#what wacky choices

[skyloftian-nutcase]

Ok, I haven't actually played the champion's ballad DLC because I refuse to spend extra money on a game that was already purchased but I don't know, guys. I can appreciate how it adds to the story of the champions, but it has some weird retconning with Mipha. Like I read somewhere that Nintendo scaled back the Miphlink relationship because they usually like to keep things really open and don't emphasize romance (and oh boy, can y'all imagine what it was like before they scaled it back, like it's so prevalent in the Domain storyline), and I think because of that they tried to scale it back even more with Mipha's diary.

Like. Ok. In the cut scene "Mipha's Touch," there are so many aspects of storytelling indicating so many things. First of all in the title itself - it's not Mipha's Healing, or even Mipha's Promise, it's Mipha's touch, that's an intimate word to use for someone who hardly ever touches or is touched by anybody. Second, she's talking about how they don't know what they're up against, blah blah but she promises to always heal him and then suggests that maybe they could hang out together after the calamity was over. This indicates that they're still, if you'll pardon the expression, testing the waters in their relationship. I believe Link is visiting her a fair amount by this point, reestablishing a friendship with her, and this is her nudging that she wants something more. It's like a subtle turning point in their relationship.

Now, with that in mind, Mipha has this armor for him that is clearly an engagement present. That's quite the leap from "can we maybe hang out some more?" to "let's get married." I will say that it's very common for people to marry in haste when war is brewing, but there usually has to be some kind of courting first. That implies that after Mipha's request, their relationship does deepen, they find time to actually try to court each other while they're still preparing. It isn't perfect, and they can't do it often, but they probably do realize they're in love and admit it to each other. That would eventually lead to the armor being crafted. Perhaps Mipha never had a chance to give it to him, or he had no opportunity to receive it and wear it because of his champion duties. But I feel like that would've been the progression.

Sometimes the DLC kind of enforces this. Mipha speaks to Link asking if he remembers all their time together. Given her feelings for him, it could go a number of ways, ranging from just asking if he remembers that they were friends or something more. But then, the DLC does some weird stuff, like indicating Mipha crafted an engagement gift for Link before they had even started dating.

Like... what?

I don't know. I haven't played it, maybe there's something I'm missing. But it's weird. It's like Nintendo was just trying to make their relationship super one-sided when they had instead made it so rich in its undertones and what wasn't explicitly shone or stated.

Anyway, I'm taking what I can for the other champions, but generally disregarding Mipha's part of the DLC lol. Or, really, her diary.

[egophiliac]

the lovers, reversed

(aka I'm still freaking out about Jou)

[tropicalcontinental]

anyways is Hungry straight up a guy in a hoodie? And entity in a hoodie?

(Its kinda hard to see, but it's clearly the most human entity we have seen)

Like who is that guy what is that guy

Is this them??? a cannibal ghost??? Bro

[maddie-grove]

Watching Don and Betty parent (together or separately) on Mad Men is so so sad (because I don’t think either of them ever wants to be mean to their kids! I think they both genuinely want to be better than their horrifying parents! The bar is just very very low!) but also kind of funny. It’s like if somebody gave some kids to the most neurotic of the popular junior girls at a private high school and a confident teenage drifter. How do they have a house??? They should be in a road movie about two college freshmen who couldn’t be more different but their boyfriend and girlfriend go to the same college so they carpool and hijinks ensue.

[catkin-morgs-kookaburralover]

kinda almost can't believe how yesterday I was noticing health effects from behaviours and then my brain was legitimately like 'do the behaviours again and the health effects will be less' and I straight up believed it and it was only afterwards when it was Worse that I went '...wait a minute that's not even logical'

[down-thedrain]

"this world will live on...!" girl no it wont im sorry

[un-pearable]

everytime i see a show focused on a female character and all the fandom obsessing over some other guy i get skeptical but holy shit is that old dude fascinating

[bloodwards]

when you have an incredibly stressful d&d session and come away from it frustrated and dreading the next one and two days later your DM has a Talk with you about you playing or not playing your character a certain way ✌

[haxypaxybobaxy]

NOTHING ABOUT ME GIVES STRAIGHT, HOW DO PEOPLE STILL NOT KNOW IM GAY?!?!

[shewantsitall]

My current mentor teaching being Super Helpful but also gently forcing me to make my own decisions after my previous mentor teacher stole every last bit of my teaching related confidence is just AHHHHHH

[blatantprinterpropaganda]

when tee-gun and tee-off are venturing out into the dark because they hear odd noises and there might be a ghost and then they find tee-singto sitting in the dark... i see you, he's coming to me reference!

[stardust-and-fries]

Oh boy!! A chance for me to yap about gender at length?!?!!?!? DON'T MIND IF I DO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! [See tags for details. But be warned... I Popped the Fuck OFF writing this one, it's a doozy!]

Sorry if this is rude, but how do you identify? I looked around a bit and couldn't find anything, my apologies

Not rude! Honestly, I don't know these days! Lots of thoughts swirling around in my head. Maybe this is too much, but also maybe saying something instead of keeping it inside will be helpful... I'll put my gender thoughts under the cut... maybe someone can relate and offer some thoughts lol:

Recently, I came to the conclusion that I'm really not attracted to men at all, and maybe, I never have been. Looking back, I can kind of clearly see that any crush on a guy I thought I had was more like "wow, this person is COOL as HELL. I hope we can be really good friends." And then I noticed, that any crush I had on a girl felt... different. The feeling was totally different, and it still is. Have you noticed how most of the men I draw are quite feminine? I also have no idea what's going on with my gender. I know I'm me, a Yugo, I also can't comfortably say what exactly I am. Though by technicality, I am nonbinary, the word doesn't feel QUITE right to use for me. Maybe genderqueer is better. I've never identified as a man, but I have identified as transmasc and taken T. I really do like the results I've gotten from that. But at the same time, I don't really feel close to "manhood" at all, but something about having a mustache sometimes, like I tend to do, feels right to me still. I also like to wear lipstick and stuff. I don't know. I'm also not a "woman" I don't think, but I identify with more... I don't know, masculine expressions of womanhood if that makes sense? I am very androgynous in expression, in short. So basically I don't know what the hell is going on. All I know is I love women LOL. Can anyone relate to any of this? Any ideas?? I will not be offended by any assumptions you might have lol. Maybe I should just make a comic about this.

[raspberry-gloaming]

So like, if it's "if it's brown, lay down. if it's white, say goodnight," what do you do if you come across a Pizzly bear?

[imveryrandomplzleave]

SOMEONE I FOLLOWED GOT DEACTIVATED AND I JUST REALIZED IT.

SHIT I LIKED THEM. I hope they’re okay.

[illdothehotvoice]

I have the 2023 Mario Movie downloaded on my phone but I have watched it twice in the past week and kind of want to watch the 1993 one again 😔 but I probably shouldn't use data to watch an entire movie when I have movies downloaded-

[swampjawn]

Dungeon Meshi Episode 18 is the second episode of the season to rely heavily on outsourcing, and it bears a resemblance to the other one (6) in that it adapts the source material economically, allowing the comedy of the source material to speak for itself, before suddenly going fucking batshit out of nowhere in the second half with high quality animation and strong stylistic choices.

But weirdly, the moment that stood out to me the most was this innocuous bit from the first half; Leviathan Laios turning his head back and forth:

This is 30 frames of animation, animated FULLY ON ONES, a treatment that would often be reserved for only the most important action moments, but for this bit of simple character acting, the sheer number of frames are used to make this version of Laios look uncomfortably real, like he's out of place within the very medium of the scene.

In fact, it would have saved some time to take at least a few of the frames from the head turn to the right and reuse them on the return journey, but if you look closely, you can see that they didn't even do that, each frame is unique to preserve the natural, subtle arc of his gaze.

This is such a wild production decision to allow so much energy to be put into this tiny character acting moment, and it's super jarring right after the very simple scenes that lead up to it! And it's thanks to smart scheduling and resource management from series director Yoshihiro Miyajima and his producers that they're able to make such wacky decisions like this and play with the very format of animation for what amounts to a little background gag.

But of course the true stand-out bit of the episode is Laios going doggy-mode, which the animators also went insane with, and which I also broke down, along with the rest of the episode in this video here!

Thanks for reading.