would have a nice time then for ren it’s for the complete opposite reason. make him suffer with these weirdos

Martyn: HE is the one who’s going to make them suffer. HE will be the one to make it worse. and it will be hilarious. let the man get some form of revenge for them terrorising him back in SL. they’re going to be insufferable and it’s going to be great. you might as well start the “hump duo” counter now …also i may just have a personal preference of wanting to see more pearl + martyn and gem + martyn interactions

Cleo: i mean. cmon. this one doesn’t need that much explanation. the people want a pearl/gem/cleo team

Impulse: same as cleo— SOUP GROUP ASSEMBLE!!!

Etho: pearl + etho interactions are great. gem + etho interactions are great. boom. gem gets to bully them both, then they either make a really successful trap or perform the greatest fumble ever! i see nothing but wins here

BigB: nosy neighbours… what if we tried again… plus i’m pretty sure there was a temporary gem + bigb team in RL, so why not give them a whole season. i think it would be fun. it’d be interesting to see how this team shifts with bigb’s general play style in the life series. i wonder how the base(s?) would turn out

Mumbo: listen to me. they have the funniest opportunity here to fluster this man to the high heavens. think about SL ep 5. think about it

Scar: so like. remember that 2v1? yeah. crazy, right? no but okay i don’t think if they teamed up there would be that much more emphasis on the 2v1 after all that in WL, but there WOULD be good times. i know this deep in my heart. the pearl/gem/scar interactions would go crazy. i hope they go on a hunting spree

Joel: i think this one is the least likely (on account of the fact that pearl has teamed with him in SL, and then gem doing the same in WL) but there could be beautiful world where pearl and joel build an even bigger and better car and gem just watches and sighs

Scott: insert manic laughter here. Pearlescentmoon you are about to have the worst time of your life ever

[the-cockroach-that-survived]

This is something I have said about the beef between Dream and Tommy privately before this shit even happened. I think they both had some way of being in the wrong in their friendship and maybe are just not meant to be friends.

Back in the peak of the DSMP, it was also the peak of quarantine, where everyone’s social skills were worse than average. Tommy and Dream were BOTH young, still are, and yes Tommy was younger, or to put it as people’s favorite buzzword, a minor, but their age difference isn’t THAT crazy and they were FRIENDS

Tommy was immature. He was actively known as someone annoying who likes to push people’s buttons (intentionally or otherwise, though from what I’ve seen, often intentionally), whether or not people found it charming or irritating. That’s always been a main part of his humor

It is no fucking surprised that during that time he would have broken people’s boundaries or pushed things too far

Dream back then was even more reactive than he can be now. He’s been dealing with the main portion of ALL DSMP related hate since the beginning and it has actively been getting worse. He has a habit of reacting poorly, but that’s because people keep PUSHING HIM to. Pretty much every single time he has apologized afterwards for anything genuinely stupid or harmful

My WHOLE perception of their falling out was that Tommy was an immature kid who probably got on Dream’s nerves one too many times, and it’s entirely possible that as a reaction, Dream may have said hurtful things to him

But from what I’ve seen, he hasn’t

Not once

Every single thing I’ve seen of Dream communicating with Tommy in ways people have painted as mean or manipulative have literally just been him communicating in the most mature way possible: direct and honest. And now of course we know that a lot of his communication style is most likely affected by him being autistic

I’ve seen people say this and thought it may have been a stretch before, but it’s becoming more and more apparent: this is a case of an autistic person being in a friend group that has terrible communication skills and blames everything on him, thinks he’s weird, etc. because of poorly packaged ableism and the only reason it’s such a fuss is because EVERYONE involved is a popular creator and they keep making all this shit public

The fans opinions (whether genuine or rage bait) absolutely affects the way things are happening as well. Streamers are being biased, they aren’t being entirely honest, they’re all being emotionally reactive, no matter how they phrase things, and the main target of this has been Dream through seemingly no fault of his own other than having a communication style that the others didn’t like/understand

This whole thing is fucking ridiculous and every single creator who claims to no longer be friends with or wants to be associated with Dream needs to SHUT THE FUCK UP ABOUT HIM

None of them would have any sort of involvement or interaction with Dream anymore, like they CLAIM they want, if they would just leave the poor motherfucker alone

You guys are acting like Dream has been this terrible mastermind behind the scenes all along because a few of his ex-friends are saying shit about him with little to no proof and TONS of bias

All along he was just fucking autistic and everyone else’s PERSONALLY CREATED perceptions of him have made them borderline delusional and have completely clouded their image of him

Everyone has been immature here and I’m fucking sick and tired of it

ALL of these creators should take Tommy’s misplaced advice: get off the internet and go to therapy

All of this over fucking Minecraft and rampant cringe culture ableism, fuck all of you