#well it was on stream so its not that much of a big spoiler but still

[solarockk]

i love the new skin

[sourscheming]

Why the Tacomic scene in II 2 17 isnt as bad as some of you are making it out to be

II 2 17 SPOILERS BELOW!!

ive seen many people say they absolutely despise the tacomic scene in ii 2 17 due to many reasons. mainly being that the scene felt too rushed or that microphone was heavily out of character.

and while i can agree with these claims when looking at this scene from a first glance, ive realized this scene requires a lot more additional context and reflection to fully understand, using tiny bits and pieces left for us. and its my job to help glue them up! hope you enjoy my rambling :)

Arguement 1: Mic is very OOC

when first looking at this scene i can agree that yes microphone is very out of character. her acting so nonchalant, just playing off tacos actions. but let me tell you why shes not as ooc as some of you might think. first: a tweet from brian

“mic had always had a tendency to let taco off the hook” and this is very true! she will always try and play off taco’s actions due to how much she cares about her. and. with this being a life or death situation, she really didnt want to make a mountain out of a molehill and potentially die without any closure with taco. her playing off tacos actions might feel like its ooc, but it makes so much more sense whennyou consider their history and the fact thst in someways microphone still yearns and loves taco. she yearns for taco a 7/10 it used to be higher!! (source: brians streams) she still really loves taco despite everything.

i know what pissed many people off was microphone acting so… natural. she wasnt mad or anything. she was just so chill about it all when she shouldve been mad, right? i definitely agree with that, but most people seem to be forgetting this line

(nice callback to this scene btw)

but back to the point; mic hears everything. microphone always knew taco was in the hotel because she heard her. and doing this she had time to reflect and gather her thoughts so she wasn’t screaming at taco or getting mad irrationally. and keep in mind microphone most likely heard taco crying and screaming about pickle dying, i dont think she wanted to push her to do that again. hearing taco, the one who presented herself to be so strong and evil, just sobbing her heart out mustve been terrifying.

now i also wanted to bring up this:

microphone knows about the events of episode 15 and was most likely told taco died and why. she knows taco can die due to heavy emotional distress. acting angry and irrational and not sitting down to talk about wouldve stressed her out more and they couldve potentially lost her too. the reason why shes so chill about isnt because shes not upset about everything, it was because if she was, she risked the chance of loosing taco.

another tweet from brian to show microhone doesnt forgive taco yet, but she definitely woud in the future if taco proved herself:

and again it may not look like this in the episode, but microphones nonchalant attitude comes with a lot of jabs at taco, showing that she doesnt truly forgive her. plus, microphone never utters the words “i forgive you” once.

but the reason why shes able to move on so easily is because of how well she knows taco. taco had always struggled with apologizing, as seen in episode 13. she’s almost never used the word sorry consciously.

microphone had always been a big softie for taco being at least a bit sincere, so imagine how she felt when taco went fully sincere. and she knew she couldn’t just hug her and say i forgive you on a whim, so she sorta had to play it off to keep everything on track.

and this scene is so. impactful because of just what it represents. microphone had always been about “doing the right thing” and taco begrudgingly respected her wishes. but to see taco DOING the right thing mustve been such a turning point for microphone. shown her that taco CAN change, that she wants to. it solidifies that the care that microphone had wasnt one sided, taco LEARNED something from her. shes learning how to be better. shes trying because she wants to be with microphone. i think thats what really strikes a chord, she gained something, a friend.

Arguement 2: The scene felt really rushed

oh i definitely agreed with this at first. this segment will be much shorter because it’s basically hammering into your head that HEY they were in a LIFE OR DEATH SITUATION!!!

microphone needed to quickly rush taco out in order to keep her safe, they needed to do it quickly so they wouldnt die. again, mic wouldve reached out sooner but the situation was so stressful she only did it now. taco probably wouldve died if she didnt come out, and they all knew the onpy way they could pry her out was with someone she cared about.

do i wish they got 5 more minutes to talk? fuck yes, but also keep in mind they barely had time to do anything, so much was happening all at once they had to shoehorn something in. and with the points i listed earlier again, this was probably the best they could do due to circumstance.

CLOSING THOUGHTS

overall, while i do think this scene was rushed, theres still beauty to be had with it. its still really impactful when reflecting on it and i dont think it devalues the tacomic arc as much as some of you make it out to.

i wish there was more to this scene but i think what we got was pretty substantial especially considering everything that happened in ii 2 17.

they both still care for eachother, they both loved eachother so much, that they were able to put their grievances aside so they could spend their final moments together.

thanks for reading <3

[nabnab-official]

Yarnaby's Tragic Untold Backstory

most information here was provided during the chapter 4 arg, which can be found fully archived here over on the Poppy Playtime wiki. THIS WILL CONTAIN SPOILERS FOR CHAPTER 4

-🧶

much like chapter 3, chapter 4 had an accompanying ARG leading up to its release which provided information about the upcoming chapter, its characters, and revealed lore tidbits via puzzles.

yarnaby was one of the characters revealed during the ARG, and his backstory was actually fully revealed there before we even knew what he looked like, similar to catnap. I decided to cover it here, since his full backstory isn't explicitly said in game, and I find it very interesting.

-🧶

before the ARG, there was actually a leak that revealed the names of all chapter 4's characters. people found mobs trademarkia account, where the names of these characters were already trademarked, including yarnaby, all the nightmare critters, and doey. not really related to anything, but just kind of an interesting thing that happened.

but to start off, lets cover yarnaby's toy form. mob actually released a bunch of character bios over on their website, which includes the characters from chapter 4 like yarnaby.

yarnaby was released in the 1970s as part of a wildlife conservation campaign, and he is actually supposed to resemble a lion. it seems like he was a pretty popular toy if he got regular releases and keeps selling. it makes sense yarnaby is a cat, because the growling/roaring noises he makes reminds me of the sounds big cats make.

yarnaby also has a commercial, which can't actually be seen in game but was uploaded to YouTube. you can hear the jingle from it in game though, in yarnaby's cutout voice lines, but its very distorted and bad quality.

while not explicitly mentioned in the commercial itself, it seems like yarnaby has the ability to play music, because he does so in his bigger body form. you can hear him do it at the end of the chase here and in the trailer he was revealed in.

during the ARG, mob set up a geocache puzzle that held the first big reveal about yarnaby. YouTuber sheeprampage found one of these geocache prizes and opened and solved it on stream. heres a video he made covering it.

it was a little lunchbox with stickers, and inside was a huggy plush and a bunch of yarn. upon cutting over the plush, there were notes hidden inside of it.

the notes are gamestation assessment reports, which have been revealed in-game to be the way the scientists assess the orphans skills and determine which toy they are fit for, and if they are fit for the operation at all.

this was the first official reveal of yarnaby's name, as well as the reveal of the child used to create him, Quinn navidson. we will learn more about Quinn and his personality in future documents, so I'll refrain from speaking about it yet.

the second note has no proper scan on the wiki, so I just attached an image of the direct transcript instead. the first assessment sheet is assessing quinn while he is still human, providing average results by the scientists standards. the second one seems to take place after quinn has been turned into yarnaby, as the behaviour described is animalistic and feral. further evidence is that sawyer notes that yarnaby "[is not] able to properly handle a grabpack", which makes sense as yarnaby has paws and lacks opposable thumbs. despite this, Sawyer rewards yarnaby with a rather generous score, despite him biting the heads off the huggys in wack-a-wuggy and making a break for it and hiding in the foam pit for 15 minutes in statues.

theres also a sticky note that provides yarnaby's experiment number, 1166. its also an answer to another puzzle in the ARG, and when entering 1166 as the passcode in the terminal, more files are recovered.

accessing 1166's files gives 3 new notes, an assessment transcript, a prisoner profile and a weekly checkup. the prisoner profile actually made it into the game, and the blacked out parts are filled in in-game, so i'll add the extra transcript for clarity when touching upon this part.

the first file is a transcript of a conversation between Quinn and Harley. the document is titled 'assessment of' and then cuts off, but I assume with the information we have that this is an assessment of Quinns character and whether he would be a good fit for yarnaby.

backing this up, way back in the chapter 3 ARG, there was a several page document detailing what catnaps bigger body was supposed to be like, and at the end there was a list of possible candidates deemed suitable for catnap. I think its fair to say that this assessment was part of the process of deciding who was going to be made into yarnaby. going back to the transcript, we get more insight into Quinn's character. Harley says that the counselors in playcare are concerned about Quinn's odd behaviours, like taking apart and putting toys back together to make them 'prettier'. however Harley doesn't think theres anything wrong with that, and says he just thinks Quinn sees the world in a different way. harley also states that he thinks Quinn is holding himself back. Quote "I think you mess up to make others have lesser expectations of you." This lines up with the game station report about Quinn, where Quinn got average results, making several mistakes and even missing targets numerous times in wack-a-wuggy. based on Harleys statement its possible Quinn makes these mistakes on purpose in order to be overlooked and slip under the radar. Harley appeals to Quinn, telling him he is smart and capable, and he sees and understands him, wanting the same 'prettier world' that Quinn does. I think its fair to assume that Harley may see himself in Quinn, as we know Harley was once part of the young geniuses program and was mentored by Elliot Ludwig himself. I think this plays into why Quinn was picked to be yarnaby, as Harley likely hoped that Quinn's inquisitive, intelligent personality would carry over. i also think its important to note that Quinn says he doesn't know what the world assessment means, indicating he must be pretty young.

the next document is a prisoner profile for yarnaby, so Quinn has been turned into yarnaby at this point. as stated above I added the in-game transcript to fill in the blanked out parts of the text. this is basically Harleys assessment of yarnaby. the prison is a place where the "failed" experiments were kept, until the problems they had were either fixed or they stayed as a permanent resident. its likely yarnaby spent his whole life in the prison, especially after what Harley chose to do about him. harley states that yarnaby is animalistic. Though he is strong and nimble he has an "acute lack of higher cognitive function." we know this about yarnaby as we see his behaviours exhibited in game. this is also something that tends to be true about a lot of the earlier experiments, and we know yarnaby was created fairly early on because his number is 1166. harley also says he hoped to have a 'greater mind' behind yarnaby, which ties back to Quinn. he probably hoped that Quinn's intelligence and curiousity would carry over, but that doesn't seem to have happened.

yarnaby exhibits loyalty to some of the security staff, who feel sympathy for him. Harley compares yarnaby and the way staff feel towards him to domestic dogs and cats, and decides that because of yarnaby's behavior he is going to isolate him in the hopes of making yarnaby dependent on him. we know this works, as we see it in game. yarnaby is completely loyal to Sawyer, doing whatever he tells him to without a second thought, even when it costs him his life at the end.

essentially, Harley isolates yarnaby so he only has contact with him, in the hopes that it will make yarnaby completely dependent on and loyal to him. the reason why he decided to do this is unclear, though he states he thinks he'll get a good laugh out of it so its quite possible it was just for his own sadistic enjoyment. Harley finds yarnaby amusing in a mocking, belittling way, and seems to care little for his actual wellbeing or character. while the other staff seem to take genuine pity on yarnaby, Harley sees yarnaby's weaknesses and wishes to exploit them for his own fun.

yarnaby lacks many of his former human traits, unlike some other experiments which still retain the ability to speak, or memories of their past lives. this is common with the earlier experiments. boxy boo was deemed the first ever success, and his number was 1160. though he lacks complex thought and the ability to speak, he is perfectly physically fit. he is similar to yarnaby in a lot of ways, who is only 6 experiments ahead of him. Harley also turned boxy into a killing machine on purpose, using him to get rid of bodies and kill insubordinate employees. huggy, 1170, is deemed as the ideal because he has complex thought, is physically adept, but is also obedient and loyal [or they thought he was]. so yarnaby is somewhere in the middle.

the last note takes place after Harley is turned into the computer. this note in particular is rather sad.

yarnaby is noted to have entered a state of depression from grief after Harley disappeared. despite Harley having not cared for him at all, yarnaby bonded with him anyway, and is now suffering from that loss. the note states that he "truly just doesn't care anymore". another very interesting thing is that whoever is writing this note doesn't see yarnaby as FULLY an animal, despite his behaviour. quote "whatever boy there is deep inside, i think hes scared, broken down by isolation over too long a time for us to salvage much from what's still there." so Harley pretty much broke yarnaby. the note also states he is a "design made flawed by paranoid and ego. In that he's a failure by design." essentially, everything relating to yarnaby is Harleys fault. it is Harleys fault that yarnaby even came to be to begin with, taking away Quinn's life. its Harleys fault he decided to isolate him and take away what little humanity he has left. it is all Harleys fault.

Quinn is gone, and again it is Harleys fault. and yet he still doesn't seem content in letting it end there, and decides to torment yarnaby further with his isolation. I think its also interesting to note that the scientist in this note refers to yarnaby with much more humanity, calling him a he, and Harley refers to yarnaby in a much more dehumanizing manner, calling him an it and referring to him as a creature.

The end of the note puts this better than I can. Quote "He can sulk and spend his days wishing for a master that, I can guarentee you, didn't care for him at all." harley never cared for yarnaby, but pretended to to gain yarnaby's favor, simply taking amusement in yarnaby in a sick, condescending way. yarnaby grew attached anyway, likely comforted by some kind of positive attention in this scary place.

at the end, we know what happened, yarnaby died. and Harley doesn't care. the only thing he has to say about it after yarnaby dies is this line. yarnaby meant nothing to him, only to dance and suffer for his amusement. another interesting thing to note is that yarnaby is not in good condition. I got my screenshot from this video. he is missing patches of fur, has chipped claws and teeth, and his legs are covered in scars. Harley clearly doesn't look out for him or care for his well-being. we don't know where he got these scars from, maybe clumsiness, fighting other toys, or even Harley.

-🧶 in conclusion, yarnaby has had a very sad life, and there is no happy ending. we all know how evil Harley is, but I think yarnaby shows the height of it all, just how sick and sadistic he can truly be. its possible that yarnaby could have been different, should he have been treated with more care. whatever humanity he had left, Harley snuffed that out by tormenting him simply for his own sick amusement.

[blueikeproductions]

Well it’s official: EarthSpark is dead. The next cartoon is being worked on as we speak.

Via Protoman of the Slag Podcast on TFW2005:

“All I will say is my source is someone working on the next Transformers series and *spoiler* it's not Earthspark.  Ratings were bad, toys have had a very soft distribution restocking (It's not about how much that Wave 1 is ordered, it's how much gets reordered after by retail wave after wave) and well....... better luck next time.”

If he says it’s dead, it’s dead.

What’s next?

As of typing, we dunno.

The only successful non toy media currently are the Skybound comics, and while TFONE is coming out this September, we have no idea how well that will do. The general confusion and backlash from the more comedically cut first trailer doesn’t … bode well from normies and hard cores.

One is said to have tested well, but so did RotB and it didn’t do so hot in theaters despite people liking it better. It’s still doing VERY well on Paramount+, but I don’t know if that means anything because P+ is the red headed step child of streaming… Also Paramount’s current… EVERYTHING.

So big coin flip really.

A cartoon based more directly on what One sets up makes sense, a lot of people have said it looks like a pilot for a future cartoon anyway.

An anime adaption of the Energon Universe is also possible, but it’s a little … too soon and if they adapted it now it would basically be the first Dragonball Z and first FMA anime, taking liberties and going its own direction because it couldn’t realistically keep up with the manga.

Best case scenario: a new co produced Transformers anime that uses TFONE & Skybound as a spring board for its own ideas.

What becomes of the Terrans in the future? I hope you weren’t attached to them being their own species because I guarantee it’s gonna be like post Beast Wars stuff.

The Terrans will largely just be Autobots and Decepticons like how the Maximals and Predacons tend to be like Cyberverse Cheetor and EarthSpark’s own Tarantulas.

RotB at the very least reinvigorated the Maximals as a faction, but the Predacons are largely missing from modern televised and comic media. They’re kinda there post WFC, but Transmetal II Megatron is curiously labeled a Prime Predacon…

The Prime Predacons are great but still…

Hasbro remains very weird about non Autobots and Decepticons. Mini-Cons kinda luck out by having the Cassettes be retroactively be Mini-Cons, but screw you if you want proper Maximals, Terrans, Predacons. Terrorcons are another current anomaly that I don’t know will make the cut either.

As it stands, expect Twitch and Spitfire to be Mini-Cons, Aftermath a Decepticon, and everyone else an Autobot, with Jawbreaker specifically as a Dinobot. Whether he gets used just as much as Slash remains to be seen. -sarcastic-

[flighter312]

I dunno if ya do asks or not. But, looking at your KronFau parents au with Ceci is just making me think of baby Ame just randomly coming home with an automaton

KF: whatcha got there?

Ame, half dragging a semi unwinded Ceci: mud!!

HI im late because i never really check tumblr, and i dont know how to do asks in general so i hope this works, but im taking a small break from drawing rn, HOWEVER i will give you this brainrot that turned out to be longer than i expected but i need to yap

an kronfau parents, baby ame au where maybe ame is very ""isolated"" from her peers (probably due to being constantly dirty and having a fascination with small living creatures and being a completely yapper over them(takes after fauna)), so shes used to playing by herself

you didnt specify what type of age cece would have, so im choosing to imagine she appears to be a few years older than ame (spoiler: kronii learns mechanics and always fixes cece up so she also ages with ame, but thats later on)

but maybe kfa moves to a secluded area because they are not made for the city (no matter how much kronii wishes they were), but fauna's happy because at least theres a cottage, and ame's happy because they live near a creek which means DIRT! AND BUGS! AND SNAKES- (and kronfau has a heart attack the first time ame brings one in)

but theyve gotten a little used to ame bringing in lots of creatures (which she eventually has to say bye bye to on the porch because kf is NOT hosting bugs in this home)

however, one day ame is following maybe a tiny spider and ventures off a little more than she's used to, narrating her whole journey, maybe like-

Mama said not to go too far without permission! BUT- she didn't specify who's! [in a high voice] "Ame, can i have YOUR permission to go off beyond the river? (a one foot wide stream of water)" [in a deep voice] "Why, yes Ame! But only if you bring back something fun in return!" [normal voice] "Well, if you say so!" and she skips along and splashes through the puddles

of course, the creek looks the same (but ame NEVER gets lost! right...?), and maybe ame shouldn't have lost track of the (tiny) river, but uh, its fine! eventually mama fauna will call out to her and she'll use her voice to come back home-

and then she trips on a rock.

but then its a very weird rock. like.. weeeiiiiirrd. like. a leg- OH MY GOD

oh no need to worry, its still attached to its person- OH MY GOD

ame probably hides behind a tree or something but after nothing happens, she decides to grab a stick and poke the person. still, nothing happens, so ame decides, yup! thats safe! and inspects it, and what do yknow? this person has "one of em windy- thingies" on their head, and ame knows what to do with that!

so she ends up carefully grabbing it, and then twisting it! or trying. but it doesnt budge. so ame thinks-

"Mum's super strong. What does she do before lifting heavy things...?" And she widens her stance- "ALL IN THE LEGS BABY-"

and the key finally budges and ame falls onto the person's lap. and when she looks up, the thing looks back at her and- OH MY GOD!!!

a friend!!

and ame introduces herself and the robot asks her if she could wind her more, but ame says its too heavy (she tries again, to no avail), but she knows someone SUPER strong!! (mum kronii, of course), and they can ask her for help!

"Where is she then?" "...Good question!"

but ame knows because ame NEVER gets lost and ... ames lost. but its okay! because right on time, fauna starts calling out for ame. however, it sounds like the voice is coming all around them, and.. it appears ame's plan is falling apart. but ame doesn't panic! she NEVER panics! especially when its gonna get dark soon, and ame's afraid of the dark, and shes all alone in this big forest creek whatever-

but she's not alone.

and when this strange person robot windy toy asks if ame is trying to find the voice, ame says yes, because her moms taught her to not lie (and she doesnt feel like lying right now).

so, moss peels away, cobwebs fall apart, and leaves rustle towards the ground - and ame's friend stands up.

next thing you know, kronii's getting ready to go out into the creek because fauna's getting worried that ame hasn't showed up, until ame calls out-

"MAMA! LOOK WHAT I FOUND!" "Oh, thank goodness, my heart- ... Amelia. What is that." and uh oh! fauna told ame to try and not get dirty today! (she says that everyday, but whos keeping track) but still, ame can't really lie in this scenario, so- "Mud!!"

and kronii and fauna just stare at this robot girl because. what. the fuck.

"Kronii! No cursing!" "I THINK THIS ONCE I SHOULD BE ALLOWED TO."

and wouldn't you know it. kronfau adopts another daughter.

something like that :) hope this is fine! also sorry for being late, i really dont check tumblr but i should more often! this is fun haha

[bluebirdlester]

notes & thoughts from philm club 10/19/15!

THIS IS SOOO NOSTALGIC TO ME this is the era where i was catching most younows live! i am 95% sure i saw this live at 15 years old! i am 24 now! i have included a vintage phanniecore image from the time period! lets reflect!

dan ripped his jeans at tatinof leeds. so the wad time wasnt the first time

anahita mentioned omg where is she now. with her 20 trillion younow bucks or whatever that stuff was

“you know what i mean” and fluffing his hair in that one specific way is 2015 dan’s “what can i say” while checking an invisible watch

friendiversary. oh babes......

“we’re pal creators” :)

another thing dan used to say: “this guy” while staring into the camera and gesturing at phil. nowadays he just screams

“went to sheffield, that was lols” dan loves to say shit

WHAT DID DAN WHISPER. INFURIATINGLY ALMOST AUDIBLE. LIP READING EXPERTS ?

“ive had the fire on” potential gas leak stream, love you london apartment 1

WHY DID IT TAKE THEM 30 MINUTES TO MENTION THAT APPARENTLY TABINOF HAS JUST COME OUT?

‘as if you guys have coffee tables for our book’ WE DO NOW BITCH, WE'RE OLD! (i dont. actually.)

instantly calling it the bible. well that hasnt changed. the phible

OH MY GOD I HAVE SUCH VIVID MEMORIES OF TAKING AND HAVING PICTURES OF MYSELF WITH THE INSIDE COVER OVER MY FACE LIKE THAT. BUT I JUST SPENT LIKE 20 MINUTES LOOKING AND ABSOLUTELY CANNOT FIND THEM!!!!! lost media.

i did find this though: a relic of the time. 2015 snapchat face swap filter, anyone? [i do want to post this accursed artifact bc its funny but not without having directly next to it: im a grown man now, dont she/her me]

dan describing phils eye color i could never think you were straight my 2015 king

"well done phiw" words i remember deep in my soul

not directly related to anything happening, i just thought about it: i saw a post the other day about how dan and phil spent their 20s being silly for the enjoyment of 12 year old girls on the internet and have been thinking about it ever since. i just wanna hold space for a moment of appreciation for that. idk if it was yalls experience but i got a lot of misogyny based shame of my interests because of the whole societal "anything a teen "girl" likes must be inherently ridiculous and made fun of mercilessly" thing [especially related to dnp watching] but they never had any sort of resentment for that position never did anything but be patient with us and love us and give us nice things to chew on. thank you danphil <3

"get over it. get over it. get over it. get over it. you cynic. get over it. right right right right so what? he enjoys a themed drink from a coffee chain thats everywhere. get over it, get over it." dan relax. why do i remember this specific part so vividly. was this in a vyou1 compilation that i watched over and over like cocomelon

dan on evan peters in AHS: "id be his victim" i see you

47:30 PHIL IMITATING DAN'S HAND GESTURES WHILE HE TALKS ABOUT THE WALKING DEAD I WAS LOOKING FOR THIS CLIP A FEW WEEKS AGO BUT HAD ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA WHERE TO GO LOOKING FOR IT!!!!!!!

god this was the era of free and haikyu real ones remember dans body pillow

pop culture of 2015 reviews

"phils got an agenda!" why do i rememeber posting "phil has the gay agenda" after he said that. we were so annoying in the 2015 times

chair quiz all depends on the first question. if im hungry its cheese and i get purple. if not its trees and i get green

phil "sneaking in" a "phil and dan" hes so cute

them snorting at each other "that was a deep sinister pig" they have never changed

(THIS POINT ONLY) TIT PRESHOW PLAYLIST SPOILERS IF ANYONE GIVES A FUCK the way they loved our singing to toxic so much that they make sure to give us a big singalong right before the show on every preshow playlist now.... hot to go <3. i heard a recording of an early show where it was good luck babe and thankfully i think they realized that good luck babe is really hard to sing and made it hot to go ever since then

time to get parasocial dan used all his phone data so he had to use phils hotspot. surely they just have the same phone plan now

WAD foreshadowing my boy is talking about the apocalypse

phil is going to go cook dinner??? an era before deliveroo??

dan talking about uploading on dinof it was a different time

ok those are my thoughts!!! im a newish phannie blog (not really. i had one on my old account in the 2015 era which i dont want to use anymore cause i was 15.) so welcome feel free to hang out etc

[salty-dracon]

My thoughts on the Hundred Line demo

First, and most important question: Did I enjoy it? My answer is, YES!!! ABSOLUTELY YES!!!! I am beyond hooked. This game's got its claws in me. I've got theories cookin', man!

And yes, the EN dub is fine. In fact, I'm very excited to hear more from it!

Under the readmore are further details about the demo and my thoughts on them. Please note that this contains major demo spoilers, and I ask that if you comment, you avoid dropping any information about leaks. Thank you for reading!

First, let's talk presentation- encompassing art style, music, and engine quirks.

I think the presentation is superb. The visual novel engine carries over some quirks from Danganronpa V3 such as having the protagonist's expression on display when they're speaking, which was one of the best things about that game and Rain Code. Not only that, but they allow movement to the side and use interesting angles to display different features of each room, while billboarding the sprites around. That's so freaking cool, and it gives the illusion of having the characters in the room around you as you're looking around, not looking like paper dolls. The art style is predictably a little more grey and mechanical than the colorful psycho-pop DR1 and DR2 and psycho-cool DRV3 and cyberpunky Rain Code. I mean, they're in an army base. That's to be expected. I think it does well to set the tone for the game.

The more colorful floors felt a bit lacking in some respects, and I disliked the sidescrolling. It didn't work for Rain Code either, and I'm curious as to why they went with this format instead of the usual DR Open World wandering. Maybe otherwise you can get stuck between the rooftop micro-habs? Or maybe there will be a horror scene later on which will require you to walk through the halls while bodies line the floor?

The music is very similar to Danganronpa, but I can't complain. DR music is almost 100% bangers, and the battle theme is original. And also a banger. TEMPO TEMPO TEMPO TEMPO-

Voice Acting

This may be controversial of me, but I like it. (Same guy who loved Triangle Strategy's dub, btw.) First, we do have some big names in here from games like Metaphor ReFantazio and various Fangans. And yes, I think of the ones we've seen, they're really good! I'd say every issue I had with the voice acting was just caused by poor voice direction. But I'm not going to let it hamper my enjoyment of the game, no matter how many assholes yell at me on stream about it. Shoutout in particular to Sirei's voice! It sounded just like an army sergeant with a little bit of Cave Johnson thrown in, and the lines were read with so much pomp and personality! Also shoutout to Darumi, Takemaru, and Hiruko, who we saw a lot of in the demo, and whose performances were all full of personality. I kept comparing Darumi to Jinx from League of Legends (not Arcane- important distinction). It helps tremendously that the localization was written so buttery smooth that every VA could take it in stride.

Oh yeah, localization. It's 10/10. That's it.

Characters

I've been following the marketing since the beginning, so I've already come to adore this cast. Everyone's a standout in their own way, but some of them defied my expectations in interesting ways.

Eito is supposedly a sickly boy who gave me Major Sus Vibes on account of his weapon being a scythe and that one CG with Takumi- you know the one. People in my circle are calling it Komahina 2 But They Actually Do It This Time. Oh god. Anyway, Eito standing up and calling out Sirei, and proving to be unpopular enough with Hiruko in the mix? I didn't expect him to be the first one to get into interpersonal drama! He seems so reasonable and so nice, but I know that facade is going to be crushed later on- I strongly suspect he'll develop some kind of one-sided obsession with either Takumi, or based on his moveset, justice and group unity, and cull anyone who poses a threat to those things. Which is to say, he's my favorite and I hope Takumi keeps interacting with him!

Hiruko was long thought of as the group's first obstacle to achieving any level of unity, and I'm definitely seeing that here with the way she threatens the others and treats them as worthless unless they're fighting with her. Girl, you may be strong, but you have 0 range- you'd get swarmed by the real baddies if you didn't have the rest of us with you! I don't see any attempt at humor with her yet- which is good, I'd hate to have that illusion shattered so early.

Darumi and Takemaru, as Takumi's first allies, are wonderful! We saw a lot of Takemaru's personality on display- he's weird, but honorable. Same with Darumi. She talks a lot of trash and acts pretty scary, but she's not just a character made to mimic a Danganronpa fan. She seems fun- and moreso, that she cares about the others enough to help them out in a pinch like with Eito's rescue.

If there are two members of the cast that may get annoying, Gaku is one and Shouma is another. WRT Gaku, this is just my own past talking but I hate characters that play Oppression Olympics to win. That being said, they asked us not to write him off as he's very kind when he locks in. As for Shouma, I just hate characters who have 1 line of dialogue followed by 2 lines of self-deprecation. But I trust the team's character writing. I trust they'll do both of them justice.

As for characters that just suck, it is so much fun watching Ima suck. Like, please stop making your sister so uncomfortable, dude, but depending on how far you go, we'll be cheering even louder when Kako hits you with a brick. (Also, not the worst guy I've ever seen in a Danganronpalike. That one goes to a certain sexist Italian Catholic.)

Anyway, I look forward to seeing more of these guys.

Gameplay

It would help if there were a clearer aggro mechanic. I don't fully remember which character had a taunt move in the first place, but it would help if I knew anyway. Otherwise, I find the gameplay super interesting, with lots of opportunity for potential strategies. Paying attention to the movement, range, attack, armor, AOE capability, etc.. of each character will be very fun in a game that's mostly mooks with one big tough boss at the end. AOE characters aren't the best in games like Fire Emblem, you know? So to be able to wipe out enemies quickly feels powerful, a bit like Unicorn Overlord.

I still feel bad about having to kill the scrunklies for enemy reasons, but they revive anyway.... won't be that bad, right? Right?

That "Finishing Blow" sequence? THAT WAS FUCKING CRAZY!!! I didn't think this game would have PVP, but GOD DAMN!!! (Can't wait for the inevitable "Shouma, you're behind on EXP, go kill the commander" moment.)

Anyway, can't wait to play Tsubasa and hit people with my car. I know we have some ideas of movesets for characters that weren't in the demo like Yugamu and Kurara, but... Tsubasa Hit and Run. Please.

I wonder what the school stats will be used for.

Personally, I'm not a big fan of board game mechanics... I was actually hoping for some brassy-sounding penis music to fit the funny looking character sprites. Didn't get that...

And most importantly, plot!

As a fan of Danganronpa, Akudama Drive, Rain Code, Zero Escape, and AI The Somnium Files, I like to think that I know enough about both Kodaka and Uchikoshi to know what the markers and cinchers are.

In three words, I am hooked.

This plot so far is very Kodaka, but I see some Uchikoshi on the horizon and sprinkled here and there, especially with the potential way they might handle 100 endings. Identity issues are very Uchikoshi, for instance, and I'm wondering if Takumi switched bodies with the ghost boy somehow.

We had our Danganronpa divergence with the complete disappearance of Sirei and his subsequent death at the end of Day 7. Who knows WHERE the plot will go from here, now that the students are essentially self-governing? And we have some interpersonal drama in there with Hiruko vs everyone who won't fight and Eito vs. Hiruko.

And what is "Cryptoglobin", the key word that appeared at the end of the most recent trailer? I know what Hemoglobin is- it's the protein that carries oxygen on your red blood cells- so... what does that mean here?

All I know is that Eito is sus. He's gonna have a serial killer arc. He's gonna somehow commit worse crimes than everyone else in the school and still do absolutely nothing wrong.

Anyway, some theories based on what we've seen:

Every character has been ripped out of their own time somehow. Takumi is from a different time period than everyone else, which is why some characters feel so old-fashioned and why almost everyone is completely disconnected from everyone else. It's because they didn't exist then- or only existed as adults.

The ghost boy is the "heart" of the Undying Flames. They appear to have a consciousness, and that consciousness wants to protect the school from the Invaders, hence why it tries to keep them out.

The flames burn through spacetime. This would explain how Takumi could see a boy he'd never met as well as why the flames only incinerate organic matter- rock doesn't deteriorate as fast as a plant, so if you sped up time around a plant, it would wither away faster than a rock would.

Rather disorganized, but those are my thoughts on the demo! I hope you enjoy!

[rayroseu]

I GOTTA LET THIS OUT OF MY FRANTIC MIND RN OR I'LL DETONATE FR

!! major spoilers for book 7 part 3 !!

i couldnt watch the entirety of the stream because it got released during my class D: ALSO BIG WARNING THAT THIS IS ALL OVER THE PLACE AKDJSK i just want to ramble💥

BUT from what i got--- ? The beginning was Idia's dream most likely and ofc, its the dream he wishes were real... where Ortho's alive-- 😭😭

I missed the following part after that but it seems Malleus was invited to the orientation AT LAST??!?!?!?!! I'm presuming that no matter what dream a person is having while asleep, Malleus is a part of it where he isn't excluded and feared???

☆

Its well known now that Book 7 will heavily imply familial messages and from what we seen with Shroud Family so far, is that they were very communicative and supportive of each other in the loving way possible.

I assumed they were strict and cold parents before but I'm glad its wrong, cuz this is such a nice twist 💕 their dynamic reminds me of disney Hera and Zeus affection on Hercules--- I wonder if theyre showcasing this as parallel of Diasomnia's??? So far in canon, most of them rarely talk about much they actually mean w each other or even being wholesome like the Shrouds were lol But still... its undeniable theyre family as wellll 🙏

Seems like the groovy nowadays are more 'wholesome'??? i wonder if theyre taking their whole message that "every villain isnt just purely a villain/evil" more strongly now-- 👀 idk if that will correlate w book 7 but i hope they (the devs) take time to finalize it since the impact of this overblot is so severe even I cant predict how they can mend this KAJSKAK

○

I really have to watch Mickey Through the looking glass, the references are killing me--

ALSO YESSS HIGH FIVE WITH MICKEYY AAAA 🥺💕💕 IM SO glad Yuu remembers what happened!!! IVE BEEN HOPING FOR THAT, that they got to have a big role for this book!!😭😭 Thank you TWST for hearing Yuu stans collective wishes--

this is actually Mickey's Dream... The date seems to be flipped and many theorized its flipped number 15, which is Silver's Birthdate-- 👀 idk what that means and why on Mickey's place?? and beside the mirror as well💥

♡

you know that GIF of Charlotte (Princess and the Frog) squealing with a newspaper??? THATS MEEEE--- AAAA SILYUUU FEAST!! SILYUU FEAST!!!! SILYUU NATION SO BLESSEDDD😭💖💖💖💖

when he says hold on tight while the surroundings crumbles down and we're about to get swallowed by ink blots, it is so!!!!! *delusional mind* SO ROMANTIC OF HIMMM 😭💖💕😭💖💕omg,,,, what a shoujo moment, we are winning everyone 👍🤲💕🤌✨🙌🙌

ALSO UNIQUE MAGIC REVEAL HOOYAAAHH🙌🙌

also his magic is so complicated 😭😭 theres A LOT of conditions to be met before it can even be used--

i wonder if thats similar to how Ortho said that for Mickey to appear in the mirror (at book part 1 where the first years are at the cafeteria) , certain conditions should be met??? I mean, Silver And yuu have some parallels already... esp the fact that Lilia says during when yuu felt unwell at the party, he stated its similar to Silvers face when hes about to fall asleep--

□

Afterwards is Sebek's dream..... we alll collectively sobbed at this part of the livestream HNGGGG sebek why would ur dream be like that-- IT HURTS SO MUCH 😭😭😭

Malleus accepting his graduation(?) from NRC with no qualms, Lilia graduating as well and leaving for Red Dragon Nation because of his internship and not his weakening magic...🥺💔💔

Sebek's reaction at Malleus overblotting was the most relatable one (fear and disbelief) over others and his dream was the mirror to what we(the fandom) wouldve wished what happened-- IM SOBBING WHY U DO THIS SEBEK AIDUHFJEUFN!!!😭😭😭💥💔

DONT EVEN. GET ME STARTED. ON HOW DOTING LILIA WAS TO SILVER..!!!! like wthhksjdj THATS SO EVIL TWST!!! THATS SO LETHAL MALLEUS OHMYGOD--- so evil to use everything silver wanted from lilia just for him to stay in this dream where::

-lilias healthy, lilia is staying w silver, lilia is caring to him, and how hes returning to briar valley to live with him forever??? BRO HOW MANY TEARS WERE SHEDDING TONIGHT HUH...--💔💔💔😭😭😭

●

MALLEUS IS SO MAD WE WOKE UP SEBEK OHMYGOODNESS 💥💥💥😭😭😭

I always love his voice, it seems his tone is so harsh and cold now when he overblotted its so sexy--- and at the same time terrifyingggg 👍🛐 Kazuki Kato, I love his performance in this, this is so haunting in the most agonizing way 😭💚💚

... NOT TSUNOTAROU GOING FULL BOARD ON THE DELUSIONAL LAND BESTIE I KNEW YOU WERE BAD BUT THIS IS ON A WHOLE NEW TIER OF BADNESS OORAUGJ😟💥💥

HIS ATTACKS ARE SO COOL AAAAAA I WAS AMAZED AND SCARED THE WHOLE TIME I CANT WAIT TO MEET HIM ON TWST EN OMGGG😩🙏🙏

■

byeee i never wrote a reaction post as long as this before KDJKAKD

theyre really dropping the obvious hints that crowley is a fae alright....⁉️⁉️👀👀

THE ALL AWAITED GENERAL VANROUGE REVEALLL!!!!!! im just.... oh... have we all PROPERLY look at him??? RIGHT NOW IM STILLLL SAVORING ALL THOSE DETAILS!!! MY GOODNESS---

i basically sped read allllll the musings twst twt and tumblr have been swooning about him and OH HE DESERVES ALL THE ADMIRATION 🙏🙏🙏ESPECIALLY HIS MAGIC AT HIS ENTRANCE!!!!!! ARE U KIDDING THAT WAS SO BEAUTIFULLL THE BATS SWAYING AND THE RED SPARKLES BEFORE HE TELEPORTED?????? SHIT I WOULDVE PASSED OUT FROM AMAZEMENT RIGHT THEN AND THERE-- BEGGING ON MY KNEES TO GET THAT ANIMATED 😩😩😩🙏🙏

AND IT ALL ENDED JUST LIKE THAT AAAIUSIAUSU!!!!! 😩😩😩 I WANT MORE BUT AAAA too much information will make me overload now akdjksd another long few more months before part 4 releases 😳😳 AND OOO I CANNOT WAITTT

=

my prediction is that theyre delving more into briar valleys history in the lens of Lilia's past.

My interpretation is that Lilia's dream related to his past is bcs he kind of whispered to himself that the reason hes leaving is because of his weakening state and how he doesnt want to wish anyone to see him like that.... I guess his wish was that he could be as strong as he was before... Really reminds me of Mulan's father 😭

IM WISHING DESPERATELY FOR MORE YUU RELATION NEXT PART AND THIS TWITTER THREAD SUMS UP ALL MY SPECULATIONS AS TO WHY YUU ISNT INVOLVED IN THE DREAMS WE HAVE SO FAR

"malleyuu divorce" is my fave phrase from op from now on lol

livestream of book 7 part 3

[mdhwrites]

Amphoreus Could Have Been its Own Gacha Game (Spoiler Light)

TL:DR: Amphoreus not only has the depth and complexity to support its own multi-year narrative but also the sort of setup that allows for plots and concepts that would be very effective and useful to any setting... And Star Rail is doing it for one year and that's very interesting to me.

That opening statement is much of this. Not to say you wouldn't need to change anything about how Star Rail did it but think about it this way:

You are a traveler from parts unknown. After an attack by the first big boss of the game, you are left stranded where you get to meet the Crysos Heirs, a group of special, empowered people who are trying to save their world. They are distrustful of you at first but once you show your willingness and capability to help, you are brought in on the fact that they are working to revive their world by bringing down twelve Titans. They have ONE down and maybe are close to killing another. With your help, maybe things will change.

That is genuinely the start to a pretty normal but good adventure story. A lot of gacha games use normal adventure setups and so it fits well with it, especially the expanding cast of heirs, supporting characters around the town, Okhema in general being your home base and even your own room. These are a lot of things that would make for good utility for a gacha game, like a prayer at the basin being how you summon or your main getaway being your room where friends can drop in.

The conflict, and openness for plotlines, is what really makes this remarkable. Star Rail decided to cut the journey into half of what it could have been but they didn't have to. Imagine how much one could stretch the introduction of a city state, its Titan, what needs to be done to kill it and then complicating that process. Each Titan alone could take an entire year of building up to the kill.

All while having a strong base of inspiration from the Greco/Roman/Mythological aesthetics that Amphoreus is taking from. That last one especially could allow for still new styles, especially since the Greek city states were not as much of a mono-culture as we like to believe or pulling in any of the myriad cultures that Rome conquered or went to war with as other floating, lost city states. It is RIFE with possibility...

...And Star Rail is using it for one year as the primary focus. A fact that amazes and excites me because what could have been dragged out instead needs to stay focused. It does just make me wonder what could have been and kiiind of makes me want to see someone take a real shot at maybe stealing some of this stuff. See you next tale.

======+++++======

I have a public Discord for any and all who want to join!

I also have an Amazon page for all of my original works in various forms of character focused romances from cute, teenage romance to erotica series of my past. I have an Ao3 for my fanfiction projects as well if that catches your fancy instead. If you want to hang out with me, I stream from time to time and love to chat with chat.

And a Kofi if you like what I do and want to help out with the fact that disability doesn’t pay much.

[ach-sss-no]

SH liveblog ch 3

First chapter & explanation | Previous chapter

Boromir 🏯💪💍😲

I remembered I still have the outline I used for this fic on my PC! (I used yWriter if you were wondering- it's a free and somewhat stripped-down Scrivener-alike.) From now on when making these posts I'm going through and writing commentary on the chapter first, and then going back, looking at the outline, and adding anything from it that's of interest. Such as maybe the scene titles for each chapter. This one is just:

My yWriter project file also includes deleted scenes! Here are two fragments that appear to possibly go along with chapter 1, or maybe they were just cut at random and plopped at the beginning of my fragment pile, I don't know. I'm posting them here because I missed them in the other posts and because there's nothing deleted from Chapter 3 to put here instead.

Here is the reward I would suggest for you, Sméagol, and I suspect that others beside myself have already thought of it and had it in mind for you, because you have been given the means to achieve it when that ought not to have been possible. Once your body has recovered, if it can be seen that your mind has recovered as well, as far as it can be, and you are no longer a danger, you should be turned loose to go where you will, without the burden of searching and hiding and sneaking. Without such burdens wandering can be rather pleasant, but I suppose you will find a home for yourself eventually, and I suspect it will be by the Anduin, for you still love pools and streams and in your heart you long for the River. If you turn up elsewhere… you will be noticed. Of course you would be welcome to stay here if you wish but I suspect that a city of Men is not your first choice for a home. If it is decided that you cannot be trusted to have liberty, you will be placed somewhere you can be guarded, and you will have comfort, but not freedom. In either case you will not be punished for your past crimes, for you have been punished already. Does that suit you?" "It will be a different River," Gollum lamented. Gandalf looked at him from under his bushy brows. "It takes longer to change a river than it does to change a hobbit. It will look more like its old self than you do, and it will still be there when you are finally gone. It has outlived the Ring already."

I don't remember at what point I cut this, or why. I think it was early on and I just cut it for flow. But it's a good thing I did, because, spoilers, Gollum DOES choose to stay in Minas Tirith and this bit would have been a distracting red herring.

"Farewell," said Frodo. A dreamy horror came into his eyes as the big Man left, and Sam went and sat close beside him. "No one will ever be fond of him, Sam," he said. "He must know it. He must know he will never be loved. He will never have anything better than pity." "He ought to be grateful for pity, I'd say," said Sam. "It's better than he deserves." For a selfish moment he wished he had let Gollum fall into the volcano, but he knew he had done the right thing- how much worse would kind Mr. Frodo feel if the old sneak had destroyed himself? Even if Frodo might also secretly wish to be rid of him, surely he would not wish to be rid of him that way. "Besides, that Big Person was putting himself out an awful lot for Sméagol, I don't think he could rightly tell that he's not fond of him." "He knows," Frodo murmured.

I don't know where this would have fit in, but I never used Sam's POV in the finished version so it's obvious why it's not in!

And now, for the third chapter for real this time!

I haven't generally been reading the author's notes but this one caught my eye:

Notes:

Eardwulf is an Old English name I grabbed from the Internet. I am fully open to suggestions if anyone has more appropriate names in mind. He's supposed to be vaguely related to people from Rohan because he's good with animals and such, and Rohan has the Old English-ish names... also... Old English names can be easily picked from lists on the Internet...

Yeah this is the chapter where the OC came to life and grabbed me by the throat it was great

The name of the chapter is 'a small thing'- I usually don't like my chapter names. They're kind of random, but this one was more intentional, this one is an allusion to Boromir calling both Gollum and the Ring a 'small thing' in the books.

Chapter starts with Gollum discovering that he's been ignoring the personhood of everyone around him but they aint ignoring him. He's listening to people talk outside his sickroom and has discovered that they're complaining about him.

Gollum was prone to bite and struggle if he was startled, and if he could not bite he complained, and he soon discovered that he was not well liked by all of those who tended him. Which he had expected to be the case all along, of course, but hearing it aloud was a bit different from merely expecting it. [...] The next time he bit, he burst into tears after as if he had been the one injured. "I can't help it," he shrieked, near hysterics, "I can't help it, your hand was in my face, and it moved like a mouse, it did, I'm sorry, I'm sorry." [...] the Men had given up on him not biting, which troubled Gollum a great deal, though he could not have explained why. It was in fact true that he had not intended to bite, and yet he had- and that troubled him too.

Gollum is forming a desire to be more personable only to discover that he has less control over his behavior than he realized. Interesting. He tries not eavesdropping but then a loud man turns up:

"I have been told that Sméagol is housed on this floor." The voice sounded faintly familiar, but he could not put a name or face to it. He knew that the speaker must be large and tall, from the deepness of the voice and the heaviness of his footfalls, although it sounded as if he was also favoring one leg, and there was the clunk of a cane.

This is Boromir. He took an arrow to the knee. And he's faintly familiar because Gollum has stalked him before (when following the Fellowship out of Moria).

It was the voice of a woman who sometimes brought him food, now that he could eat unassisted and no longer needed to be handled by strong Men with thick gloves in order to be fed.

I don't know whether this comes across, but the development of a regular food-delivery person who is not a judo expert or big buff guy entering Gollum's room (alone) is meant to signal that Gollum's been judged by someone in authority to be safe enough that normal people can interact with him and not be murdered.

"If you wish to speak to him, I would humbly suggest that you return an hour after dusk, when he has woken and had a meal. At such times he becomes almost docile.""

but he's still a bit of a pain

"I wish to see him," said the Man's voice. "But I am not certain I wish to speak with him. Perhaps a look will be enough. Will it wake him to open the door? I don't wish to disturb him." Gollum pulled the covers over his head so that he could not be seen.

Gollum assumes he's probably in trouble so he's hiding. Boromir comes in and remarks on how tiny he is.

"It is one thing to be bested in willpower by the likes of Sam and Frodo, but this!" There was something approaching awe in his voice, mixed with a note of despair.

Boromir has complicated reasons for wanting to see Gollum that have little to do with who Gollum is as a person. I think they're all left to be inferred and never outright stated.

He asks to schedule a conversation later (as Gollum has successfully pretended to be asleep)

The woman Boromir was talking to comes back later to feed Gollum. (She is later named, by the way, because she kept coming back and being a character. I was wrong! I thought Eardwulf from the author's note was the first Hello I Am a Guy in this story, but Galil slipped in ahead of him. She stealthed right past me even now.)

I'm quoting the whole conversation because I'm intrigued by it:

"All gone," he said meekly. "A nice morssel, that, precious! [She gave him chicken, which I'm no longer sure is the 'right' food for what's available in the setting but it's too late to change it now.] And they have even taken out the little boneses that break and splinter. So kind to a wretched old creature." [...] The woman stood up and took the tray in her hands. "The Lord Boromir wishes to speak to you later on," she said, rather stiffly. [...] "You will be taken for a bath shortly, and then you shall be given proper dress." [...] "You look weary," she said. [Gollum hasn't been able to sleep since overhearing Boromir's conversation] "Not very weary," he said. The woman still stood there, looking quite torn, and then she said: "I beg thee, speak fair words to Lord Boromir, a man who has suffered much." "Yes, yes!" Gollum had no idea who this Man was or what he might want to say to him, but he was at the mercy of these- what had the nice hobbit called them the other day? Big People? That suited very well. It was just easiest to agree with whatever they said. The woman finally left.

It sounds as if Galil takes some pity on Gollum and interest in his condition because she notices that he's tired, but she seems to find him unpleasant as well and is afraid he will be cruel to Boromir, who she holds in high regard.

Gollum is polite but he's not sounding very sincere.

Cut to some time later, we are going to talk to Boromir, and here's Eardwulf:

"Your strength returns, otter-halfling," said the Man carrying him. "What?" Gollum snapped. "What did you calls me?"

I don't know if the connection is explicitly pointed out, but later, in one of the backstory flashbacks, we are going to see that Sméagol's grandmother called him her otter-lad. I don't know if he consciously remembers that but he seems to resent this near-stranger being so familiar with him.

"You cling," said the Man. "Like a tree-frog." "Yes, yes, Sméagol clings, precious," Gollum said, "like- what- frogses?" [...] "You cling with strength. I shall not drop you." "No, no, he will not drop us," said Gollum, and did not relax his grip, nor did he realize the implication was that he ought to. [...] The Man held him a little tighter, and shifted one hand to better support Gollum's back, which made his perch feel more secure. He relaxed his grip a tiny bit without realizing it.

Boromir's shocked to see Gollum carried in. I think my intention here was that Boromir has been sort of kept in the dark about Gollum and his condition because Aragorn thinks his preoccupation with Gollum is not healthy and didn't want him to visit. So Boromir is surprised that Gollum is considered invalid enough to carry around and a little horrified at the thought that maybe he's not up for this and no one was willing to tell Boromir no, but Eardwulf puts him at ease.

"You're trembling!" Boromir exclaimed. "I mean no harm to you. But how can I expect you to trust me? Your limbs are as splinters next to mine. I am told you have had little cause to rejoice in your past encounters with my kind and that you barely understand what you have done or why our treatment of you has changed." He ran a huge hand over his face. A wild light of wonder was in his eyes. "Small in body but great in mischief, I called you; great in willpower, I should say."

Boromir is completely redoing all of his expectations of what Gollum would be like on the fly as this conversation is happening (starting with noticing how scared Gollum is.) I think if Boromir survived LOTR he would have trauma around scaring hobbits. He's real anxious to reassure the murderhobo.

oh and I see I referenced the canon line this chapter was named after. in case you missed it. in case I was too subtle by quoting it directly and putting it in the chapter title

Eardwulf did not at once set him down. "My lord," he said, "Sméagol has some trouble of the glands, by which I mean he sweats profusely, or exudes something which is like sweat, and is prone to leave damp patches whenever he is allowed to rest on furniture."

I forgot about the thing where I decided Gollum would make all furniture icky due to seepage. I. I can't defend it. I just think it's funny.

"It is a clean damp patch," said Gollum, raising his head. "We have just had a bath."

This is sort of inspired- if not outright cribbed- from a description of selkie children in Island of the Aunts by Eva Ibbotson.

Eardwulf stood up straight, stoic in face. "Ought I to stay or go, my lord?" "I was not planning to discuss anything secret," said Boromir. "What say you, Sméagol?"

Boromir has probably taken the cue that Gollum does better with a handler but might be offended if the issue is pushed too hard.

Gollum looked pleadingly at Eardwulf. He could not make up his mind to ask him to stay, but he did not want to tell him to leave either. "He may do what he likes," he faltered.

Here's, I think, the first time in the fic that Gollum draws comfort from someone's presence and is made to become aware that that's what he's doing (I don't count his frantic obsession with Frodo because it's based more on Gollum's neurosis than on an authentic relationship with Frodo).

Knowing what I have come to learn about Eardwulf he is a crazy man Sméagol's pleading look probably turns his heart to mush.

Sam probably lied, Gollum thought, he does not like us.

This is becoming a recurring theme, that every time someone mentions knowing Gollum by reputation he jumps to 'Someone was spreading rumors that I'm the worst person alive'. I don't think I intentionally set up an arc here, it just sort of came together, but it DOES have a payoff later! I need to remember to point that out when I see it.

"Not a vampire, eh?" "No. Perhaps you are a very short waterfay."

This was the closest thing I could find to a mermaid in Tolkien canon (according to the wiki) (I am no Tom Shippey.) Yeah we have legit vampires that are called vampires but I guess we don't have mermaids

Gollum studied his face. Eardwulf did not look as if he was joking, but then, he never did.

Gollum has a weird relationship with humor in this fic. Part of the reason why he gets along with Eardwulf and Boromir is because they either tell very dry jokes or no jokes at all. Boromir is completely respectful throughout this conversation and makes not a single wry comment.

The conversation continues. Boromir is on a fishing expedition with someone who's reluctant to talk about himself (and Gollum is in this moment coming off as honestly shy). Boromir eventually hits on the subject of Gollum's relationship with orcs. This draws him out, so Boromir pursues it.

"I have long been a military man," said Boromir, "and I have fought orcs almost since I could hold a sword. It must take great cunning for one such as you to evade them for so long, even with the item you held. You must know their ways well."

This is meant to be a touch of subtle flattery intended really only to keep Gollum talking that then turns to a genuine respect for how much he knows when he does keep talking.

"Taken apart lotses of them," Gollum said without thinking, "gollum! Nice orcses," for second breakfast had been delayed far longer than he would have chosen at this point. To him it seemed as if a thick silence fell, waiting to be shattered like glass. (It may have in fact been true that both of the Men knew full well what the diet had been of this thing that had slashing fangs and would only eat raw meat, and it was something quite apart from their calm faces that made Gollum suddenly feel defiled and judged.)

Gollum's self-awareness must be improving because in the last chapter Bilbo said something confrontational about eating babies and Gollum's only response was 'lol wut'

The conversation wraps up (Boromir points out that Gollum is probably hungry. Gollum can probably be expected to be hungry at nearly any point in time so it's possible Boromir was just done talking and being tactful)

If Boromir noticed that Gollum seemed a little more relaxed- his eyes not bulging quite so much as before and the frantic sobbing sounds in his throat less frequent- it is likely that he guessed nothing of these thoughts, and only thought that Gollum had begun to get used to him. This was perhaps also true.

Gollum feels more at ease now because he still hasn't grasped that he's being doctored and fed out of kindness that requires nothing in exchange, he has been wondering when he'll need to pay up, and now he's thinking the Men want information which he has and will readily give. I think I should have established a little more that Gollum is still expecting to be required to repay Aragorn for his room and board, it seems to be 'dropped' at times.

Gollum turned and crawled onto Eardwulf's knees. Eardwulf had been quite silent throughout all of this. Now he took the hint at once and gathered Gollum into his arms, standing up.

He's even gotten more comfortable being carried around now than he was at the beginning of the chapter.

They proceeded down the hall, and as Eardwulf stepped onto the stairs he said: "Was all of that true? About the orcs?" "Yes. We do not lie anymore now," Gollum said, with a touch of coolness. "Sméagol is good as water now, he is. Honest Sméagol." He might lie a little if he had to. If he had to. He did not recall ever having lied to Eardwulf, however, and he resented the implication that he had.

Gollum canonically goes nuclear when he tells the truth for once and someone doesn't believe him.

[stelladess]

Spoiler ahead for the CN livestream, so chapter 14 stuff and brief IS5 mention (also anime season 3 confirmed now). Do not keep reading to avoid spoilers. Just some of my early thoughts. Stream of conciousness, not having thought things through much kind of thing. Kind of just rambling. But tl;dr is that I am excited and it looks good to me.

So, they keep using Civilight Etherna to describe "Theresa" and even outright ask "is she really Theresa?" in the live stream, so no its not a full on resurrection... so from a certain point of view, I was right. Her kit seems super good, she a bard also the freebie operator. Since I do not have Skalter this is good news for me. Big buffs, can do true damage... is neat. Logos is... outright busted. His S1 is insanely good AFK skill which can just auto kill weaker enemies who enters his range, not even an attack and his S2 seems fine, his S3 is also insane. Depending on the numbers he might outperform Eyja but we´ll see, that is always the test is it not? Amiya gets to be an incantation medic, with an outright busted talent (passive health regen on skill, off and on skill gives max HP boosts, this applies to all operators for both it seems?) and a pretty good looking S1 (attacks two enemies, bonus damage) and an amazing S2 with a big burst of damage at first, then slow and true damage with targeting two enemies and.... once per mission... again. Its... fine, I´m not salty.... Anyway, the big star, is limited (I had hoped she would be freebie since her original was limited but oh well) Walter.... or, W has now picked a name for herself, we will have to learn the context in chapter 14, Wis´adel (she has a different S but my keyboard lacks it, it is pronouched as a "sh" sound though). Wis´adel is a flinger sniper who makes all other flingers irelevant and is absolutely busted. Because I am a big W fan (depending on the day it is either her or Kal´tsit who is my second favorite operator) and flingers were in a really bad spot I am kind of ok with this but I still prefer they do not just blatantly directly power creep operators or go too far on insane damage numbers. Her damage seems... a bit too high in my opinion, but because I love her as a character and am excited for her story going forward and her kit seems fun, just really overtuned, I will be pulling. And I guess Degenbrecher and Mlynar already brought us up to this insane damage level so I should not be surprised. Power creep is something I have kept up in many many games I play and there are times where a later power crept state was my favorite period of the game so I will not go and get too hung up on the power creep. Also, I was right to take notice of the floating black crown parts I think cause it is even more prominent now. Bunch of story related stuff here but I wanna wait with talking about that until I have sorted my thoughts and maybe even read chapter 14. On that note, story for chapter 14 has me INCREDIBLY hyped. 13 was my favorite chapter, dethroning chapter 8. And I really wanna know what they are cooking next! Also IS5 has a Kal´tsit boss... she wields a sword!!!! (There are some interesting stuff about Kal and weapons that comes up occasionally, this is in the past it seems so maybe we find out what the deal is?)

I do think its a kind of bad decision to make IS5 sarkaz themed though, I like the sarkaz stuff but I feel IS is best used for parts of the world not explored in as much depth elsewhere. (I think it works with IS3 doing something explored a lot elsewhere but I kinda do not want them to keep doing that). But back to positive stuff the character designs are great. Wis´adel design has really grown on me, I think its a huge downgrade from what she wore before but it feels like it fits her so I am fine with that. Amiya has improved her fashion sense, at first I was sad at no more big coat/cape but that turned out to just be cause the blurry art... she went for a long coat instead of big coat that was actually a normal coat but just too big for her. So it still is something actually made to fit her but still retains the big coat look to some extent. Civilight Etherna boobs seem bigger then Theresa´s(?) Is it to contain the myriad souls? Deep lore implications about this at least! Logos uniform is good but like, so are all Rhodes uniforms. I do not feel it is exceptionally good for a Rhodes uniform but it suits him. Oh and also we see Wis´adel studying in one of the PVs, Hoederer must be so proud she is finally taking her education seriously~! Lastly on addressing the name situation... I will keep using W until chapter 14 is out on global to avoid spoiling people, after that I will probably switch to using her new name. Names are a very important thing especially when you pick them yourself.

[dumdeeedum]

OK, "Interview with the Vampire" Is Not Only Boring But Stupid for Other, WORSE Reasons: (Spoilers Ahead) Made some edits because apparently when I write this shit out with a headache its inscrutable. Hopefully it reads a little better now even though I still have a headache. :P

Season 1 and season 2 of this show now feel like they're done by completely different people and the season 1 people didn't talk to the season 2 people and the season 2 people are much dumber, worse storytellers. Is that the case? Is this now being written by AI?? Should I be watching the tiresome explanations of what the fuck is going on after each episode of the show to understand something??

None of this season works and that's on top of the existing issues this show already chose to have that were always going to make telling these particular stories tricky.

I have so many problems with this episode specifically and then I'll move on to the rest of the show in another post so this doesn't run too long but unfortunately since I have a headache while writing this it's still gonna be a bit stream of consciousy:

EDIT: Was there something wild about how I worded this that is making people think I thought the adaptation should have spared Claudia and Madeline? I thought I made it very clear that it wasn't THAT they died it was the way it was done that is the problem. If I wasn't then I'm saying it now: Madeline and Claudia dying wasn't THE issue and I'm not saying Claudia died and Louis was banished BECAUSE of their race. I'm saying that the way the show depicted the whole situation and Lestat's and Armand's involvement in THIS depiction was real bad optics and it could have been done differently.

Perhaps I'm doing too "woke" a reading of this but we can all agree that what the theater troupe and, more importantly, LESTAT and ARMAND did to Louis, Claudia, and Madeline was a public lynching? I'm not nuts in that interpretation of events when White people decide to put 2 Black people and a woman already understood to be a Nazi traitor on "trial" for murdering someone (who is still fucking alive), with the punishment being death, and the all-White audience gets to decide their guilt and fate, that's a lynching. Even if the audience saw it as merely a show they got to participate in, they inadvertently participated in a lynching.

Was that intentional? Was I meant to understand this as anything OTHER than a lynching with Lestat actively participating? That CAN'T be the case. Everything about this made me so uncomfortable and was so fucking bizarre that I feel like SURELY I must be missing something or SURELY they must intend to do some big time revealing next episode because what the fucking fuck was that? Was it because they had to justify all the time we wasted on boring the shit out of us with Santiago?

Is this meant to be the "gothic horror" aspect of this series that's been missing this entire season? The lynching of Claudia? Why was this done as a public trial at all when it worked perfectly well in the books to have this done in private by the coven. In the books the troupe is loyal and even indebted to Lestat so Lestat goes to them for help only to have them betray him because they never let go of the vampire law indoctrination ARMAND had a hand in for GENERATIONS before.

(edit) In the book Armand saves Louis because Armand loves LESTAT and at this point loves Louis as well but Claudia is a sacrifice both Armand and Lestat were willing to make, make no mistake about that. At this point Armand wants to get away from the coven he's been in charge of for generations, he wants to take Louis away and live with him in the modern world, and he also still wants to be wanted by Lestat, something Lestat has never given him. But they both allow what happened to Claudia to happen and a lot of what Lestat says about Claudia and how he feels about her is done in retrospect in Lestat's version of events.

Even in the books Lestat is a total bitch to her throughout her life even though they have more in common with each other than either of them have with Louis. But it simply makes no sense for the coven to make this vampire business public in THIS way. These vampire do WAY too much vampire shit in public and it's annoying and this time it's just gross. It was important to the story that Madeline and Claudia die, I'm absolutely NOT SAYING THEY SHOULD HAVE LIVED. My issue was with the way the show handled their deaths.

I know that up to this point in the original "Interview with the Vampire" book we understand Lestat to hate Claudia but still be attached to Louis but the show has done such a messy job at incorporating aspects of both "Interview..." and "The Vampire Lestat" into the narrative that I don't understand why certain aspects of how Lestat feels about Claudia were left out/kept in and this is inexcusable. I'm DONE with the way they're handling Louis telling Daniel this story. I'm surprised Daniel didn't close his laptop and walk the fuck out by now because they're wasting the little time in his life that he has left.

Everything about this episode was deeply disturbing in a way that I have a really hard time with because I, as a reader of the books, understand Lestat and Louis to be endgame and understand Armand to be part of the gang so what the utter fuck is going on here? Am I meant to never want THIS Lestat and Louis to be together again because that's how I feel right now. Am I meant to want Armand to fuck off forever because that's how this entire series has made me feel. I feel like Lestat and Armand threw Louis and Claudia to the racist wolves and there's no excuse for anything that happened this episode to have happened this way.

(edit) I am NOT saying that Claudia and Madeline should have lived and that that's the only way for Lestat to stay in our good graces. I truly believe that in the books EVERYONE understood Claudia's death to be a necessary evil because she was untenable given her age (5-6) when she was made and the negative implications of that. That's way less the case here and on top of the way it was handled you DO begin to question whether it was something they can get past in the way they get past it in the books.

The cutting the back of their heels and how they conveniently don't heal even though these are vampires, the way Louis' is positioned as aggressive and abusive to the White guy even as the White guy tells us that it was mutual (we're not even going to get into the depiction of "mutual abuse" in this series right now), the way Claudia got ZERO sympathy from anyone even though the audience is told in no uncertain terms that Claudia was the victim of something monstrous even by vampire standards and Lestat is just as guilty as Louis. And this is ANOTHER example of why Claudia doesn't work as "14" because not only would she have been seen as almost a woman if not already a woman in that time period at 14 but even WE, the SHOW'S audience, are having a hard time seeing her as a child because the show has done such a bad job with that and hired an adult woman to play her. Is that intentional for the sake of this scene and making it so this audience wouldn't empathize with her?? Why?? It'd have been SO MUCH MORE IMPACTFUL, even with this racist ass lynching retelling, if she'd been VERY VISIBLY a child!

What IS the theater audience supposed to be seeing? Did the writers even CONSIDER that? Because we know that White people have ALWAYS and CONTINUE to see Black people as older than they are and teens in particular in this time period were not given the same grace that they're given now, especially Black ones. So the only conclusion I can come to is that the writers of this show sacrificed Claudia's ENTIRE arc to have her sexualized for a few minutes in ONE episode, to have her fall in love with the Nazi lady (?) and then decided that her end would come at the hands of a racist lynch mob who was never going to see her as the child she was meant to be VISUALLY. No, really, was that intentional??

Am I supposed to still want to see Lestat after this? Because make no mistake, Lestat does some wildly fucked up shit in the book series, he fucks up a lot. But this is something else entirely, this feels like the writers didn't think this through and are going to have a really hard time putting Lestat front and center, if they intend to do that at all, after all this. How am I supposed to want to continue to entertain Armand's shit after this? With everything we know Armand to be capable of and he somehow couldn't take the little vampire dude "guarding" him? Be fucking for real. Even the book series didn't hide the fact that Armand was very much involved in this and ultimately Louis still chose to be with him. But in this I see absolutely no reason for Louis to pick either of them unless he's being coerced to do so and that doesn't seem to be the case.

(edit) Claudia being 14 instead of a proper child also makes Lestat and Armand allowing her to die less forgivable to us as an audience. Because when we understand all the problems of a child vampire stuck in a 5 or 6-year-old's body we see that she was untenable unless she had a person willing to be a sort of parent to her for the rest of her life. Especially when book Claudia didn't have the abilities that show Claudia would. But in the show she's 14 which means she was absolutely viable if a little unstable. The problems with a CHILD vampire aren't the problems of a teen vampire, especially one that could simply explain away any issues people may have with her appearance as "I look young," which we know already worked in the past. What if book Madeline got sick of Claudia? What if book Madeline died, etc. We can't help but think of this stuff when Claudia is a little girl but when Claudia is 14 and has already been alone for stretches of time it makes less sense to us as an audience that she would have issues alone for any length of time later.

Why is this the way they've chosen to tell this story?? Not only have they committed the ultimate entertainment sin of being BORING but they've changed EVERYTHING to make it so much WORSE and to DRAG. They really DO think they're telling a better story than the original and it's fucking AWFUL. It's an AWFUL adaptation even by adaptation standards, it's inexcusably bad when they were given more time than they'd ever need to tell this ONE book's story and as a result should have had more than enough time to flesh out the more interesting parts. Instead they said very little this entire season in the most excruciating way possible. Fire this entire writing team, get Bryan Fuller back ASAP and I'm not even joking because there's absolutely no way this show runner and writing team are equipped to do the VERY DIFFICULT work of making a character like Lestat entertaining and likable even as he does awful shit. Not if this is how they've chosen to go about it.

I'm so upset at this. I totally understand why both Anne Rice and Christopher Rice distanced themselves from this adaptation and Christopher Rice doesn't even promote it like he did "Mayfair Witches."

[ultraviolet-psyche]

One last Yorukura episode review thing from me. Spoilers under the cut.

Well... that was kind of disappointing.

I don't think the finale was bad, per se. We got some nice moments, like Kano's anxiety persisting even as she goes on stage to perform, and Kiui's big smile as they end their stream with their usual sign-off. Overall, I think Kiui and Mei got some pretty solid conclusions to their character arcs.

Everything else about this finale, though... it all feels very fairytale-like. It feels a lot like everything just got magically resolved with a song and some smiles. If this was a typical happy-go-lucky idol or CGDCT anime, that'd be fine, but Yorukura's first half gave me the impression that its conflict resolution was going to be more grounded. The pacing has been seriously off throughout the last few episodes, and while I certainly appreciate Mei and Kiui getting more development, I'm not sure if they each needed an entire episode dedicated to them so late in the anime. I don't even think the low episode count is necessarily the problem; I feel like 12 episodes could've worked fine for the scope of this series if they allocated their time more wisely and maybe cut out some parts that weren't entirely necessary (the Koharu episode for example didn't really add much to the overall plot; nor did the Shizue episode for that matter, and I say this as someone who really enjoyed that one.)

And yes, sadly, we all got baited. There's no confirmation, or even any sort of strong implication, that Kano/Mahiru is canon. I wasn't expecting them to start making out on screen or anything like that, but come on... even just a super brief scene with Kano or Mahiru saying something like "I want you by my side, for the rest of my life" while they're smiling and blushing at each other would've been enough for me. And I think it would've been enough to clearly communicate that yes, Kano and Mahiru are in love. As far as LGBT+ rep goes, I can at least say that we have the trans(-coded?) Kiui, and Mei very clearly having romantic feelings for Kano and liking girls in general (though she does unfortunately fall into the "predatory lesbian" stereotype), but Kano/Mahiru feels like a missed opportunity. We were getting some great relationship development that genuinely seemed like it was going to lead to a sapphic love story, then episode 9 happened and it all went downhill from there. I struggled to even care all that much for their relationship in these last few episodes because there was so little focus on it, and when they do finally see each other again, they're just hugging and giggling like besties as though nothing happened. (Well, they each acknowledge that they said/did some shitty things, but that's about it really.)

Make no mistake: I really enjoyed Yorukura. I love the JELEE members and even some of the side characters. The art, animation and direction is fantastic, and overall I think it's a fairly solid coming-of-age story that emphasises the importance of loving yourself for who you are. However, I do wish that the second half of this anime was better. I wish it had better pacing. I wish we had a more satisfying payoff to the major conflicts introduced, and Mahiru and Kano's relationship in general. I wish the antagonists – Yukine and Mero – got further development and perhaps more serious consequences for their actions. I just wish the last few episodes held up as strongly as the first few. I suppose I'll just go check out Girls Band Cry for the Yorukura I'd hoped that Yorukura would be.

So, yeah, that's about it. I may end up writing some fanfics down the line to "fix" some of these issues I have with the ending haha

[kevinsreviewcatalogue]

Review: Companion (2025)

Companion (2025)

Rated R for strong violence, sexual content, and language throughout

<Originally posted at https://kevinsreviewcatalogue.blogspot.com/2025/02/review-companion-2025.html>

Score: 5 out of 5

Okay, when did January horror movies suddenly stop consistently being total dogshit? I mean, don't get me wrong, we can still get a good "fuck you, it's January" movie like last year's Night Swim, but increasingly, it seems like January's becoming a go-to month for wild, wacky horror films that didn't fit in elsewhere in the year but certainly weren't forgettable enough to debut on streaming. (And I think I might have just answered my own question: streaming scooped up all the crap that normally goes to theaters in the dump months.) Two years ago, we got M3GAN, one of the biggest horror movies of this decade so far and a film whose sequel is getting released this summer with all the hype that goes with that, and this year, while the latest Wolf Man movie was by all accounts a disappointment (I have yet to see it), it wasn't outright terrible either.

And now, we have Companion, the first 2025 film I've seen and one that will likely make my personal year-end best list. It's a film I've seen compared to The Stepford Wives given the broad strokes of its premise and its feminist themes, but in practice, it's a film that takes that famous premise and flips it on its head. Our protagonist Iris is a young woman who, unbeknownst to her, is actually a robot created to serve as the perfect lover for her boyfriend Josh. She learns this when the two of them are on vacation with some friends at a remote mansion owned by a sleazy Russian businessman named Sergey, where Josh uses her in a plot to kill Sergey and steal his money, hacking into her systems in order to increase her aggression and then putting her into a situation where he knew the lecherous Sergey would sexually assault her and she'd have to fight back. None of this is really a spoiler given how it all takes place in the first act or so and was given away by the trailers, but what the trailers didn't spoil was that, instead of the killer sexbot horror movie they sold this as, this is a darkly comedic romantic crime thriller in which Iris is the protagonist, fighting to survive as Josh's plan to kill and rob Sergey and use her as the fall guy quickly falls to pieces and he and his friends have to take her out. What it comes closest to is a sci-fi version of Revenge, one with less rape, more robots, and a deeper streak of black comedy but a very similar feminist subtext behind its mayhem (and just as many Russian douchebags) -- and a similarly high standard of quality, this being a film that marks writer/director Drew Hancock (a TV writer making his directorial debut) as a filmmaker whose work I am now very interested in going forward. (Apparently, he's lined up to do a remake of The Faculty, a sentence that makes me feel old typing it, but after seeing this, I fully trust him to pull it off.) This movie is stylish, funny, intense, well-written, boasting a star-making lead performance, and most importantly, just really damn fun, and a film I'd immediately recommend to anybody interested in any of those descriptors.

The film plays coy as to what it's actually about for much of the first act, giving us a few hints that Iris is a robot beneath her manic pixie dream girl skin but generally creating a feel that something is wrong, even if we're not sure what. It's a very humorous film, too, both before and after the big robot reveal, the trailers having leaned heavily into a "subverted romantic comedy" tone (complete with a "from the studio that brought you The Notebook") that reflects the film itself quite well. The writing and the cast had a lot of fun sending up hackneyed rom-com tropes, from the "meet cute" to to the classic line "it's not you, it's me," all while Josh and his friends feel less like horror movie protagonists than characters who've wandered in from a Coen Brothers caper about stupid crooks in over their head watching their hare-brained scheme to rob Sergey fall apart as Iris proves annoyingly unwilling to cooperate. Jack Quaid as Josh makes for a great doofus, the kind of sad-sack loser who would buy a sexbot in the first place and isn't the sharpest tool in the shed, constantly fucking up and revealing exactly what kind of asshole he is beneath his "nice guy" exterior. The supporting cast, too, is filled with plenty of great performances, most notably Lukas Gage as Patrick, the boyfriend of Josh's friend Eli who gets a lot to do over the course of the film, starting as a seemingly shallow hunk but soon revealing that he's a lot smarter than he presents himself as before turning into something else entirely.

The real MVP here, though, is the film's leading lady Sophie Thatcher. I've been a fan of Thatcher ever since I started watching Yellowjackets, and here, she plays a character a world apart from the sexy, punkish Natalie Scatorccio. If Josh and his friends feel like they stepped out of a crime caper, then Iris feels like she was built to be the heroine of a romantic comedy (literally so, given... y'know), dropped into a tense survival thriller but still not feeling like a traditional horror heroine no matter how much dirt, blood, and grime she gets covered in. Thatcher made that cute little robot feel human, spending as much of the film grappling with the fact that she's not actually human as she does staying one step ahead and trying to outsmart Josh, on a wild journey through the woods that Drew Hancock shoots the hell out of. There are some vicious moments in this film, but much of it is a tense cat-and-mouse game between Josh and his friends on one hand and Iris on the other, with twists and turns unfurling for everybody involved as each side seeks the upper hand. It did a great job of putting viewers right into Iris' shoes and making them feel as alone as she is, outnumbered with nobody to turn to and forced to rely on her wits to get the edge over her assailants. The subtext beneath that plot isn't beat-you-over-the-head obvious, but it isn't subtle, either, the film taking a very dim view of domestic abusers, misogynists, modern "manosphere" types, and the kind of guys who would see sexbots as good replacements for girlfriends while suggesting at the end that Iris' payback is just the start of something bigger. There's a reason I brought up Revenge earlier, and that's because I can imagine there being a similarly cathartic feeling here for anybody who's ever had a lout of a lover.

The Bottom Line

The marketing may have given away one of this movie's big twists, but there's plenty more that it didn't, so I'm just gonna stop here and tell you to go see what's probably gonna wind up as one of my favorite films of this year.

[ncisfranchise-source]

In an era when few streaming shows last beyond a single season, over on network TV, sturdy if faintly overheated procedurals like “NCIS” are still going strong. The first 18-plus of its 22 seasons were led by Mark Harmon as Leroy Jethro Gibbs, the impassive Special Agent in Charge and boss extraordinaire who liked to build boats in his basement in his spare time. “How did he ever get that way?” said nobody ever. But CBS is taking a page from “Young Sheldon” with its latest spinoff “NCIS: Origins.” Or as audiences will be tempted to call it, “Young Gibbs.”

Harmon (who is an executive producer here) makes a brief return on screen to set the stage for a TV series that functions as one long flashback to 1991 when Gibbs joined the Naval Investigation Service (NIS as it was known back then) fresh out of the Marines and shortly after the murder of his wife and child. Austin Stowell is appropriately stoic as Gibbs, but he’s stuck playing a character who doesn’t have many layers beyond his trauma, and the show more or less hopes his tragic loss will do most of the characterization work instead. Spoiler: It doesn’t. He failed his psych eval! He’s wound tight and suppressing grief! Well, that will have to suffice.

TV and film love nothing more than a strong silent type who has lost a wife or child, or both. That way, he can be endlessly sympathetic without having to actually be an emotionally present spouse or parent — or hear about it when he’s not. At least for a few years over on “Law & Order: SVU,” they gave Elliot Stabler a family he could constantly disappoint. But I digress.

Does a weekly procedural need lore? No! But lore you will be served. The show is solidly made and if you’re a dedicated viewer of “NCIS,” maybe there’s something satisfying in the premise. It does try to emulate the original’s sensibility, tempering a super-seriousness with a modicum of comic relief and quirky side characters. And wow, there are a lot of side characters here — as if show creators Gina Monreal and David J. North were throwing spaghetti at the wall to see what sticks — but at least they’re interesting enough, what we see of them, anyway. I especially like what Michael J. Harney does with a brief appearance in Episode 3 as the kind of unflappable, seen-it-all guy who’s been around forever running things in evidence storage. He underplays it just so (and will be a recurring character).

The group of primary investigators is small, if not particularly interesting. Mariel Molino plays the sole woman on the team and she’s a rebel because she wears her NIS-issued baseball cap backward, or something. She and Gibbs have a tense dynamic, but chances are that will thaw into something more. Or not. Just seems like things are headed that way.

But the real breakout is Kyle Schmid as the cowboy who runs this ragtag team of NIS investigators. He’s got a Marlboro Man mustache and a big swinging … ego. This character trope shouldn’t work, but it really does. There’s not much in Schmid’s resume up to this point that stands out, but he is making a meal out of the role and his performance might be the best thing “NCIS: Origins” has going for it. “I’m thinking somebody wanted her dead,” he opines at one point about a case. That’s your theory, his boss asks annoyed? “It’s what we got, ’til we got more.” It’s a great line reading and it doesn’t hurt that Schmid has one of the better voices (twang included) on TV at the moment, marbled one supposes by cigarettes and whiskey and nights by the campfire telling stories about bar fights and his old mare Bessie.

The cases are barely compelling and I’m always reminded how difficult it is to do this kind of economical storytelling well. What about the 1991 of it all? At first glance, the show doesn’t look like a period piece and I’m guessing that’s due to budget. The music does much of the heavy lifting, but there are other details that show up: Beepers, pay phones, microfilm, an overhead projector. It doesn’t feel conspicuous until you really pay attention (or maybe I’m just old) but analog technology is also just more interesting, prop-wise, than endless footage of dossiers and ballistic analysis pulled up on one computer screen or another.

There’s even an extended sequence that takes place at the mall, a place where the average person used to blow hours of their day in a consumerist fog. Somehow the mall might be the most significant throwback of them all and it was smart to think of ways to build a story around it.

“NCIS: Origins” — 2 stars (out of 4)

[scifimagpie]

Tagback superpost

@toribookworm22 did this first, but I liked the idea, so here's an extended excerpt from The Foundling City, book 3 (the final one) in The Nightmare Cycle! Book 1 is available here or here. MAJOR SPOILERS FOLLOW!

***

I’ve only looked at videos and pictures of big animals before. Understanding the concept of ‘megafauna’ means absolutely nothing compared to seeing a huge, stocky thing that’s like a deer but way too big, with a fat, weird nose and strange, chunky antlers that just kind of moseys towards you, flapping its small, absurd stub of a tail. Apparently, it was called a moose, and it was like ten metres away, which was still way too damn close. I screamed, and it moseyed back down the river, not even bothered—then dropped a huge pile of turds on the riverbank and kept clopping along.

I’d seen the odd picture of a moose here and there, but let me tell you, when I saw it in real life, I thought I was gonna have a heart attack.

It’s amazing how many animals there just are up here. It’s wild. Literally. Being up here all the time means we get to see plenty of days with like—actual clear skies? So life is really hard compared to what I’m used to, but it’s also so beautiful that my eyes burn and my chest hurts sometimes. I thought we’d only have Dust above us forever, the way it had always been as far as I knew and remembered, but no—with so much Dust having migrated back to its home—dimension? Plane? Other place, anyway—you can actually see how blue the sky is.

It’s this thin but deep blue that goes on forever. Apparently there’s this atmosphere that’s layers and layers of different molecules and different kinds of air and a jet stream or something, and water vapour? And outside of it is space? I don’t really understand how space works, but at night, it’s dark like Dust but different, so deep, and all the stars come out, and sometimes I cry just looking at it.

Apparently cities used to be like this, glittery and bright but on the ground. Dad told me that once. I can’t imagine it; it sounds weird. Sometimes the wide open spaces and the flatness up here are kind of scary, like it makes you feel naked and small? A few people have had agoraphobic panic attacks since we’ve had to come up here, and I can’t really blame them, because the bigness of the world just doesn’t end unless you go inside and get to stop looking at it.

But it’s more than I ever dreamed of, and if I’m really honest? Which I can be, I guess, since this is my journal, not just some big fancy chronicle of the history and exile of my people. Well, if I’m honest…sometimes, when the night is clear and sparkling and I can hear the coyotes and wild dogs singing to the moon? Being exiled was worth it for all this beauty.

The one thing I don’t understand is how people from before could stand building over all of this and making so much city. Didn’t they miss the wilds? Then again—we lived in a city, down below. But—they had the choice. We didn’t.

Maybe it’s a good thing their world died. But then—so many people died with it; sick people and well people. I remember being those people, and dying, and I remember bits of that tame, domesticated world with its sidewalks and lawns and so, so many smelly, loud cars.

It was a comfortable world, a safe one. They had no way of knowing it would be taken from them.

I don’t know if it’s good or bad, what was lost. But this is what we have to work with, and I’m going to fight to make sure more of our people don’t die.

All of this, though, is just kind of a big, philosophical distraction from my real problem, which is that my spouses are fighting and I have no idea how I feel about this whole baby issue, and it’s making my head explode.

Nathu took us aside to check on things—after all, neither of us has immediately moved out, or anything. At the end of a long day, we all sat down on the crappy couches in this crappy apartment.

“So…how are you doing?” he said cautiously, hands wrapped around a mug of herbal tea.

Una glared at him. “Not well, asshole.”

I winced. It wasn’t a great start.

Nathu took a deep breath. “Technically, this is my fault. Would you like to punch me?”

That, at least, got a little laughter, and a hint of a smirk. “That won’t actually help.” She let out a sigh. “I’m just…overwhelmed by this right now. Frankly, I still don’t know how I feel about…” She gestured between him and us, then set a hand on mine. “Things between Janelle and myself are fine, but with you…I mean, you lied to us, Nathu. About something huge. This entire project. And then, faking your own death like that? I guess I’m just wondering, how can I even trust you?”

He rubbed his temples and set his face in his hands. “To tell you the truth, Una, I don’t have an answer. There’s nothing you’ve said that isn’t absolutely right. If I were in your shoes—I wouldn’t know how to trust me, either.” He looked up, grave seriousness on his face. “But I will do anything you ask me to, whatever it takes, for as long as it takes. I owe you that, and—whatever you choose,” he said, his voice husky and cracking with tears, “know that I love you. I love you beyond reason or fairness or logic, and there’s nothing I wouldn’t do to mend this.”

The earnest way he gazed at her, like a dog trying to please its master, made my heart twist.

She pulled in a long, shuddering breath. Tears were trickling down her cheeks unwillingly. She inhaled, taking a sharp breath. “Nothing except telling the truth, I guess.”

He winced like she’d stabbed him in the chest, and looked down. There was a long, heavy moment of silence.

“I—I don’t know what I need,” she said, her voice a little more even, measured. “But I know the people of this community need us, and that we have to keep working together. Keep doing that, and—keep giving me space.” Her voice quavered. “I don’t know whether I want to leave you or not.” She shut her eyes, and shook her head slowly.

It was petty and stupid, but I felt ignored. “Is anyone gonna ask what I want?” I said, my voice small and petulant.

Una whipped her head over to look at me. “Well, hell, what do you want?”

I froze up. “To be honest, I wasn’t actually expecting to—get this far.”

Her lips quirked in a tiny smile. “This whole conversation is a disaster.”

All three of us couldn’t help laughing a little at that.

Nathu sat up, though, and directed his attention towards me. “I’m sorry, Janelle, you’re right; I did lie to both of you, after all. I’ve just been…very thrown off and focused on Una because of this pregnancy issue. But you’re not less important.”

Una let out a huff of breath and glanced away from both of us, tears beading her eyes. “Can I actually get some space? I need some mental quiet.” I saw that she was wearing the silver and real shell button earrings I’d made her, and they swung through her pale gold hair, catching the light for a moment as her head turned. My heart clenched again.

Nathu just nodded and stood, then held out a hand to me, and pointed to the bedroom.

So we went there, and each of us sat down on the bed cautiously, on each end.

“So,” he said.

“So,” I echoed.

The words hung there like the fog of breath on a cold day.

(I never used to be this poetic. Maybe it’s all the manual labour driving me crazy, or all the novels and crap I’ve been reading at night. I’m so tired that it’s about all the energy I can muster—flipping pages, that is.)

Anyway, poetry or not, there was a heavy silence between us, and it just went on and on.

“Everything I said to Una, I meant for you as well,” he finally said.

I nodded. “Well—no offense, but watching you two fight is also just worse somehow. You’ve been together for so long, and…I always loved how you are together. So seeing you both like this, now…I dunno. My heart just kind of aches even to see it.” I let out a long sigh. “And I’ll be honest, Nathu—things weren’t really good between us, you and me anyway, for a long time when we were down there. You spent so much time like, brushing me off. And like—don’t get me wrong, there’s part of me that’s really, really relieved that you secretly agreed with me the whole time. But I feel pretty rotten and awful about being lied to so thoroughly.”

He took my hands in his own and stared at me earnestly. I would have thought it was a move if not for the ashy circles below his eyes and the seriousness in his dark brown gaze.

“—And I don’t know what I need, either,” I said, before he could ask, “but—actually, I think one thing I need is for you to be honest with me. To know you’re really saying what you think and believe, now that you don’t have to hide anything. Can you do that? Like—just be honest to a fault. And, try to spend time with me. We were barely around each other for a while there, and frankly, it sucked. I just want some of your time. To know I matter.” My throat closed up.

He nodded and stroked the back of my hand with his thumb, gentle as a breath. “I can do that. Anything else you think of, don’t hesitate to ask, all right?”

“I’ll try.”

“How are you feeling?”

I choked up a little laugh that died on the way out. “Right about now, I got the most mixed feelings a person ever did have.”

He smiled mirthlessly. “I can’t blame you.”

Hot, helpless anger rushed up behind my cheekbones and burned behind my eyes. Why can’t I just forgive him? Why can’t I just say “okay” and let things be the same as they were? It should be so simple.

And yet, somehow, I can’t.

I stood up abruptly. “I think I might get some air. Go for a walk.”

He looked alarmed. “Janelle, it’s cold out right now. At least minus fifteen.”

“I have a coat.”

He gave assent, resigned. “If you insist.”

So I opened the door, stepped carefully through the living room without making eye contact with Una, and brought my journal and a pen out here.

There isn’t much light—pretty much just the moon, and it’s a skinny little crescent; almost a new moon. I’m still not used to how damned dark it gets up here, too. Down in the tunnels, it was a different kind of dark; more absolute, when all the lights went out. Up here, sometimes you see a little light from one of the houses or the apartment windows, and of course there’s all the stars up there. If I look off in different directions, I can see a bit of light where I think Downblack might be. But the snow’s really reflective, so that helps.

Okay. I’m cold, and I think I’m done pouting, so I’m gonna go back upstairs and get some sleep.

I still don’t know how I feel about anything. How can one person’s head and chest contain so many feelings? It’s absurd. It feels downright unfair. And yet, I’m still here, my whole body knotted up tight and tense, feeling way too old and way too young at the same damn time.

***

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