#when it was much much easier to separate a VA from a character - I guess mocap makes that harder though

[silversiren1101]

Damn Dammon's piercing blue eyes and blonde hair strikes a little different now huh

[chonidale]

Actually yeah you're totally right, it was worse of them to spend 4 seasons with bh and va and not mix it up.

I didn't know ras admitted he always had Choni getting back together in mind because watching S5 and S6 you wouldn't be sure of it until literally 6x22.

tbh, I felt at the time, heather declaring them as soulmates was a cheap cop out to get them back together since they hadn't laid any real ground work for them in S6. But I guess the plan was for it to make more sense later on knowing where they end up in S7 so I'm all for that line now lol.

he said that telling separate stories for them was important, but as they were plotting the end of the season, he knew it was time to finally bring them back together again. should have been earlier but whatever.

but you watched 6x04 and thought them being soulmates was a last minute cop out? when they were originally going to introduce the reincarnation of abigail's ~long lost love with a new character/actor in 5x19 but then scrapped it, only to make that character a topaz played by vanessa instead? then kinda rewriting abigail's establaished 5x19 story to bring thabigail over from vale to dale? toni immediately being able to tell cheryl didn't feel like herself when abigail was in her body? cheryl admitting she was holding onto the idea that she and toni were 'fated to' reunite?

it was clearly set up from very early in the season, just not very well or consistently, because that's riverdale for you. ras even said in post 6x01 interviews, while teasing 6x04, that choni's storyline would be a big one throughout the season, which is obviously misleading in terms of screentime and progress, but shows that they very much had the soulmates story planned from the beginning of the season, as they had no other storyline going on in s6 beyond building to that reveal. some people like to credit how loud fans were for choni at paleyfest for making them soulmates, but at most, that got us the thabigail sex scene, not choni soulmates. which i definitely think was something they decided back when they made the choice to introduce supernatural elements to the show for real. but either way, whenever they decided to do it, god bless because it's done wonders for redeeming them and making a lot of shit easier to swallow. i really hope that's brought up in the last two episodes and we see toni find out in some way, but i'm not holding my breath.

[fizzingwizard]

Digimon Adventure: Ep 19!

Wow! That certainly was an Episode!! It was pretty fun from start to finish, though nothing mind-blowing, but it was definitely the ending that made me gasp. Not wholly unexpected to an old turnip like me, but promising lots of fun (and angst!).

Picture of the week: MIKO, THE TRUE STAR OF THE SERIES!!

no for serious are the writers reading my reviews? they keep giving me what I want. within reason I guess. They seem to have an extremely limited budget as usual x’D

but Miko is still adorbs

ok I’m really looking forward to recapping this one so let’s get to it!

So last week I thought the kids sans Taichi and Yamato were abducted by Devimon, but apparently that either isn’t the case, or it was, but then Devimon decided it’s best just to dump the kids back on Earth and hold on to their partners. Because that’s the current situation. While concerning that the kids are separated from their partners, it’s probably best this way, since Devimon appears to be sending Gesomon(?) and Parrotmon(?)

to the human world, if I remember right. It’s hard to remember what happened in the first fifteen seconds kay So when the kids find their partners it will probably be in the human world and they can fight back.

Meanwhile Taichi and Yamato are alone and very Confuse

Taichi tries frantically to contact Koushirou. The others too... but especially Koushirou.

Finally he gets him!! He’s so happy!! My Taishiro heart flutters!

But I was fully expecting it to be a trap. When I saw this still here, my first thought was “Devimon’s forcing him to tell Taichi a lie by threatening him with a gun!!”

of course thats not whats happening. Koushirou is relatively fine and there are no guns (yet). What’s happened is the other kids have been sent back to the human world for reals this time!

This show is not even bothering to hide its Taiyama angle.

They spend the entire episode giving each other Significant Looks like this. The entire episode.

Now where’s Jou through all of this, you ask?

He went to talk to the police. He’s shocked they don’t believe his story about monster attacks and the world ending (well, at least Tokyo ending). I freaking love how taaaaall Jou is. Though it makes Koushirou look like a bean x’D

Jou = beansprout / Koushirou = bean

Koushirou has a much easier time dealing with the news that the police don’t believe them. He’s a denizen of the Internet. He knows how people’s minds work. And he has tons of chat logs to prove it.

People are chatting and spreading gossip and disbelief and complaints, but my favorite is the comment that just says “It’s a flood of fake news” xP

The home team runs into Mama Yagami! Who Sora literally calls Mama Yagami! x’D I mean I know that’s how kids generally refer to their friends’ parents but I still lol’d.

So un... Jou is almost as tall as Mama Yagami. LMAO. I’m gonna assume she’s short. Jou might indeed be quite tall for his age but Sora and Mimi are pretty close to Mama Yagami’s height too. I guess we haven’t seen Taichi standing next to his mom yet! With his hair he’s probably taller than her.

So Mama Yagami is HILARIOUS and I’m so glad that’s a continuing thing in the reboot! She was already that way in 99 Adventure, but we’re just seeing a lot of it now - like every time she’s around. (And we didn’t see it in Tri so I missed that.) Basically she seems like a basketcase. Not a totally irresponsible one, more like just... generally the carefree go with the flow type. Which is not bad. She just also seems a bit, uh, ditzy?? I think Taichi probably grew to be so serious by necessity. Dad’s busy with work and someone’s gotta make sure mom doesn’t leave the house without her keys!

The way Sora just stares at Hikari like “explain??” after Mama Yagami thrusts Miko at her and runs off to get her car with a big smile as if they hadn’t all nearly died recently... bahahaha.

also I love how she doesn’t even bother asking her son’s good friend if she knows where he is after not seeing or hearing from him for three full days

^The face of a boy shouldering the weight of nuclear family life and all its batshitness

Taichi and Yamato determine their priority is find the Holy Digimon. I wish they were a little more concerned with what happened to their friends’ partners, but I guess this is the only goal with solid clues. Anyway before they can do anything they are attacked by Bulbmon Looks like subtitlers went with Valvemon which also works, who looks like a Lego monster creation by an eight year old (and probably is).

He has the Domo face. Grrraaah

Domo is NHK mascot by the way. bahahaha

Next these guys come swarming out of Valvemon. (And if we didn’t already get it, apparently Digimon can construct other Digimon as we’ve seen before.) Nothing is quite as freaky as gas masks. They are commanded by Minotaurmon/Mintaromon whatever.

They too have the aim of Stormtroopers though so our heroes will be fine...

... probably...

... then Leomon finally shows up!! Yay! He looks good! All beefy and scarred and sounding exactly like Zaraki Kenpachi. Uhh. Is it the same VA?? Nothing comes up in the Google search so maybe not but it sure sounds like him. (Minotaurmon and Ogremon also sound like Leomon... while it’s normal for VAs in kids shows to voice multiple characters esp minor ones, it literally sounds like Zaraki Kenpachi is the voice of all the characters in this episode besides the main ones. And Mama Yagami of course because that would be weird.)

Leomon may look cool, but his ride... and his friends... uh, less cool x’D I want to strangle that ostrich thing with its own scarf somehow it inspires violent emotion in me

In the smallest, most shocked voice, Yamato says, “Leomon...?” It’s honestly kind of adorable. He’s clearly remembering what Neemon said about Leomon leading the resistance way back when.

Leomon helps them escape. Taichi very considerately and cutely helps Agumon aboard the fashion disaster ostrich emu thing.

Yamato also considerately helps his partner but rather less cutely xD

Leomon takes them to his hideout and gives them your standard fare of weird-looking Digi fruit. He then proceeds to tell them about Devimon and that he is trying to infiltrate Valvemon yadda yadda.

Taichi is freaking ADORABLE, immediately concerned that by saving their asses, Leomon’s battle plans have been ruined. Leomon waves that aside though. Yamato is equally adorabibble when he asks after Neemon and gets told that they made it to Leomon safely.

Leomon plans to try to get into Valvemon again because he knows Devimon’s put something related to the holy Digimon in there. Taichi is determined to join in. He doesn’t have much of an argument as it why they should be allowed when they just got their butts kicked so easily, but he has a trick up his sleeve: the Burning Eyes of Fiery Passion.

Not to be outdone, Yamato shoots off his Icy Eyes of Cold Determination.

Faced with this twin assault, Leomon has to give in. Ahh, I remember last week when we saw the trailer for this ep and I naively thought Leomon would train them like Piximon did in 99 Adventure. Nope. They’ve just met and they’re already spy buddies.

Okay, okay, yeah Leomon does seem to have some knowledge of the “Chosen Children” and that’s his real motivation. Still.

They break into Valvemon and we get the excellent invention of Agumon riding on Garurumon. I assume because of Garurumon’s advantageous speed. That seems to be recurring thing in this show.

Idk I just capped this because he’s so darn cute

I don’t know why I capped this one though.

They enter some sort of central space where Leomon tells them something relevant to the holy Digimon is being kept. (Lol I already forgot the details of what he said.) There are two protectors, Minotaurmon and Bullmon. Leomon tells the kids to take Bullmon while he faces down Minotaurmon. These guys might have been somewhat intimidating if we hadn’t already got Perfect level evolutions mastered, not to mention the occasional Jogress :P Sooo I didn’t feel too worried.

... uh, never mind x’D Taichi what are you doing

Yamato saves his idiot butt and almost gets in a bind himself. Once again I’m just wondering why they are sticking at Adult level. Whatever. They win of course

Leomon uses his Fist of the Beast King to maim Minotaurmon. His brilliant one-liner? “I have more than one first.”

Bully: *punches you*

You: ow

Bully: *smirk* I have more than one fist.

You: That’s funny, I only have one, but it’s made of titanium *You punch the bully straight through the stratosphere* Quality over quantity!!!!

*cough*

Our heroes approach the secret compartment supposedly holding something to do with the holy Digimon... Yamato gets a look inside and gets the black shadow of true terror over his eyes

becaue floating inside like some kind of Weapon X experiment is... Takeru!!!

Hold on while I put in my ear plugs. Okay, ready, screech all you want now.

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!

So... okay. First of all, baby Takeru is sooooooo cute <3 I had two predictions about what happened to Takeru last week. Either he ended up in the digital world and was now on his own, or he got abducted by Devimon. I thought the former was more likely, but in hindsight, it should have been obvious that it was the second. This show misses a lot of points where I feel like they could have developed some relationships or thrown in some drama, but it never passes up a chance for Yamato angst.

So yeah, this is pretty much gonna destroy Yamato xD Not only is the baby brother he wanted to protect no longer at home where he can easily protect him, he’s now in the digital world and in the enemy’s clutches.

I BETTER SEE REALLY TRAUMATIZED YAMATO NEXT WEEK. Of course, I expect him to be cool-headed enough to try to save Takeru, but I will be very disappoint if this goes off with no break downs at all. Takeru is always Yamato’s number one priority!

Super exciteddddd

So I give this ep 7.5/10. The .5 is pretty much for ending with a killer cliffhanger. My one real complaint about this ep is how highly plot-based everything is - we finally got the team all together only to split them up, and on top of that, once split up, we don’t even get all that many character moments between Taichi and Yamato. As I said, they give each other lots of Signifcant Looks, but man cannot live on bread alone. However this is par for the course for this show and I know I should stop mentioning it every week because I doubt it’s changing. We will get the big shockers when we get them and not a moment before.

I just want Yamato to cry in front of Taichi and make him all uncomfortable x’D That’s what made 99 Adventure so great bahahaha

Some cool bits from next week’s trailer:

Surprise surprise, Angemon is the holy Digimon! Or one of, anyway. And he is indeed trapped. This makes the “Angemon is Devimon” theory less likely. Let’s not forget that our heroes’ Digimon partners were evidently a band of powerful warriors in the past, but they’ve forgotten much of it. I won’t be surprised if the result of that war played a part in Angemon’s abduction.

Next week they’ll have to fight to save Takeru from being drained, I guess.

And then!! Digi egg! Excite. Also I only just noticed that his hate says TK!!!

Takeruuu <3 My first fav when I was 10. Though my heart has belonged to Taichi for many long years, I still have a special spot in it for Takeru only <3 Even if he does dress like a celery stick

[cheekbites-moved]

ok i still havent gotten the secret ending but farming for it might take me a bit so im gonna make a thoughts post for age of calamity now:

Major spoilers obvs so ill put it under a read more

things i enjoyed:

revali beatdown simulator

the controls for the divine beasts are a bit clunky, but i think the angles they used for them did an excellent job at really making the player feel like we were actually controlling a divine beast. so i think it was done well.

link’s personality really gets to shine full force in this game with the amount of cut scenes and it was wonderful to see

every character clearly had a lot of love put into how they operate. they truly all feel unique, & all of their play styles fit them really well in my opinion

the game does a really good job of making you understand what a real threat the monsters are. like in botw they’re intimidating at first, but once you’re far enough into the game they become just an inconvenience to work around if anything. this game managed to actually make certain monsters intimidating for me again, and i think that’s a real accomplishment

the blight battles are actually somewhat challenging in this game and that is truly a commendable achievement lol i think all the bosses are good tbh. i didnt rly dislike or not enjoy any of them.

the way daruk and link’s friendship & urbosa’s motherly relationship towards zelda got to shine was. so good. it’s all i could’ve ever wanted

seeing the descendants again was really nice & it was awesome to see the champions interacting with them!! especially sidon and mipha omggggg. that was. really fucking good shit

kohga. just. kohga in general. getting to see more of him was really rad, he’s such a fun guy! and his english va was Excellent. you could really tell he was having a lot of fun playing him, and it was lovely to see! :)

zelda getting to really shine in this game was also lovely to see. and her being so assertive and badass by the end? omg. it was so wonderful especially after botw. man. 

the combat is done very well imo. im rly glad that they took so many elements from botw, but also added their own flares to make it feel fresh. it was rad.

sidon’s tagline is “winning smile” and his power is “boundless optimism” and i think that’s beautiful

the music in this game is SOOOOO good oh my god. multiple times during playing i had to pause to just appreciate it. it’s pretty much all remixes of botw with a few originals for the new characters, but they all slap. there was not a single song in this game i didn’t like. it is definitely one of my favorite video game soundtracks officially. maybe one of my favorite overall soundtracks in general tbh.

the visuals obviously look just like botw, but it still looked fucking gorgeous at some points. like. man. they really went off to make it look not only faithful to botw as far as appearance goes, but also as far as capturing botw’s beauty and it was. excellent to see!

if anything is true to botw’s backstory, it’s definitely how op link is. cause he was established to be op in botw, & when u finish botw he is also op as hell. he is so fun to play as the higher leveled he gets. he absolutely kicks ass. especially with a two-handed weapon??? daaaaammmmnnn. thats my badass baby boy!!!!

link eating rocks not once, but TWICE. just showing PEAK gremlin energy. 10/10 for those scenes they were great

the ending was really beautiful actually and i did cry like a little baby for it what about it

things i didn’t like:

obviously first and foremost.. this is not the game we were advertised. and no matter how much i overall enjoyed the game, it will always have some layer of being tainted attached to it due to the false advertising. this is not the prequel we thought we’d be getting. & not using “prequel” specifically doesn’t matter when all the advertising, including the box art talks about this being the story of what happened 100 years ago. with no indication it wasn’t the story of what happened 100 years ago in the botw timeline, but a separate universe/timeline entirely. i do hope we get dlc for the game at some point giving us what we were advertised, but at the same time... rly wish that the story that’s in the final game was dlc, & the story we were promised was the original :/ or just having the game have two separate storylines originally would’ve been cool. i just wish it wasn’t falsely advertised. 

fort hateno can fucking eat my whole entire shit WHY is that part so needlessly obnoxious compared to everything else oh my god

being forced to fulfill revali’s power fantasy TWICE hurt my soul

fuck any mission where you have to protect the useless hylian guards. i hate them. they suck.

the ai for player characters when you aren’t playing as them can also be pretty useless. it was really frustrating failing missions because my fellow party members weren’t helping me, and i was basically expected to be in two places at once to get shit done myself. :/ ik you can just switch between characters to make it easier, but like. i like playing as link the most. he’s my favorite character, & ofc since he’s mandatorily played for most of the story, he’s gonna be the most leveled up character regardless so he’s just the best to play as in general especially for harder missions. it was annoying to be forced to play as other people Solely cause the ai was so useless.

king rhoam’s attempt at a redemption arc. i’m not sorry that i just fucking hate this man. i don’t mind him entirely in botw bc you can see clear, genuine remorse during the cut scene at the end of the great plateau. but the redemption arc he gets in this game? after all the fucking shit he does in this game? especially when after his ~redemption arc~ i had to sit through a cut scene of him being an absolute fucking asshole to baby zelda after her mother just died????? absolutely fuck that shit. i don’t appreciate that crap at fucking all. he’s a verbally abusive piece of shit and i hate his guts.

obviously there was gonna be some retconning of how certain things worked in botw in order to make this kinda game work but the way sheikah technology works in this game is so goddamn confusing i do not get it. the works of botw are never outright said or explained completely, but it’s straightforward enough that it doesn’t really matter. this game does try to explain certain things and it just becomes. really clunky and confusing very quickly. 

the story is alright, i guess, but..... really confusing/convoluted as hell at times to a point that it’s. really fucking distracting. especially in comparison to how straightforward botw’s story is. like..... cannot help but be annoyed that such a problem wouldn’t have been a thing if they stuck to botw’s story.

i was sad when the egg thing died but i dont like the egg thing.... it is the MAIN reason shit was retconned so much & i just. dont get its purpose. but i did really like the reveal that zelda made it herself. that was good shit!

also the egg glitched out like. a LOT. idk what the fuck was going on with the poor thing but there was multiple times during a cut scene or when i was just sitting there that it was freaking out in the background and it was rly weird

elemental overworld boss monsters................. obnoxious. especially elemental guardians like goddamn bro what the fuck

i know warriors’ games aren’t about exploring anyway but the limitations for exploring was really sad/frustrating. this is still somewhat the world of hyrule before the calamity, which is something we’ve always wanted to see. not being able to explore even the immediate area at certain points because of shit like timed missions was really upsetting, man. :( i just wanted to see hyrule castle Before the calamity why was did they have to rob us like that.....

creepy corrupted egg’s transformation. why. what was that. what the fuck

even though i did enjoy the boss fights, it did get. incredibly taxing eventually to have to fight the SAME bastards so many times. like yeah botw is also guilty of this with the blights, but goddamn.... at least i have a choice to avoid certain encounters with them? this game has you fighting the same bitches like upwards of 3-4 times. it was. really annoying tbh. like the fights themselves are enjoyable, but damn we added new characters and it still inevitably lacked variety in boss fights.

no playable kass >:( if he’s available later in dlc then fine but i wish he was playable in the original game. so many random choices you’d never expect are. why couldn’t he also be there >:(

overall:

it will forever have that sour taste for the false advertising attached to it unfortunately, but that aside, i overall did enjoy the game! i think it has a lot to love in spite of the issues i encountered. as someone who has this as their first warriors game as well, it did lend itself to letting me see the appeal of them. idk if i’ll get more, but i do get why they’re so beloved/popular now. it was an alright time, with some amazing highlights that i’m gonna think back on very fondly for a very, very long time. if i had to rate it..... 7/10 

[forever-halone]

Hingan Alphabet

So I came across the Hingan Alphabet on twitter this morning and immediately wanted to translate it so I could throw it at my friends. I figured it would be a good idea to post it here for those who play Eastern characters but don’t know Japanese. Enjoy my awful handwriting LMAO

It’s more or less an altered version of the Hiragana alphabet! 

We got some familiar symbols: numbers and punctuation marks. The consonants aren’t quite as straightforward, however, as we don’t really have them in English so I’ll try and give a quick, vague explanation.

- The tsu (referred to as small tsu, or sokuon) indicates that the consonant that immediately follows it is preceded by a glottal stop and held for an additional syllable. For example, words like gakki (musical instrument) require the use of a double consonant, otherwise, you could make an entirely different meaning (gaki just means brat). 

- The ya, yu, and yo are used to indicate glides, or semi-vowels. Remember when your waifu went “nyaaaaaa” in your favorite Doman animes? Well NOW YOU CAN WRITE THAT IN HINGAN. NOTHING IS STOPPING YOU. 

I would heavily recommend looking at a chart since this is a bit difficult to take in at face value. But you more or less take a character that is ending in i from the first chart and then add the smaller character. 

So say you want to say “hya”! Take the hi character, and then add the small ya after it. If you want to say “kyu”, take the ki character, and then add the small yu after it. 

- The a, i, u, e, o are used for sounds that aren’t common within the Japanese language (or Hingan in this case, I guess) such as va, vi, wi, wu, etc. so probably will only matter for those wanting to spell the names of their characters that aren’t from the Far East.

For the w sounds, you have to take the u character from the first chart and add whichever character next. So to write wi, take the u character and add the i character after it. To write wu, take the u character again and add the u character after it. Similar to glides.

For the v sounds, you’ll have to use the u character again but add what we call dakuten, or tenten. If you look at the first chart and look at the characters that start with g, z, d, and b, you’ll notice they’re exactly the same character of the characters that start with k, s, t, and n but with a little mark on the right side. That’s the tenten! Use that same mark on the u character, and you have the v sound instead of the w sound. 

This also works with glides. If you want to write vya, you use the u character with the tenten, and then add the small ya character to indicate that. 

- .........that was not a quick explanation. UH... yea. If it’s difficult to understand still (which, prolly is considering my shit instructions) I would heavily recommend taking a look at hiragana charts and getting a better idea. Or better yet, ask me directly or a friend who knows Japanese! Because it’s only gonna get more difficult to understand from here on out LOL. 

Next, we have long vowels on the right side of this chart. When the same vowel appears twice consecutively in a word, the two are pronounced as a continuous sound rather than as two separate vowels. 

The 5 characters on the left side are plenty different though!

- Koto (not the instrument) and yori (not the name) are grammar particles, so I wouldn’t recommend using them unless you have a good idea of sentence structure. Pretty, though.

- Nari (也) has multiple readings. It’s used to express an exact sum of money, or a historical way of saying “to be”. I don’t think it’s their money symbol, considering they would use the yen (円) kanji to inticate that. So... uh... Who Know?

- The next one was a bit difficult to read, but it seems to be the 候 kanji, which is a literal reading of seasons, weather, climate, etc. 

- The very bottom far left character is read as 々, which is an iteration mark, meaning that the sound of the previous kanji (or a sound similar to it) before it should be repeated. An example would be 色々(iroiro, various) or 早々(hayabaya, "promptly”) It also can be found in names. 

I hope those explanations helped out a bit! I’m really hoping a font with the Hingan alphabet comes soon, it’d make things plenty easier I’m sure. Really looking forward to seeing folks who Hingan characters putting their names together! It’s honestly a super pretty alphabet. @_@

Thank you so much to @chelonate who helped me out with some of the translation!! You saved me dang booty.... 

[snarktheater]

Carve the Mark — Part 3 (Chapters 17-20)

We finally have what looks like a plot started, maybe we can actually…do something useful?

She was wearing a muted blue dress with sleeves that stopped just above the elbow, so when Akos’s hand swung forward to grab her arm, he made sure his grip settled where the fabric stopped. […] there wasn’t much Cyra Noavek could do to take away from her looks, and he was pretty sure she knew that. No point in denying the obvious, after all.

And if you thought I was kidding…no, really, this is going to be mostly romance with very little plot thrown in. For instance, we have our protagonists going into the cockpit to watch as their spaceship goes straight into the current, which is a religious experience for the Shotet. And it's basically…this scene from Final Fantasy X.

Except that scene was a villain trying to woo Yuna, where this is the protagonists bonding? Make of that what you will.

Also, angst. Can't go anywhere without angst.

[Akos] felt separate, though—not just because he was Thuvhesit and they were Shotet, but because they could feel the hum-buzz of the current and he couldn’t. […] And then she said something strange. Breathlessly, and with reverence: “You feel like silence.”

The book hasn't even committed to Akos's angst regarding being cut off from the current, so…okay? I don't really feel much about that.

But there's yet more angst to be had, as they go back to her room and Akos watches the news while Cyra showers, and sees a gathering of oracles on Tepes, which includes his mom. Yeah, turns out I misread earlier (or the book wasn't specific enough; I don't care enough to check for sure) and the oracle who killed herself isn't Sifa, it's the old Thuvhesit oracle. Remember how there are three, one rising, one sitting, one falling? Yeah, it's the last one. She wasn't even dignified with a name, so you'll excuse my confusion.

Anyway, Sifa's the only oracle from Thuvhe left since Eijeh is a little busy being brainwashed and all. And the reason for this gathering is that the Assembly wants more transparency from the oracles.

It was an old complaint of his mother’s, that the Assembly was always trying to interfere with the oracles, that they couldn’t stand that there was one thing left in the galaxy they couldn’t regulate.

Which is…an interesting point if we actually got to see that interference. As it stands, though, it mostly sounds like the (presumably elected) government just wants the people with the massively useful power of knowing the future to show some transparency.

Akos himself is pretty bitter that Sifa let her family be torn apart, which…yeah, makes sense.

She had let her husband die, let the falling oracle sacrifice herself, let a son—now Ryzek’s very best weapon—be kidnapped, instead of offering herself in his place. Fates be damned, Akos thought. She was supposed to be their mother.

Cyra sees him watching the news, just long enough to show some sympathy and to get this nonsense:

Cyra ducked back into the bathroom. He watched her lean close to the mirror to poke at a pimple on her chin. Dab water from her forehead and neck. The same thing she always did, only now he noticed—noticed that he knew it, that was; knew her routines, knew her. And liked her.

I know, shocking, right.

Now, there is also actual plot in there. Specifically, with Cyra and Otega tracking down that renegade, who turns out to be named Teka Surukta. She's a technician whose currentgift lets her interfere with all current-based tech, and that's how she turned out the lights.

Cyra explains to her that Ryzek will kill innocents if he doesn't find the renegades soon.

“Presumably you all knew the potential consequences of your actions when you signed up for your cause, whatever it is,” I said, ignoring her comment. “Whoever my brother selects to take the fall will not have made that calculated risk. They will die because you wanted to pull a prank on Ryzek Noavek.” “A prank?” Teka said. “Is that what you call acknowledging the truth? Destabilizing your brother’s regime? Showing that we can control the movement of the ship itself?”

In news that will shock no one, Cyra still sucks at being heroic. Even as the book tries to have other characters tell us that she cares, she just…doesn't.

Teka takes her somewhere remote, which could easily be a trap.

“Would she bring back a horde of renegades to finish the work she had begun during the attack?”

Because Cyra (and the author) doesn't realize that there are much easier and more effective ways to kill someone without violence, especially someone you basically cannot touch.

But…no, instead Teka leads Cyra to her mother, Zosita, who's the person behind that renegade operation. And even though Zosita knows surrendering will lead to her execution, she surrenders, because she doesn't want innocents to die.

“He’ll want to get whatever information he can out of you before he . . .” The word execute stuck in my throat. “Kills me,” Zosita said. “My, my, Miss Noavek. You can’t even say the words? Are you so soft?” Her eyes shifted to the armor that covered my marked arm. “No,” I snapped. “It’s not an insult,” Zosita said, a little more gently. “Soft hearts make the universe worth living in.”

Well you haven't done a very good job selling that philosophy in your books so far, Ms Roth.

They have a moment of humanizing each other as Cyra bringing up her dead mother, and then Zosita comes with Cyra, but with the promise that neither of them will betray the renegades.

“To answer your question, yes, I can endure an interrogation,” Zosita said. “Can you tell lies?” She smirked again. “I suppose that’s a silly question. Will you tell lies?”

She will, although, by her own admission in narration, she…doesn't seem to really know why. But hey, why does a protagonist need a reason to be a hero, right? It's much easier to have her be a complete authorial puppet!

But…off they go. And we switch PoV to Akos, because of course. Don't worry, it's not a very big piece of stalling—merely him finalizing his plan with Jorek on drugging his father. Specifically, Akos has already drugged him once, and he wants to do it again a couple of days before the scavenge starts to reinforce that it's not an isolated incident and really drive Suzao up the walls.

Also, more ship tease.

“You really don’t sleep in the same bed,” Jorek said. Cheeks hot, Akos scowled at him. “No. Why?” “Rumors.” Jorek shrugged. “I mean, you do live together. Touch each other.”

I hate you and your heteronormativity.

For the record: I didn't mention it earlier, but the book does have a token gay couple. It's Cyra's cousin Vakrez, who's married to a man. But the thing is…how do I put it…your one token is a bad guy. He spent two years "teaching" Akos, which we can infer wasn't a very good time. So that's not very progressive of you. But that should in theory dispel claims of heteronormativity, since no one bats an eye at it…except comments like these still happen. So…no.

Anyway. Vas comes fetch Akos from Cyra's room, along with Eijeh. He notices the drugs Akos is brewing and makes the connection with Suzao getting drugged, but Akos is able to say it's a painkiller for Cyra, and I guess Vas doesn't want to test it. Also, Eijeh is bitter at their mom for not preparing him for his fate but preparing Akos for his, which…again fair enough.

But he's also bitter at their dad, which makes Akos realize that Ryzek took his memories of their dad away.

Of course, of course Ryzek had taken Eijeh’s memories of their dad—he had to have been so horrified by his own father that he’d stolen theirs instead.

So um…I thought the memory remained even after the trade? I guess not. This whole thing is very confusing. Does that mean Ryzek is also losing memories of his own past? Wouldn't that…you know, change his personality, if he forgot about his dad's abuse?

Suddenly Akos’s hands were in fists in Eijeh’s shirt, and he was shoving his brother against the wall, knocking over a row of vials.

And Vas…does nothing about it? He's not very good at his job, is he.

Anyway, they're here for two reasons. One, Eijeh needs a brew to make his visions clearer, which Akos won't make.

“So Ryzek doesn’t have your currentgift yet.” “I think he’s satisfied with my work thus far.” “You’re kidding yourself if you think he’ll settle for trusting you over just taking your power for himself,” Akos said, quiet.

I mean…is he? If trading memories make Eijeh so blindly devoted to Ryzek, wouldn't it work in reverse too and make Ryzek empathize with Eijeh as well? I kind of assume that Akos is right, but it would be much more interesting if that's how it unfolded instead, wouldn't it?

The other reason…they want him to be around for Zosita's interrogation. Why, you ask? Well, Ryzek wants Cyra to torture her, and since she's rebelled against him in spite of his earlier blackmail material, he needs some more. By which he means Akos. Because he thinks Cyra likes/loves/cares about him and so he has Vas beat him up.

Eijeh had flinched that time.

Is…this supposed to matter? You're not consistent enough about how much of Eijeh's personality remains, and he's probably not going to rebel anyway.

But anyway, Cyra complies, and Akos passes out so we can skip the interrogation process. Zosita didn't give Ryzek anything, however (maybe because torture doesn't actually work, which Ryzek should know?), but now Cyra is feeling guilty about Akos being used.

“You’ll never be safe again. You know that? Neither of us will.” […] “I was never safe. You were never safe.” He didn’t understand why she was so rattled. It wasn’t like Ryzek doing something terrible was a new thing. “I don’t understand why he made a point to use me—”

Yes, Akos is still clueless, because of course. So Cyra kisses him.

“Don’t worry,” she said softly. “I won’t do that again.” She backed away, and shut herself in the bathroom.

Yeah. At least we've got that first kiss out of the way…but apparently not all of the romance nonsense, since she says it won't happen again.

And indeed, after we basically skim over Zosita's execution, with more focus on Cyra's guilt than on the actual death, because of course the book makes it all about her. More importantly…

It was a relief, to still be able to feel that.

Yeah, that doesn't really sell the idea that she thinks of herself as a monster, does it?

And with that we just happily skip to the start of the sojourn proper as they reach Pitha's orbit. And no, they haven't sorted out their sexual tension yet. Or even talked about it, by the looks of it.

I shivered at [Akos's] voice alone. I thought that when I kissed him, days ago, it would free me from feelings like those, by taking away the mystery of what it would be like, but it had only made things worse. Now I knew what he felt like—what he tasted like—and I ached with want.

Just TALK TO HIM. It's not that hard!

I don't know, maybe the book is trying to avoid Stockholm Syndrome, but…the feelings are already there, so that's not really working.

From that, we move on to a bunch of exposition about how Lazmet taught Cyra how to pilot (because…of course she knows how to pilot a spacecraft), and that Lazmet died during a sojourn in a pirate attack where only Ryzek and Vas were present. So…I think it's safe to assume there's more to that story, right? There's about a fifty percent chance that Ryzek killed his dad.

Then Cyra sees Teka from afar, and…randomly decides she wants to do something against Ryzek. Not something specific, mind you, nor does it have any particular motivation behind it, just…something. I guess this is our replacement plot since the renegade investigation is already over, and it's…not very satisfying, is it?

So she goes talk to Teka, and says she wants to meet the rest of the renegades. Teka apparently agrees, even though it could be a trap.

“How are we supposed to trust you?” she said in a low voice. “You’re desperate, and so am I,” I said. “Desperate people make stupid decisions all the time.”

Great argument.

But that's not going to happen now, because now is time to head to one of Pitha's underwater cities. And to remind us that the current really "chose" Ogra as a destination for the sojourn, which…is that relevant? No, really, I want to know. You can't just bring it up constantly and do nothing with it. That's what editing is for.

Oh, and this trip brings us another piece of information:

“Yes, you’ll find I have a high tolerance for disgusting things,” I replied. “I employ it regularly. I’m sure you do, too.” Yma closed her eyes rather than answer. But before she did, I thought I saw her glance at Ryzek. One of the disgusting things she tolerated, I was sure. I had to admire her talent for survival.

I don't, since apparently she can't even hide her emotions enough not to look at Ryzek. But yeah, apparently Yma isn't quite as faithful to Ryzek as she looks. Hopefully this'll lead somewhere, but who knows.

Anyway, Pitha's surface. Or…well, they're not on the surface, because it's an ocean planet, but you get the point. Ryzek's party meets with dignitaries, because he's revived his mother's tradition, while their dad sucked at diplomacy. Which is particularly important here, since, shall I remind you, Ryzek wants an alliance to invade Thuvhe.

And even though we're told Ryzek inherited his mother's gift for diplomacy…it doesn't show.

“We are all fluent in Othyrian,” Ryzek said testily. The Shotet had a reputation for only speaking our own language, thanks to my father’s—and now my brother’s—policy of keeping our people ignorant of the galaxy’s true workings, but Ryzek had always been sensitive about the insinuation that he wasn’t multilingual, as if it meant people thought he was stupid.

Yeah, how dare people judge your anti-intellectual policies and assume you are anti-intellectual yourself as a result? Clearly this is a good thing to get "testy" about when you're trying to secure an alliance.

As they're being shown around the place, Cyra gets another urge to "do something". In this case, run away. But she doesn't, because…boy.

But I couldn’t leave Akos here, and Akos’s eyes were currently fixed on the back of his brother’s head.

Yeah, and he can't be convinced, no, it's you who has to change your ways to fit his needs. Again.

And then…the shitty world building strikes.

Every culture worshipped something: Othyr, comfort; Ogra, mystery; Thuvhe, iceflowers; Shotet, the current; Pitha, practicality, and so on.

Yep. The cultures of this world are basically the factions, except with more nebulous objects of worship than five randomly-chose human virtues. I should not be surprised.

Anyway. If you think Ryzek is the only one who sucks at diplomacy, you're giving Roth too much credit.

The room I was sharing with Akos—the dignitary had given us a suggestive look when he offered it to me, and I had ignored him.

Yes, that's totally a respectful way to treat guests who you're considering an alliance with. Again, good job.

So they get to a "party", except worshipping practicality apparently means "no fun allowed", so everyone just stands still and talks. But on the other hand, they have drinks that might be alcohol?

“Dulls the senses, lifts the spirits. Sweet and sour, both.”

That's my best guess, anyway. Cyra and Akos hate it, though, because…I don't know, some kind of alcohol PSA. They also banter for a while, because it's not like the sovereign's sister might have anything else to do at a political function. But Ryzek does eventually call her so she can testify about the children that the Shotet "reclaim" during their sojourn. Yeah, remember the kids who can speak Shotet? They're still kidnapping those!

Cyra agrees, mostly because Ryzek threatens Akos again.

“My servant has shown himself to be a natural Shotet,” I said. “A good fighter, with a good eye for what makes our people distinct. His ability to adapt to our culture is . . . shocking.” “Surely a sign of what I was telling you, sir,” Yma chimed in. “That there is evidence of a cultural, historical memory in Shotet blood that ensures that all so-called ‘kidnapped’ people—people with the gift of Shotet language—who make it to our land find true belonging there.”

…And? Just because they can adapt to the culture who kidnapped them doesn't justify the kidnapping. It's not like the culture they're born into is any less their culture. What the fuck kind of argument is that?

Well, a winning one, I guess, because it gets the diplomat Ryzek was talking to on his side. Ryzek also dismisses the claims that hey kidnapped an oracle by saying…"no I didn't". More or less.

“As to the reason the oldest Thuvhesit oracle took her own life, we can’t know it. We don’t know the reasons for anything the oracles do, do we?” He was appealing to Vek’s Pithar practicality. The oracles held no importance here; they were just madmen shouting over the waves.

…Do you not know what "practicality" is? How is it impractical to see the future? Does this book understand the meaning of words?

And so Cyra excuses herself, feeling bad that she helped Ryzek's plans for an alliance, even though she knew exactly what his purpose was and should therefore have realized he was calling her to help on that.

Without meaning to, I found Akos in the crowd, still holding two glasses, both now empty. He smiled a little. I have to get you out of here, I thought, as if he could hear me. And I will.

Well that's a…weird transition, but okay. I guess that really is our plot now. Hopefully it'll stick for a little longer.

[canaryatlaw]

alright it’s too late so I need to write. today was a bit all over the place, not sure really how to classify it. I dragged my ass out of bed at 7 fucking am to get ready to volunteer at the DV clinic for the day. Most of their regular staff was going to be training their summer interns for the day, so they needed coverage for people to do the OP’s. So I did my makeup and pulled on a blazer on the chance that I may actually end up stepping up on a case since I am an actual lawyer who can do that now, lol. Got my bagel half-eaten before running out the door to get to the bus (and took the bagel with me of course). The bus was fine, but when I had to switch to the train it was super packed, which isn’t terribly surprising being that it was a weekday at 8:30 am. But I made it there with good time. I was expecting a hassle at the security checkpoint getting in since it’s always a hassle, but surprisingly enough one of the sheriff’s that I knew had been around for a while did recognize me and just said “you work here?” and I said yes and they let me through, so that was nice. I always try to build up a nice rapport with them because it makes life way easier when they like you instead of them being generally antagonistic like they tend to be with pretty much everybody else who comes in, so I was glad to see that the effort I had put in there was still doing good, even if it’s just greeting them when you get in and wishing them a good night when leaving, which I’m sure to do with the ladies at the front desk as well. Once I got in I checked in with them, and then sat in the lobby to wait for a case. I figured since I had my laptop with me (the paperwork is digital so they want you to bring your own computer) so I figured I might as well get some work done and started going through the case record again, highlighting more stuff and anything inconsistent I picked up on after reading the whole thing. So I ended up doing that for the morning and we didn’t get anybody, so I walked down the street to the pizza place a few blocks up that does fairly decent pizza for lunch and had a slice before going back. Once I’d gotten through the real substance of the record (the opinion, testimonies, etc) and it was just really repetitive medical records I did notice that there was apparently wifi in the building now, which was definitely new, but I mean it’s been a year since I’ve been there so I guess it’s not terribly surprising they’d have it now (even if they didn’t acquire it in the 3 years I volunteered there before this). So I obtained the log in information for that and actually started doing some research work in the “brief bank” for the firm which is basically just a collection of cases sorted by issues, so I went from there and followed other cases they cited to get the right points. They ended up closing up the clinic for the day around 2:30 because at that point it’s really too late for anyone coming in to get through the whole process and make it to court before it closes, so I didn’t end up getting any cases for the day which was kinda disappointing just because it’s been so long since I’ve done one, but I did get a lot of work done so it wasn’t really any harm done to me. I do miss being there though, and now that I have a flexible schedule I may have to look into volunteering there on a more consistent basis, since they do have a volunteer attorney program and I can actually attorney now as opposed to just prepping the paperwork and having to wish your client good luck while you sit in the gallery and pray your case doesn’t end up going to hell (because, sadly, that happens sometimes) which is literally the worst feeling, so I look forward to not having to deal with that ever again, lol. But anyway, I headed home, much easier commute without so many people. When I got off the train the bus predictor app said there were two like .18 of a mile away so I flew down the stairs and out to the bus stop only to discover the bus stuck in traffic a ways down and ended up having to wait 5 minutes before actually getting on it, so that was kinda anticlimactic, lol. But I got home and had some time to kill, so I did some more research work for the case and pulled the case law that can be useful to me. I ended up getting 6 hours of work in, so that was pretty good (according to my hourly rate that’s $168, but that’s before taxes and everything so who the hell knows how much that actually is). Around 6 I started prepping dinner, which was going to be my mom’s recipe for a spinach quiche that she’s made a million times, and gave me the recipe like two years ago and I’ve never used it up till this point but now that I had a leftover bag of spinach to use it seemed like the perfect opportunity to make it. The recipe called for frozen spinach and I had a bag of fresh, but I just figured eh fuck it and threw it in. The recipe is legit just throw everything into a bowl and mix, then stick it in a baking dish and cook. Since the fresh spinach took up a lot more space than the frozen would’ve I had to let it mix a while longer and by the time it was ready the entire thing was like, bright green, so I was like well this is going to be interesting looking for sure lol. I went to pour it into a pie plate because that’s what my mom always used, except there was way too much of it so I ended up separating it into two pie plates and guessing the time for them to cook. I also ordered bubble tea since Jess was coming over, so that came and she showed up shortly after. It was around this time that I learned about the shooting in VA Beach, which I had initially heard about as it just looked like a few people were injured, then it came out that 12 people were dead, and that was a big gut punch. If you’re not aware, I went to college in VA Beach and love the city greatly, and have about a hundred (according to facebook), friends still living in the area, so like, way too many people to actually keep track of, and I knew I wouldn’t feel fully okay about it until I could see a list of victim names and make sure there wasn’t anybody I knew on it. I texted two of my good friends there to make sure they were okay and thankfully they both were. But yeah, that was kinda putting me into a bit of a funk, not just because of not knowing about people being hurt but also because I love that place so damn much and it hurts me so badly to see them have to deal with a tragedy like this. A piece of my heart will forever live there, and of course that’s going to be affected when something like this happens. Sigh. Anyway. I tried to figure out if the quiche was cooked through and when I was reasonably sure it was we ate it with our bubble tea and it actually came out very good for something I was somewhat concerned that I fucked up, so I was happy about that. Once we finished we decided we really needed to actually watch the Game of Thrones finale since we’d actually avoided doing so up to this point. And well, I don’t think i really have any input to add that hasn’t been said already, but I will echo the sentiments that they did a total injustice to Daenerys’ storyline and her character development, and watching that play out was painful to watch, especially with how it was done. And other than that really the episode was pretty damn boring. The way they ended up deciding Bran to be king was.....odd, and didn’t really make any sense. So yeah, not surprisingly it was a pretty big let down, but oh well, it’s done now. Jess went home after we finished that (even though she promised me ice cream but she’s a LIAR) so I watched some netflix food shows for a bit, then ended up chatting with my roommate for a while once she got home about like anything and everything, we rarely ever get the chance to really talk because we’re always just barely running into each other, so it was a really good conversation that I thoroughly enjoyed. And yeah, after that I showered and started getting ready for bed and now it is 2:56 am and I really need to get to bed so I’m ending this here. Goodnight dears. Happy weekend.

[mashimarorabbit]

1. Favorite anime?

Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure, and if I had to get specific, DiU. It’s not my favorite part but obviously the others have yet to be animated. We shall see. I also really love HxH, Cowboy Bebop, Mob Psycho and Fullmetal will always have a place in my heart. Yeah, I know, kinda generic answers. *shrugs*

2. Your worst anime?

I can’t do SAO, and I absolutely loathe Fairy Tail. The sudden “THROUGH THE POWER OF NAKAMA, I AM S TRONK” stuff makes me cringe when it’s in sheer excess. But honestly, if I find it horrid, I just stop watching and wipe it from my memory sooooo I can’t think of too many. I also can’t call anime “my worst anime”, just anime I couldn’t get into or didn’t like. Watching DBZ, for example, becomes a drag because it’ssofreakingslowfinishthefightalready. But there’s no denying that it’s a classic and inspired a lot of stuff that came after it.

3. Do you read the manga that goes along with the anime you watch?

I actually read manga far more than I watch anime. It’s faster for me and I get the author’s original intended plotline. Also, I’m impatient and I wanna know what happens. I usually watch the anime after I’ve read the manga. Though, recently, I’ve finally started watching more anime without the manga. 

4. Most favorite genre?

I guess shounen? But there are plenty shounen I can’t stand as well. I can’t say for sure one thing, but I do like the introspective psychological thrillers like Paranoia Agent. I also like anime that kind of poke fun at its genre and doesn’t take itself too seriously like Jojo’s and OPM. And honestly a lot of anime switches tones/dives into all sorts of different genres (HxH), but I do need my action.

5. Least favorite genres?

See, I want to say Shojo, but I love Akagami no Shirayukihime to bits. Maaaybe straight-up horror. Not because they’re not good, though. It’s because I’m a chicken.  

6. Favorite character/s?

We’re gonna be here all day pls. Caesar, Jotaro, Kakyoin, Rohan, Gyro, Diego, Hot Pants, Yasuho, and Jojolion’s Kira from JJBA because I love WAY too many chars from that. Akutagawa from BSD. Shigeo, Teru, and Reigen from MP 100. Arima from Tokyo Ghoul. Those are the ones off the top of my head. I’m bad with favorites.

7. Least favorite character/s?

I can’t stand Sakura from Naruto, but I mostly blame the poor handling of her story because she was cool in the saving-Gaara arc. I really don’t like Koichi from JJBA idk why. 

8. Qualities you like in a character?

Clever, I guess. I don’t care if they’re goofy (Joseph Joestar) or an edgelord (Itachi). As long as they don’t come off horribly annoying, they can really mix up a show and make it more interesting. I also really do love my villains. Like Hisoka from HxH is unpredictable, so when he’s around, it’s hard to tell which way the story’s gonna go next. I’m just a sucker for morally gray (or just not moral) characters. 

9. Short or long anime?

Short lately for saving time’s sake. I also have the worst attention span. But I have made it through long stuff. *cough Jojo’s cough*

10. Anime or manga?

Manga for getting more story faster and just aaaart. Anime for VA, animation, music, ughhh. I like both. So much effort goes into both. I just hate it when the anime stops being faithful like Tokyo Ghoul’s s2 COMPLETELY GOING AGAINST the manga’s story. The choices they made for that also lacked logic. Waste of decent animation and budget >.<

11. How do you choose the anime you watch?

Usually good reviews, friends’ recs, the studio, and seeing if I like the plot summary. 

12. Skip or listen to intros/outros?

Depends on the OP/ED and if I’m in a hurry to squish in an episode. If it’s pretty and catchy I usually don’t skip.

13. How do you cope if your friends or family don’t like you watching anime?

I separate my friend groups so I don’t dump my weeb fangirling woes on them. As for family...ahaha... I watch when they’re not around. It’s been easier for me to do so now because uni so. 

14. Do you stop an anime midway if you don’t like it?

Eyup. Definitely. I’m picky as hell and if something seems too generic I’ll stop. I usually give something 4 episodes to get me hooked unless my friend begs me to keep going. Usually seeing tropey things make me wanna stop immediately.

Errrr. Gonna tag @seridano