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twosides--samecoin · 2 years

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Thank you for your ask 😊 I really enjoyed answering it. So! What are some aspects of Mac that you personally feel that the fandom overlooks/handles poorly?

The good thing is his character is really not handled all that poorly by the fandom. The game definitely handles him worse on the basis of giving him a story that couldn't actually be finished and fully explored by leaving his child back in D.C. RJ Very Good Dad Whom Do Get The Medicine And Then Stays In Boston And Does Nothing is the biggest pet peeve anyone's done to the character. Fandom-wise, I would say these are "little annoyances" - if anyone holds these headcanons dear, that's cool, I don't hate on that, but the following is decidedly not for me:

Dirtbag Trashman: Ok I know his looks sorta lend themselves easy to the comparisons to ferrets, foxes, opossums, rats and whatnot; the SkinNakedDirty texture is turned WAY up on his character model, but he is not dirty, ok?? Why do some of y'all WANT him to be the Pig-Pen in the F4 Peanuts gang??

....at least not in my game he isn't dirty...

Literacy, or Lack Thereof: This is one of those headcanons I don't like for a few reasons. There's headcanons that he "read comics" that had words that were too faded to read and he made the stories up as he looked at the pictures as a kid. Sure, fine, I'm not mad at that, comics printed on crappy paper probably don't hold ink that well 250+ years on if you can find a copy without damage anyway.

My first question is why would anyone assume he specifically can't read versus any other companion? We know Lucy got her medical knowledge from textbooks; from that we can assume there was some form of teaching happening at Little Lamplight for children to learn reading and writing.

Piper is the only one we see making a living from writing but I never see anyone making those headcanons towards other characters - would Cait have learned to read or write given her abusive childhood, existing post-war outside of the structure of our society where schools aren't necessarily attended by kids and social work basically doesn't exist as a profession? It's a fairly big assumption that anyone just has the skill to read and write in the post apocalypse, and framing illiteracy as MacCready-specific has never sat well for me. Realistically there would be a lot of adults who're unable to read or write but for me, he learned to read and write alongside Lucy in Little Lamplight. Older kids taught them and it's part of the responsibility of getting a little older in LL. He helped teach the next generation of kids. For my convenience as a writer, he needs basic literacy to send letters to Duncan, anyway.

One headcanon that didn't work for me in the opposite way was that MacCready had intellectual pursuits because he knew of Henry David Thoreau. With respects to the OP, it was gleaned from a line of dialogue near Thoreau's cabin, but it's a location where everyone has a line to say. HDT is a massive influence in my personal life + writing and while RJ can read.. he's not reading Thoreau. He's generally disdainful of pre-war people and how they handled the world, resulting in a ruined one he has to live in, so he's not seeking out philosophical texts on how some Mungo named Henry who lived 400 years before his time thought people should live. What good did that do for his world? I headcanon him (in the beginning) as deeply regretful, unable to really enjoy anything too much. What hobbies? There are none. He'd read Thoreau if it would make Duncan better and solve his problems, but reading for enjoyment would largely be a waste of time. Each time he enjoys himself or isn't doing things for Duncan, it means (to him) that he's not being a good father. Something taps him on his shoulder to say it's not his place to read a book or take time off. He exists in a state of penance, in the beginning.

However, I do very much headcanon him as being receptive to Thoreau's many wisdoms (Walden and Civil Disobedience in particular) and as some of my fave classic works in literary history, I honour those texts by having those concepts introduced to him in a future chapter. I wrote the chapter before I saw that headcanon, because I always had the intent to involve literary history/discussion, so it was funny when I saw that and I was like, yes! But not like that!

I just want my readers to know that society fuckin' sucks and we all gotta touch grass and I- *gets pulled offstage*

#I had a lot to say yeesh #sorry lol #CleanCready Gang #robert joseph maccready #thank you for the ask!#long time running #ask me anything #fallout 4 headcanons #unhinged mac headcanon #henry david thoreau #cait fo4 #piper fallout 4

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trashexplorer · 3 years

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BLCD Review: Hadakeru Kaibutsu 1 & 2

Title: Hadakeru Kaibutsu 1 & 2 (はだける怪物上・下 )

Release Date: 2020/07/31 & 2020/08/28

Author/Artist: Ogeretsu Tanaka

Pairings:

Satou Takuya x Ono Yuuki

Ono Yuuki x Ishikawa Kento

Hatano Wataru + Ishikawa Kento

Synopsis: Up until now it's always been cute girls laughing by my side. But now, sleeping next to me, full of faults, smelling of tobacco, a lascivious man. But he's the cutest of them all... (Must Be Endless)

Review Proper

TOLD YOU I SHOULDN’T HAVE PUT NAMAMONO AND YOMEIRI FIRST.

Goddamn. I started listening to this way back in November, stopped, and picked it up again in January. It’s not that it was boring (debatable), but I found myself looking like

the whole time. First of all, where’s the fucking police in this? I mean, everybody deserves a second chance and whatnot, but he should have did the time or at least paid Yumi for damages for what he’s done and not just emo-ed his way out. “I doN’T waNnA beCoME moRE HoRRiBlE thAN tHiS” bullshit.

Sorry, I really hate this. 😂

Anyway, enough about the plot. The main reason why I listened to this in the first place was because I wanted to listen to SatoTaku top Ono Yuuki again and see if he’s gonna do better than their prior encounter in Memento Scarlet. I actually already knew how it was going to go because I’ve listened to the 2015 special many eons ago, but SatoTaku didn’t have to act that good to prove that his Memento Scarlet performance wasn’t his fault. 😩 See? There was absolutely no need for SatoTaku to go that low because Ono Yuuki’s voice was even lower than his here, but that did nothing to affect their chemistry and their delivery of the story. This is how you cast, Movic.

It is no surprise that the casting and execution was great because this is Shinshokan we’re talking about. Everybody came back y’all! Another reason why I was so reluctant to listen to this was my fear that not everyone will come back (esp Wacchan), but Shinshokan got them back!!! 😭😭😭 For a work that I hated plot-wise, this had a pretty dang good casting. I’ll give it that. I mean, why the fuck would I even put myself through all this stress if it not for them, right?

I have to say, though, the order of the dialogue was a little different. I had to be chasing the BLCD sometimes, so that was a little difficult. Definitely reminded me of my time with Memento Scarlet, but not entirely as bad. However, if you’ve never read or listened to the other installments, I’d suggest going through those first because it’s better to have a better background on the story. You might go into this thinking that Kan-chan and Yumi didn’t have any closure (I mean, do they actually???).

Listening to this only gave me boredom and stress in all honesty, but if you’re a fan of the series, you do you. Although it’s not exactly loyal to the manga’s sequencing of events, it’s still voiced and executed seamlessly. 👌

#blcd reviews #blcd 2020 reviews #hadakeru kaibutsu #ogeretsu tanaka #shinshokan #satou takuya #ono yuuki #hatano wataru #ishikawa kento

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sybil-writes · 4 years

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Camp Nano Strategy Roundup

Hey all! I was going to post my creative life update but I may let that stew a few days while I draw some things and whatnot. Instead I'm going to make a post reflecting on the new things I tried during Camp Nano, and how I might use them moving forward in my writing adventures!

The new techniques I worked with for the first time are:

Sprinting

Keeping track of word count

Trying to set daily word count goals

Having high output in a short period.

This isn't really an advice post, just me thinking out my process, but if you read on I hope it helps you!

So to give context on my writing mode prior to now, I used to write 1 chapter of Ambergris per month, which is 2500 words. It might seem like quite the jump to set a goal that's approaching ten times that, but I was wondering if I could stretch myself, and was wisely recommended by some folks that it was a good time to do so.

I set my goal based on a rough stretch goal for what my comfortable word count per day was -- I figured if I could do 400 words even on a bad day now, trying for about 600 every day should be doable.

So here's how I got through it, and what I learned.

On Sprinting:

The biggest asset to my Camp Nano experience was @aelenko's sprint server. I loved the open pop in aspects, and I learned that I can pretty easily churn out 450-500 words in 15 minutes if you point me at some dialogue.

The biggest takeaway from sprinting is I realized this is the fastest way to "skeleton" my chapters. I can lay down a lot of the very basics just by having my characters move and talk. I knew before that I hang a lot of the basics of my chapters on that, but I feel like now I know how best to take advantage of that in my drafting.

On Keeping track of my word count:

There was definitely an accountability aspect to updating a work count tracker that appealed to me! People may dunk on the Camp Nano website, but once I figured out how the Stats page works, I won't lie, the desire to "write the same as I did before" or really chase that line to success helped motivate me!

I'm not sure how to integrate this into my practice moving forward! I've seen some people with similar stats screens on...scrivener I think? I still draft on Gdocs, but maybe it's worth it to look into a program that includes this feature.

On having ambitious daily word count goals:

This one was really push and pull for me! I realized halfway to my goal that I do better with an on/off pattern for writing rather than an even page every day. That is, if I alternated between 500 word and 1k word days, it was easier for me not to burn out.

I'm thinking my ideal might be 3 days 'on' a week that are more serious writing. One thing I did really like about this month was it made my evenings really sacred, which is a struggle in doing graduate work. It's like, no matter what struggles I had during the day, I HAD to sit down and at least try to make this happen every night. It really grounded me, which is a boon in these trying times.

On the output quality:

Heh, this is the part that makes me go "well if I do this again, it can't be quite the same". I don't think what I wrote is bad by any means, but there's no denying that the single chapter I wrote in a month is far closer to polished and definitely relevant content than the 7.5 chapters I churned out for camp nano.

I'm going to punt on integrating this into my practice for now-- I'm taking the month of August off of Ambergris (will be working on fanfiction+ a possible short story), and I'll revisit the chapters I wrote for edits in September, and use that time to pace out the rest of the year.

But hey, I made it past Chapter 20! That was genuinely my goal for the whole year so -- who knows, maybe I'll finish drafting the damn thing before 2021!!

Thanks for reading if you got this far 💖

#syb does camp nano #syb reflects #syb speaks #idk what else to tag this as ty if you read this <3

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seenashwrite · 5 years

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14.12 Round-Up

I mean... okay.

This one is essentially what I would’ve posted had I live-blogged. No analysis, really, because there’s nothing to analyze. So, let us begin with my first thoughts whist gazing upon the first scene:

It's. Made. Of. Trash. Cans.

Yes, he's teary-eyed, and yes, and stellar Jensen work, and yes, and feels, and yes, and “Sam!”, and yes, and shit, but - and I can't emphasize this enough----

It's. Made. Of. Trash. Cans.

More importantly, like I said last week, he can imagine this scenario just fine, except it's the cosplay dude in there. Under the ocean of your mind is easier on the noggin than walk-in freezer, methinks. Tinier bangs, muffled screaming.

Clawed-up wall is very nice touch.

SERIAL KILLER?!?! YASSSSSS!!! IS THIS AN ACTUAL CASE?!?!!? Oh and nice underwater visuals... kicking it this week, set design and cinematography!

Why is there no other way, Dean? I can think of three. But none of that matters - Sam and Cas, here's what y'all do, it's called valium. Slip five of those in his whiskey, his system can take it. Then I'd like to introduce you to two of my friends, intubation and a propofol drip. Stick him in a room - preferably Maggie’s, after you kick her out - and presto, time to figure out how to open The Cage and swap Michaels.

I know y'all hate Nick but that guard was working my nerves, so props to ol' Limpy, there. And again with the pretty color and nice shot. More props to the crew, yo.

What is this trip about? Y'all keep talking about what it isn't, so what the shit is it? Is it one last bro bonding for the road? Y'know, for the road on the road? Or are they on their way to dump him into the ocean? Then where's the casket*? The casket which, I feel it necessary to point out---

Is. Made. Out. Of. Trash. Cans.

* ETA: I’ve been informed it was in a trailer on the back of Baby, which somehow I compleeeeetely missed. I zoned out a lot in this one, it was so damn repetitive between the heavy-handed comparisons in the subplot to Dean’s situation, and the identical-but-with-different-words convos between Dean and Sam/Dean and Cas that kept happening over and over and over and over and over and....

Blah-blah-blah Pharaoh's plague, first born, got it. And I assume he's another prophet since y'all blew that wad in the title and in the "Then" with the Donny stuff. And plus the whispery voices. And it's happening because he's brain-dead, not dead-dead. Watch. I'm right.

[mere moments]

Hey, girl. Yeah, you. You, in the mirror. You're hella good at the pedestrian scripting stuff. Mwah. Let's see if you're right about the rest.

(I'm right. I’m always right. #humbly)

Ahhh, half-time. Good. I need a brownie.

Ooooh Sam with the gritty voice upon entry (I absolutely meant that to sound dirty) and hey it's Gabriel wallpaper!

Welp. A choke, two punches, and a gunshot later, we are off to an exciting second half, I hope.

Oh.... ohhhh.... thank you Cassy baby for that scoop. [clears throat] Hey, girl. It's me. Me-You, again. You and your sexy brain that predicts the easily predictable deserves a second brownie. Double-mwah.

Nicky, you're about to get a case of the ghosties----- and damn, there we go! Oof, awkward. Or hell maybe it is Luci. Testing him. In a way, I hope not, I was hoping he'd be all skeletal and tarred. Minus the dollar store Terminator effect, of course. This is a good scene. It's well acted. Pellegrino just gives 120% with any material he's given, he's a gem.

YES, CAS. Give him the business. PS: I love whoever has the stethoscope on Misha like that, or if he did it I love him - my point is, somebody is close to somebody in the medical profession because we---- ER, UM, I MEAN THEY #secret identity--- don't just hang out with the 'scope like that. Hilarious. *chef's kiss* Perfect for Cas.

No, he won't die, dude. Why do they write Sam as the dumbest smart person sometimes? It's a vent, not fucking bypass. Vents are for people who can't breathe on their own for whatever reason or because they're in surgery or whatnots, and Donny was making with the conscious. He was wide awake. It's all good, yo. Your bigger worry is D-Dog coming out of it and still being loopy and spazzing out and jerking the tube, jacking his trachea.

I would happily wake up to that mug in my face, btw. Hey, girl, he'd say. Look who's wakey-wakey eggs and bakey. Because he's Dean, and Dean would say something sexy like that because he'll be so swoony when his tired ass eyes met my bloodshot crusty ones. Supes romantic.

Are we really almost done with this episode? I feel like we haven't gotten a lot accomplished. Not Dean-Sam-Cas wise, I mean. There's been plenty of story, and a decently cool story, otherwise. The rest has been repetitive "Don't do it" - "Imma do it" dialogue.

He's not gonna do it.

Know how I know?

*Boop*

Yeah, yeah, I should separate real life and pretend, but to this I say: not all conflict and drama has to be life-or-death for the main players. It's actually kinda ridiculous to try to do it in modern times (at least, not constantly) with how tapped-in fans are with the industry, we know about contract renewals and such. You know the last best drama this show had? Dean waking up with demon eyes. You wanna talk about some cliff-damn-hanger motherfucking drama. The possibilities, all the unknown. Not only is he not dead, he's also *himself* - a different version of himself, a primal version. That, friends, is seldom done and even less frequently done well, and Ackles did it very, very well. Ah, Demon Dean, we hardly knew thee. I've digressed.

This ending scene is basically Jared's AKF drill, and I'm not shitting on it, legit, I'm truly not - my point is to say it's effective because he means it. Padalecki is at his best when they give him something of significance to work with, they should do it more often. And hey lookee there, Dean agreed. ::sigh:: But, I mean... what about... all that hard... all those five minutes you... I just.... what about the box? You know, the kickass piece of craftsmanship that, I would be remiss if I didn't remind us all -----

Is. Made. Out. Of. Trash. Cans.

Okay, that was largely uneventful, given the content. It's weird - the content means I shouldn't feel "meh", but I'm "meh". Opening scene by far the best, and again, set design and cinematography get high-fives throughout. See ya next week - that preview looked encouraging.

#SPN Spoilers #14.12 #Nash Watches Live #SPN Season 14 #SPN S14 #SPN XIV #Queueby Dooby Doo #Dad's on a blog post and #he hasn't been queued in a few days

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butterflydm · 5 years

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the magicians 4x12: the secret sea

Okay, episode watched.

I’m still very worried about Kady, thanks!

The Margo stuff, I’m... it just feels wrong to cut her out now when the axes are actually going to get used. Her deciding not to go help save Eliot and instead stare at fish!Josh was... certainly a choice that the writers made.

I feel... ehhh? I guess. About the Q and Alice scene. I feel like retreading this relationship ground is kinda sad and frustrating for both Q and Alice? And I’m not super-hyped about the idea of Eliot potentially being narratively-framed as the interloper into an established Q and Alice relationship (again, tbh, thinking back to the S1 threesome) due to various tropes and stereotypes that can be involved in that kind of thing? And having this conversation happen after Q was literally pushing Alice away less than a day ago (given that Kady and Zelda are still in the poison room when the kitchen convo happens) makes it seem a lot less like a solid emotional decision and more like Q grabbing onto literally the only support being offered to him which is... idk, I guess maybe we’re supposed to feel like Q was really inspired by seeing bb!horny-in-love!Alice in the past? Even though he didn’t act like that at all in 4x10?

I just have a lot of question marks about the way they chose to write that scene. I felt like there was dialogue missing or something. I guess it just felt more aspirational than romantic? If I heard right (Jason Ralph’s acting is great but he is so quiet sometimes) Q didn’t say he does trust Alice now, he says that he wants to trust her and that, essentially, he wants to give "us” another shot because he wants to keep her in his life. And, again, that just makes it sound more like he’s desperately trying not to lose yet more people rather than any kind of romantic declaration? Since he’s recently learned that Julia is gone as well as Eliot? And it just kinda makes me sad for him? And sad for Alice that he seems to be doing this out of a desire to stop losing people rather than because it actually seems like he wants a relationship with her again? Like, if this was supposed to be a sweeping romantic moment... it didn’t feel that way. It felt... sad.

And then he did get some emotional catharsis but it was... it was emotional catharsis that it feels like he’s been bottling up since S1, since learning the truth about Fillory and Plover. And it makes sense, since this episode and last episode seemed to all be about trying to re-examine the past, but it does mean that he still hasn’t has any emotional catharsis for the shit that’s happened to him recently, so I still don’t feel any relief for him. I guess it’s kinda like in 4x10 where he feels like he can actually take positive action now rather than just trying to delay the Monster until they have a plan -- he created the flower, they can start to fix things now, so maybe things are looking up, possibly, kind of thing?

No Eliot, so we don’t get to see whether or not the writers plan on “being braver” yet. I will, again, state my wish that Eliot gets more than five seconds at the end of the last episode of the season, thanks! It would kinda suck if Christopher Plover got more screen-time this season than Eliot Waugh did, and I kinda feel like we might be at that point and I’m not cool with it!

We know at least one person is going down to the underworld to see Penny40 next week. Probably not Eliot, since he’s been MIA all season. Probably not Julia, because goddess!powers and whatnot. Margo is staring at fish!Josh, so probably not either of them. Could be Kady, since she hasn’t taken the cure for the poison room. Could be either Alice or Q, depending on how things go down with the Monster sibs. Outside chance that it’s Zelda, though I’m not sure that would have enough impact, narrative-wise, but maybe.

The season finales so far tend to work on the improv standard of “yes, and...” so my guess is that they will successfully stop the Monster sibs, but then something terrible will result from how they do it. I’ve seen speculation that Fillory might die which... is definitely a possibility. I guess we’ll see.

#the magicians #the magicians spoilers #also the episode didn't make me cry #it just made me very very tired #and josh's presence now being a thing that means margo isn't there for her best friend #makes me like their romance a lot less #so if that could get fixed in the finale #that would be nice

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souliloquyyy · 5 years

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Meet The Cast: Infinity & Delta

@gottaenjoythelittlethingzz tagged me! Thank you!!

I’ll be doing this with Infinity (Fin) and Delta, the twin MCs from Rules For The End Of The World!

1. On a scale of “is occasionally forced to bathe” to “Instagram model with sponsors to hoe for” how involved is your OC’s skincare routine?

It’s pretty darn involved for both of them. They absolutely love makeup and that stuff. I, however, do not. So it’s a struggle to write. Which is why I’m not going to attempt to explain their skincare routines.

2. What are your OC’s food preferences (flavors/textures/spiciness/calories/ when and how they eat) and how did they get that way?

Infinity definitely likes soft, warm sweets like cupcakes and brownies. She has a major sweet tooth. There’s not really a reason, she just does. She isn’t super strict about how/when she eats, but she’s definitely the kind of person who doesn’t use a plate if she doesn’t have to.

Delta, while she enjoys sweets like everyone else on the planet, prefers spicy and crunchy foods. She likes chips and salsa. She likes eating raw jalapenos and other hot peppers. Delta will snack all day long if given the opportunity, and, like her sister, rarely uses plates or utensils.

3. What’s something pointless/petty/unimportant that IRRATIONALLY ANNOYS THE HELL out of your OC?

Delta gets annoyed when people don’t understand anarchy or talk about government in front of her.

Fin gets annoyed when people assume she is also an anarchist. She hates people assuming anything about her, honestly.

4. What’s your OC’s response to being asked for money by a homeless person?

Infinity would not give them money but would buy them food or something. She’s one of those people who doesn’t like giving money because she’s worried about how it will be used. But she’ll buy them food, clothes, whatever they need. She’s not heartless, just cautious.

Delta would probably pretend not to notice them. She’s not a very sympathetic person and thinks people should deal with their issues themselves rather than ask for help.

5. Does your OC get lost easily? What do they do when they do get lost?

Neither of them gets lost more easily than anyone else, though they do get lost occasionally. They live in a big city, it’s not hard to lose your way. What they do when they get lost is a different question, though. Infinity would stop and ask someone for directions, while Delta would wander around aimlessly until she figures out how to get where she’s going.

6. What would STOP your OC from Doing The Right Thing in a tense situation?

Honestly, this is a big part of Infinity’s story. She has two Right Things but can only choose one. And whichever she doesn’t choose will end badly. But it’s kinda spoilers. So I can’t really say. However, I will say one thing that will make her hesitate is if it puts her sister in danger. Despite their differences, they’re really close and would do anything for each other.

A lot of things would stop Delta from doing the Right Thing. She’d do whatever would benefit her or her sister.

7. Realistically, could your OC (in their normal circumstances- i.e. at their own house/battle-camp/spaceship etc.) keep a small child alive for a week if they had to? A Dog? A Houseplant? A rock with a smiley face painted on?

Infinity would end up forgetting about the kid at some point, so no, not really. She might be able to do a dog, but again, probably not. She could totally take care of a houseplant, though. She has a bunch of succulents and cactuses. She could definitely take care of a rock and would probably enjoy it too.

Delta is surprisingly good with kids and would probably be able to keep one alive for a week, though not much longer. She doesn’t like animals so that’s a no. She could take care of a houseplant, though she wouldn’t want to. However, she does have one succulent that she’s kept alive for a few months. It was a birthday present from Infinity. She would be capable of caring for a rock, but she would not enjoy it.

8. If your OC had to take the S.A.T. tomorrow with one night to prep, how would they do? Both emotionally and academically.

They’d both be pretty chill about it, especially Delta. Infinity would be a bit stressed out, but she’d manage pretty well. They would do okay, grade-wise, but not amazingly. Probably about average.

9. What would cause your OC to choose to do something petty/pointlessly cruel?

Infinity would only do it for no reason in a joking manner or to someone she doesn’t like. Otherwise, it would take a lot to make her be mean to someone. She’s a peacemaker.

Delta would also only do it to someone she doesn’t like, but she doesn’t like most people, so, realistically, she’d be mean to just about anyone.

10. On a scale of “Complete and justified nervous breakdown” to “Conquer The Entire Galaxy and become an Immortal God-Emperor”, how well would your OC handle being abducted by aliens?

Infinity would be freaking out on the inside but be totally chill on the outside.

Delta would think it was cool and would totally Conquer The Entire Galaxy.

11. What song is 100% guaranteed to get your OC beyond excited and will be sung loudly and embarrassingly, either in public or the shower?

One of Delta’s favorite bands is Fall Out Boy, and her favorite song by them is Young And Menace (she also adores Centuries). She would totally rock out to both of those anywhere and anytime, no matter who is nearby. And she would not be embarrassed at all. She also really likes Fugitive by Halflives.

Fin likes How To Be A Heartbreaker by MARINA and would, like Delta, rock out to it anywhere, anytime, and not be shy about it.

12. What perfectly-normal-to-them-thing does your OC do that confuses/pisses off/terrifies their neighbors?

Delta’s belief in anarchy annoys and honestly scares the neighbors, and Fin’s pastel-grunge aesthetic confuses them. The girls are just super weird and their neighbors hate them for it.

13. Under what circumstances would your OC appear naked in public?

Both of them would probably do it out of spite or because of a dare.

14. What thing did your OC’s parents do that your OC wishes they had a better explanation for?

Name them Infinity and Delta. They like the names, they just wish they could explain them better.

15. How often does your OC “zone out” or do things on autopilot and how severe have the problems that have arisen from that been?

Delta rarely zones out.

Infinity zones out way too often. She has a very intense inner dialogue going all the time, so she gets lost in thought whenever she’s not required to pay attention, and sometimes even when she is required to pay attention. The problems can be pretty severe, for instance, zoning out while driving a car has nearly gotten her into a few accidents. Zoning out during school has gotten her into a lot of trouble with her teachers.

16. How strong or weak is your OC’s impulse control? What’s the worst thing that happened because of their impulsivity or inability to be so?

Both of them are incredibly impulsive and have practically no impulse control. I can’t think of the worst thing that happened because of this, because there are so many, but they’ve both gotten in a lot of fights with other people and have jumped into dangerous situations that could have ended in severe injuries or even death.

17. How does your OC sabotage themselves?

Delta argues with literally everyone to the point where literally everyone hates her, which gets her into a TON of trouble and danger for which she can only blame herself.

Fin does the same thing with her sarcasm, but not quite as bad because she’s only joking whereas Delta is not.

18. What’s the trashiest item in your OC’s wardrobe, when was the last time they wore it and why do they still have it?

I literally don’t know anything about clothing, so I can’t really answer this. But they both love fashion so they probably don’t have any trashy clothing items.

19. How dehydrated is your OC right now? Are they going to fix this?

Fin is Super Healthy and always carries a bottle of water with her, so she is not dehydrated in the least bit.

Delta doesn’t go out of her way to drink water just for the purpose of being healthy, but she’s always thirsty so she’s always drinking water, so she’s pretty much always hydrated.

20. What’s your OC smell like? No, not that “Vanilla and Anxiety” evocative stuff, realistically. Body odor? What have they been touching all day? When was their last shower? Did they put on any kind of artificial scent?

Seeing as it’s the end of the world and they don’t really have the time for deoderant and perfume, they both probably smell pretty bad. They showered at least a day or two ago, but they still have access to showers so they’re not super gross. Fin likes perfume and would wear it if she had the time, but, you know, end of the world and whatnot.

Thank you again to @gottaenjoythelittlethingzz for tagging me!

I’m going to tag literally anyone who wants to do this! Go ahead and say that I tagged you; I’d love to come read about your characters!

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beneaththetangles · 6 years

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BtT Light Novel Club, Chapter 2: Walking My Second Path in Life! (Volume 1)

The second meeting of the Beneath the Tangles Light Novel Club has officially begun! We’re already doing something a big different with this session. Last time, we stayed with the tried and true by starting with a classic light novel, but today, we’re trying out Walking My Second Path in Life, a series published by the J-Novel Club that has already earned some strong reviews in its tale of Princess Fie disguising herself as a boy and becoming a squire. But what did our members—Frank, Teresa Christina, Samuru, and me (TWWK)—think of it? Read through our discussion below to find out, and then chime in as well by giving your opinions or answering the questions at the bottom of this piece!

TWWK: So that was completely different from our last selection…what did y’all think of the first volume?

Samuru: I haven’t finished the book, but so far I have enjoyed it! It was very different than any fiction I have read. I liked how they setup Fie as a stranded princess. As for the negative of the novel… It’s hard to describe, and I am not sure how to write it in words, but I feel that the book has parts that aren’t written well. For example, there are times where the story is just flung into some situation without any preparation or description. For example, during the fight with Gormus (I think that’s his name), the dialogue announced that the fight was over, then they continued fighting? I thought it was over…and there was no line that got you back into it. It’s just weird, I notice that throughout. Not enough setup to the next scene.

TWWK: You’re right, especially for the first half. It took a while for the writer to find his way.

Teresa Christina: I agree with Samaru, too. There didn’t seem to be a clear direction to the story; it wasn’t terribly written well. It couldn’t decide what it was going to be about. It followed a girl who didn’t act like a girl at all, so the element of her secret gender wasn’t as powerful as it could have been. The plot was more of a collection of stories of things that happened to Fie instead of one feat she had to overcome. That made the story drag on terribly.

Samuru: I wish there was more details, background, setting, even character development of Fie. I know she’s a princess, but I feel that her character is written like a guy. I sometimes forget that she’s a girl from the way she is described.

TWWK: It definitely was less a “novel” and more, in my mind, an anime on paper. The book read like season one of a series, with each chapter having and ebb and flow that felt like an episode.

Teresa Christina: It did feel more like an anime then a story, and I suppose that in itself is not a bad thing—I just didn’t expect it. I don’t tend to like stories that have no destination. Some anime are like that and can get away with it. I thought Sweetness and Lightning was a very cute anime that didn’t need a real story; it was just character development. If the light novel focused on the characters a little more like Sweetness and Lightning did, then I think I could appreciate it more. I really want to be fond of it since I loved the setting and catalyst, but as a writer myself, I couldn’t let go of being irked by the lack of plot.

stardf29: While I do agree that the plot never really goes anywhere in particular, I actually kind of liked that about the story. It gives more of a “slice-of-life” feel to it, and I think that works well with the story’s overall theme of a “second path in life.” Fie isn’t taking this path because there’s a particular destination she wants to go; she’s taking it because the journey itself is more fulfilling than what her life had been before.

TWWK: I definitely feel the same as you, stardf—I thought it was actually pretty ingenious how the format of the light novel fit Fie’s personality and her goal. I know people like Fie, who are at once serious and fly-by-the-seat, and the book took on that same personality and added to it. I don’t think I would have had any interest if the story was more straight-forward. That meandering, slice of life feel is refreshing. The story takes its time to develop, and I think that’s a strength. Any other thoughts?

stardf29: One thing about the setting that I found interesting is that while it has many of the trappings of a fantasy setting—medieval castles and society and whatnot—as far as we know, there is absolutely no magic. In a way it’s almost more of a historical fiction story, albeit with made-up places.

TWWK: That’s an interesting point—the lack of magic. I think that, along with the setting, adds this layer of realism to a story that doesn’t feel like it’s meant to be realistic. It’s very anime-ish, very fairy tale-ish, very suspend-your-realism-ish, but the grounding in reality keeps it from being too cartoony, and I appreciate that.

It’s also interesting that you bring up magic because I felt a Harry Potter vibe, minus the magic. The dormitory is the squires’ Hogwarts, and Fie is developing a wide range of friendships, has a few teachers, and several mentors in the 18th. But it was definitely hard to get to know the other squires…they started kind of melding into the 18th knights for me (I think the author realized this because at one point, she specifically compares one of the squires to one of the knights to differentiate them), except for Gormus, whose developing relationship with Fie was a high point for me, too. I think he was my favorite character in volume one.

stardf29: I particularly like the friendship she’s built up with Gormus after their tryout battle, with Gormus coming to respect her even though she lost. And then there’s Fie and Queen… I’ll admit, I was kind of uncomfortable with how she basically blackmailed him into being her servant. Unfortunately, since it happened pretty much right at the end of the volume their relationship doesn’t get much chance to develop past that, at least here, but it does mean that there’s plenty of opportunity for improving their relationship in volume 2.

Her relationships with the 18th Platoon are fun, too, with Crow taking her as a “little brother,” and seeing what he thinks of “him” from his journal entries… and there’s Yore, who has taken well to her, not knowing she’s technically one of his wives. If we ever get to a point where that fact gets revealed to him… that’s going to be fun.

TWWK: Also interesting that you brought up Queen—in the final few chapters, we shift from Fie’s point of view towards those of others characters like Queen, Cain, Lynette, and even the chef! I thought that was so smart, and it helped develop Fie’s character all the more. What do you think of Fie as a character?

stardf29: While she’s definitely a lot of fun, she also has some notable flaws, and in particular, she’s not exactly the most “noble” character and has a side to her that is willing to do some questionable things to achieve her goals. I do think, though, that while that might make her less “likable,” it does make her more interesting.

TWWK: That’s a good point—in media, and especially in books, the less admirable some characters are, the more interesting they end up being.

stardf29: Whatever I might like or dislike about Fie as a person, I do think she’s a great protagonist, story-wise. It plays into a certain schematic I have for fictional characters, in that they can be likable, interesting, or relatable, or some combination thereof. Any given character will have some degree of likability, interesting-ness, or relatability, and that makes me see that character in different ways…(…actually, you know what, maybe I’ll talk about this for my next blog post. I need something a bit more fun to talk about next month.)

TWWK: For what’s been thus far a very breezy story, there’s some depth to Fie’s characterization. We didn’t even get to the swap in gender role in the story!

Teresa Christina: I could see the direct correlation to Milan and Joan of Arc. There is something fascinating about challenging gender roles.

Samuru: Ahhh I hadn’t thought of Joan of Arc good point!

TWWK: What of the other characters? If you could switch Fie out and make her a side character in this volume, who would you like to see at the protagonist instead?

stardf29: Hmm… one choice would definitely be Yore, basically putting him in the position of “guy who gets along with another guy, unaware that said guy is actually a girl and someone he knows.”

TWWK: That would be fun! And you wouldn’t even have to change the title to the series, hehe.

As you can see, we barely scratched the surface with our discussion—we want to hear from you, dear readers! What were your impressions of volume one of Walking My Second Path in Life? Did you agree with our assessments? Disagree entirely? Let us know! And if you need more kindling, here are some questions you might answer about the volume—we talked about the first but didn’t get a chance to dive into the others:

If you could switch Fie out and make her a side character in this volume, who would you like to see at the protagonist instead?

Did this light novel remind you of any other stories? Perhaps another anime or a fairy tale?

We spoke of some of Fie’s questionable qualities, but what are some of her redeeming ones? What did you think of her as a character?

The first volume had quite a large cast—did you enjoy getting to know the supporting characters or were there too many?

Where do you think the story is headed?

If you could cast a movie based on this volume, who would want to fill the roles?

That’s it for this edition of the light novel club! Thanks for reading along and be anticipating our next selection—we’ll let you know the title very soon!

#Light Novels #BtT Light Novel Club #Walking My Second Path in Life #Watashi wa Futatsume no Jinsei wo Aruku!#Articles

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jcmorgenstern · 6 years

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3x04

Okay I’m gonna try to put my thoughts in some semblance of order about this episode because they were largely negative but I think I can qualify and explain them somewhat. I think the biggest problem I’m running into here is the worldbuilding and certain really foundational flaws in how some aspects of the characters are written. (Readmore for length).

What they had with Jace’s mental health is a good start. I still do quibble with the tactless decision to conflate psychotic symptoms with demonic possession, but I think we can agree they probably didn’t mean it that way, and even if it could have been thought through better...everyone’s mileage on that varies. But the biggest flaw that kept me from really engaging with that storyline was the utter unbelievability of the surrounding worldbuilding.

The fact there is absolutely no established procedure for medical evaluation or burnout in the field is just totally unbelievable. The fact that Alec isn’t required to order a medical evalution of Jace to continue field work, or even has any sort of health-related support or a medic to consult with is totally ridiculous. We’ve been told they have medics--Victor Aldertree was one before taking up a position as resident asshole--so where the fuck are they? The Clave is a military organization, there’s no way they don’t have some sort of health infrastructure to provide Alec support in figuring out what’s wrong with Jace.

If Alec had come to Jace in the same scene and asked if he’d be willing to see to a medic for his sleep problems or whatnot (and Jace refused, saying that Alec thinks he’s “crazy” and unfit for duty despite the fact he’s been giving things his all) that would make much more sense. But as it stands it just seems like the Clave’s policy is to have absolutely no health (let alone mental health lmao) support and like. That’s just incredibly stupid. They fight with swords. They’re going to get injured. So much of this show is just free-floating (often contradictory) facts in a total lack of coherent worldbuilding, and for me it’s starting to pile up and detract from my ability to emotionally engage with the action.

A lot of the dialogue was very clumsy in this episode--good ideas, but very poor execution. So much telling rather than showing, often with little tweaks that could have made it so much better. Like, if instead of saying “My love for Clary overcame your possession” Jace could have said that Clary helped him believe in the good in himself and he knew he’s not who her visions said he was. That is, in effect, the same statement, but the second is much more emotionally impactful--he’s not just saying they’re in love, it’s demonstrating a facet of that love and that bond and how it pulled him out of her possession.

Also, another thing that’s been bothering me since....well, ever, is that Clary more than anyone else is written so inhumanly and robotically. And it’s becoming more obvious. Alec gets to go home to Magnus and talk about how being unable to help Jace is impacting him, how he was scared when their rune faded and how he’s frustrated his attempts seem to be pushing Jace further away, but Clary can’t even express mild distress or even pretend that she’s fine when someone asks. Killing Valentine, watching Jace die, knowing that she’s going to be thrown into prison for life if anyone finds out what she’s done--none of that weighs on her or even seems to be in her mind at all. She’s a cardboard cutout, writing wise, and in light of the complexity they’re at least trying to lend Jace, the disservice done her character really shows. Even when she claims she’s willing to brave the Guard to keep Jace safe, the dialogue is so wooden it just rings false, like she doesn’t even know what she’s saying or hasn’t even thought about it, there’s no gravity to her situation--her situation and her perspective isn’t even considered. So instead of speaking to the ferocity of her determination to keep the person she loves safe and the importance and depth of that connection between them, it rings as glib and trite.

The show really struggles to establish gravitas, despite taking itself much too seriously. Part of that is down to the ludicrious pacing--am I supposed to believe a war takes place in a few weeks at most?--but a lot of it is just due to the inability establish the situation and the characters in relation to it, and the extreme self-awareness established by pandering to the fandom’s every whim. In the moments that the show bucks expectation and utilizes its enormous cast to creatively explore how very different characters would interact, it shines.

On the things I enjoyed: I really enjoyed Jordan Kyle so far, I’m hoping they’ll manage to flip expectations regarding how his arc goes down in the books. A personal preference would be finding a non-romantic resolution to the animosity between him and Maia. I enjoyed the conversation between Maia and Luke--I’ve enjoyed him in his leadership position so far, as it seems more realistic than their usual fare. If they don’t wuss out and do actually give Maryse consequences, that realism will really enrich the show and heighten the emotional stakes, even if her punishment isn’t entirely deserved.

Raphael...I don’t really think they’ve coherently linked his emotional states to what he’s doing with Heidi, and while I like that they’ve fleshed her out more from a Empty Blonde Bitch(TM) in the books to someone who sees no reason to function by social rules because they’ve done nothing but let her down and hurt her. The song playing while she fucks around with Simon’s stuff was a fantastic touch. The actress who plays her is wildly overdirected and it’s driving me insane, but it...could be worse.

Izzy still doesn’t have a coherent arc, and to be honest I did find her assertion that most of her relationships were about sex and with Raphael it was better because he didn’t want sex--I felt that was a bit. Unfortunate in its implications. I’m willing to shut up and wait it out but...that’s all I’ve done with her since S1 and I’m getting tired of it. I did love Lilith and I hope they can keep it up with her even though. Her dialogue this episode was also pretty painful. She dictates her plans to the screen and...it’s very cartoonish and so. much. telling. not showing.

Anyway overall this episode....tried to do a lot of things and for me most of them fell sort of flat, mostly due to some really unfortunate writing choices but also mostly due to a really fundamental failing of worldbuilding and characterization. I’m hoping 3B will at least give them a chance to flesh Clary out a bit more emotionally, but considering they’ve had all of season 2 to start I...don’t see that happening. I’m fine with having a few episodes I loved less than others, but unfortunately for me these flaws are sort of fundamental and won’t really be fixed, and will probably continue to impact how much I enjoy a lot of what they do. While there are islets of stuff I really enjoyed, the show’s huge cast and enormous ambitions make it almost impossible to put together coherent thoughts with so many arcs and threads hanging loose with little integration. I’m willing to hold out judgement until we’ve seen more of the resolution of the stuff they’re starting, but often with this show I find they do more starting plot threads than actually keeping them up or resolving them meaningfully so....yeah. More creative problemsolving for their plot thread integration is direly needed.

tl;dr: there was no crispy in this episode and some idiot (me) won’t shut the fuck up

#i need a talking tag #if you'd like to add your own thoughts feel free to send an ask or something! im curious what people think

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remedialaction · 6 years

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So, the more I think about The Last Jedi, the more problems I have with it. I came out of the theater thinking I loved it but had a few quirk moments that really annoyed me, but as time has gone on I’ve reached this point where I simultaneously love it and hate it, and I’m just going to embrace that and both love and hate it in equal measure.

And because of this, I have a lot to say and I’m just gonna go ahead and post it. Obviously, under a read more cus I’m not gonna bother attempting to hide spoilers. This may ramble some too, but whatever. Time for Starcourse!

The first thing I have to make clear about The Last Jedi is, to me, it did not feel like a Star Wars movie. By this I mean that the way it was shot, the way it was written, the way it is placed inside the whole cinematic series just doesn’t feel like a Star Wars film. Some of this is on a meta level: it begins mere moments after the end of The Force Awakens, and that sets it apart from all the other films, which have massive gaps between them.

The Last Jedi and The Force Awakened could be one movie, in many ways, and that’s not really a good thing, because regardless of anything else, it begins to break down the feel of what a Star Wars movie is. However, the issues that make me say this go on further. On a technical side, the scenes don’t FEEL like a Star Wars movie. There are many things to say about George Lucas but I feel the cinematography in his films was, at the least, distinct. And that distinctness left a clear impression.

But The Last Jedi doesn’t really have that. It’s shot radically different than other films in the series, I felt like. And so that contributes to the feel that it’s a movie using Star Wars props and settings and characters, but yet not feeling like a Star Wars Movie, if you catch my meaning.

Another issue is music. In prior Star Wars films, the music is as much a part of the scenes as any other element, and it stands out in my head. I can hear the music when imagining the scenes, the music is distinctive because of how the scenes are shot and scored. I don’t remember any of the music from The Last Jedi, and while I’m sure it’s actually fantastic it just... didn’t capture me the same way. I’m not sure why yet, and it’ll take multiple viewings to really grasp it probably.

Moving on, the way it’s written also doesn’t feel Star Wars. I mean this in two ways: it’s pacing is all over the place, it’s dialogue feels out of place, and the humor, while occasionally actually good, doesn’t feel like Star Wars humor. I want to be clear that for some of these, much like the above comments, these are not necessarily reasons why it’s a bad movie, but perhaps why it may be a bad Star Wars movie. Other cases, though, absolutely mark it out as just bad writing regardless, but I’ll touch on that in each case.

Firstly, the humor. There is a lot of attempted humor in this film, some which works better than others. I’ll admit, while I found the opening bit with Poe and Hux amusing, it felt utterly out of place. It’s basically an extended version of the scene from The Force Awakens, which itself felt out of place, particularly given the context. In that, we literally just saw a mass slaughter of a village and you’re now doing a comedy bit. Not only that, Star Wars doesn’t really do comedy bits. The humor in Star Wars is delivered in different ways, but the timing is also key. This is akin to Padme cracking wise after Anakin talk’s about how he killed all the Tusken Raiders.

In The Last Jedi, there is less of a poor timing, but the entire bit robs the film of momentum, and also serves to render Hux into a buffoonish character (which I’ll touch on later,) and it just doesn’t feel like Star Wars. It’s funny, but out of place. In a lot of ways, I include Luke’s flick of the saber (though I think that also works well enough) but even more so his dusting his shoulder off. The former at least serves well as a shocking sort of moment. The latter serves to break the drama and scale of it all. Included in this, though, are Poe’s ‘permission to jump in an X-Wing and blow stuff up’ line, which again, just feels... out of place given the situation. It robs the scene of seriousness.

Which is sort of the major issue; I don’t feel like The Last Jedi takes itself seriously. Or, at least, it doesn’t do so consistently. Lines like that, or then lines like Rey when Kylo shows up in the mind link shirtless, and so on just serve to make it feel... less serious. Some might say it grounds things, but that’s the big issue: Star Wars isn’t grounded. It’s a Space Opera, it’s epic fantasy in space, and The Last Jedi doesn’t feel epic. Indeed, the whole film seems... small.

This is as much an issue with The Force Awakens, though, in that it really fails to establish the sort of scope of the First Order, and the Resistance really comes off as minor as well. It continues in TLJ though in that it really just never feels like things are ‘a big deal.’ We’re told of things but it’s very mixed on actually showing, I guess? Or the showing just... falls flat.

Linked to the issue of it taking place right after The Force Awakens, the whole film takes place in, arguably, the course of, what, a day? A few days? It’s hard to tell. At first, I thought it was only literally about a day because they literally give hour counts on their fuel but Rey is with Luke for what seems like a few days. Yet the pacing is such that thing seem both too slow and too fast. There is no real sense of time in a lot of the scenes, and that really causes issues with the pacing. And also with things like Rose and Finn, because we’re talking about people who just met at most a few days ago, on less then stellar circumstances, and then things progress so very quickly, and it seems... out of place.

And then we get things like the entire Casino subplot, which irks me on many levels. First, the intentional aping of the Cantina introduction with a reworking of the ‘scum and villainy’ line, the panning around of all these fantastic and weird aliens and all, and whatnot. Sort of clever, but it just gets hamfisted when Rose goes on to imply that the only way to get this rich is arms sales. I damn near groaned out loud at that moment, because this is a movie by Disney telling me the only way to get rich is arms sales. Eat my ass, Disney! You mean to tell me there are no Space Googles or Space Comcasts or Space Disneys? It doesn’t even make sense!

Particularly not when we just had a bunch of movies about the Trade Federation and the Banking groups and other members of the Confederacy that were rich, and thus had a lot of arms to defend their financial interests, rather than being rich BECAUSE of their arms. And then we have the whole stampede through the city, and how great it was to stick it to them... yet are you trying to imply EVERYONE in the city, all the stuff you broke only belonged to rich arms dealers who are assholes to kids and kick puppies or something? I get that Finn is new to this, impressionable, and so on, but he went from being amazed and loving it to literally being glad they smashed stuff up.

Also, the alien dude with the southern accent was terrible. Should have let it be an alien language and just let us UNDERSTAND through VISUAL STORYTELLING. You know, like we got with the Kubaz who ratted out Luke and Han and them in A New Hope. Indeed, not doing this makes the whole universe feel small. Aliens just aren’t used right.

And honestly, I’m just going go through a long string of ‘why’ questions that really irked me, in no particular order or organization. These aren’t all equal complaints, but they’re just things that got to me...

Why are the bombers literal bombers, when we had Y-Wings and B-Wings in the other movies that clearly were strike craft with heavy payloads for the sort of thing they were doing. Why would you ever have a literal ‘bomber’ in space, given there is no gravity for the bombs? That whole sequence also makes the Resistance feel very very small, because it doesn’t feel like a lot of ships get blown up but apparently that’s their WHOLE bomber wing?

On that subject too, Poe gets hemmed up for disregarding orders and taking out the dreadnought, abet at heavy losses, to the point that he gets demoted and the Vice Admiral (who, by the by, I really hate the design of. Leia looks at least paramilitary in outfit, but she is just straight up wearing a dress and it just feels... out of place) treats him pretty badly despite later saying she actually understood and likes him, but later, when they get caught due to their hyperspace tracking stuff, it becomes utterly apparent that it was absolutely a good thing that Poe did what he did cus had he not, the Dreadnought could have just blasted them from space. Instead, they manage to outpace them because Poe’s desperate gambit took out the ship that could have blasted them due to its superweapon guns.

On that subject, how the hell does ‘out of range’ in a vacuum work? Like, I guess the argument is the energy dissipates but how the hell can they maintain that speed that always keeps them at range yet never outpaces them? And why doesn’t the supermassive Snoke battleship have those same guns? (Also the way these ships are introduced is meh, not like how they did the like Super Star Destroyer in the original trilogy, but that gets back to how the movie is shot and not feeling right.)

And how the hell does on person manage to fly that massive Mon Cal ship, anyway? How come the massive damage done by it ramming them going into hyperspace is played up yet apparently the ships are still mostly functional, at least enough to get folks down to the planet and all? That felt very odd...

And on that subject, the planet! The whole plan seems so very odd. How the hell did they manage to fly so far on sublight speed to get in range of this planet that just so HAPPENED to be an old rebel base (which only has one way in an out, for some reason,) and somehow no one saw these planets? Or, you know, the SUN it must be orbiting? And why not TELL people this plan, like what was the purpose of KEEPING IT SECRET? Particularly not when you have a hotheaded and brash guy who already is on notice for disobeying orders he thought was wrong, and you think your little stern talking to was gonna shut him down? Really?

And the irony is, Poe got hemmed up for his scheme to take out the dreadnought, which ended up being not merely good but necessary. But no one really talks about how his scheme to shut off the tracker, which led to the First Order becoming aware of the transports because the slicer (cus he’s a slicer, not a codebreaker, again, use the damn Star Wars-y terms, film!) ratted them out, and that leads to, what, like 90% of the Resistance dying? For that matter, how big IS the resistance, cus you seem to have enough folks to fill the trench yet apparently everyone fits on the Millennium Falcon in the end?

And why the hell is Finn piloting one of those speeders anyway? He’s not a pilot, we’ve literally been shown he was figuring out how to operate the guns on the TIE Fighter and Falcon but he explicitly NEEDED a pilot, that’s why he rescued Poe, after all, and that’s why Rey piloted their escape. If anything, he should be with the ground forces cus that’s his expertise. And speaking of expertise, how is it that this one guy who was a janitor apparently was a janitor for Starkiller base, and thus knows his way around that in a complex and technical way, and ALSO knows his way around Snoke’s superbattleship, in a complex and technical way? That seems... weird.

Like, I liked when Rey could navigate Starkiller base cus she was familiar with Imperial tech and designs from crawling around in them her whole life. Finn being that knowledgeable seems... sort of weird.

On the earlier thing, why is Hux portrayed in an almost buffoonish way? It robs him of any menace. His other officers seem more competent, and he just seems... very very NOT competent, and it sort of messes things up. It robs some menace from the First Order when he’s the on in charge.

Why does everyone seem to get to where they’re going instantly? Travel time seems simultaneously a plot point and non-existent.

Why introduce Snoke as this strange character if you do basically almost nothing with him? Like, the Emperor at least had build up and then sort of mattered. And yeah, they could reveal more in the third film but that’s... really not helpful for THIS film feeling odd. And then the biggie: Rey and Kylo. And I don’t mean any sort of romantic overtones cus I actually like how they handled that, with Rey conclusively saying fuck no to Kylo and thus squashing that as a thing (though I know some folks refuse to see it that way,)

What I mean is that Kylo’s ‘let the past die, kill it, and start over’ ideology is basically the exact same thing that Yoda is telling and what is happening with the Resistance and Jedi. Which, honestly, is itself fairly stupid and I object to this idea that somehow she already knows any of the good things in ‘old religious texts’ and whatnot, because of broader implications, but if you’re gonna have that message then why show that actually they saved the books and their on board the falcon at the end.

Honestly, there is probably more that I’m missing but this is the general thrust of things. I want to be clear, though, I actually liked a lot of it. Finn is still the best character, even if put in situations I don’t actually totally agree with. The humor was legitimately funny, and sometimes actually fit well. BB8′s constantly trying to pluck the ‘leaks’ and then using their head to do it felt both funny and very Star Wars-y; I can see R2 doing something like that. (though, as a note, that R2, C3P0, and Chewbacca all get basically no real place again sort of stands out. R2 and C3P0 being major aspects of the Star Wars franchise is sort of a big deal. They’re supposed to be there, and they’re really not in this.)

But the fight sequences are pretty damn good, with a few minor hiccups, and like I really enjoyed the film while watching it. I’ll certainly watch it again, but there is so much that I feel also was just in JUST to tweak with people and Rian trying to play gotcha games, and it, at the core, just didn’t feel like a Star Wars movie. It’s a movie using Star Wars trappings in ostensibly the Star Wars universe, but it just...

Didn’t feel like Star Wars.

#star wars #the last jedi #spoilers #the last jedi spoilers #starcourse

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toonstarterz · 7 years

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BECAUSE I’M NOT POPULAR, I’LL READ WATAMOTE: CHAPTER #123

Just when you thought we had too many characters in Tomoko’s new class, Nico Tanigawa goes ahead and adds another person to 3-5...at least for one day. Ever since that chapter when Tomoki first ran into his sister’s circle of friends, I was wondering if we would ever expand on that to the point where Tomoki might officially meet them (exchange introductions and whatnot). Suffice to say, that kind of development seems very possible after a chapter like this.

Chapter 123: Because I’m Not Popular, I’ll Invite My Brother to 3-5

As I recall, this isn’t the first time Tomoki has forgotten his lunch (refer to chapter 83). I suppose that for being a responsible soccer star, the mangaka wanted to give Tomoki more plausible flaws (besides being a perpetual scowler). I think something like being forgetful works here, because not only does it make Tomoki more relatable, it also highlights Tomoko’s more concerned, “older sister” side. It’s easy to forget that for all her shit-talking, Tomoko does look out for him.

I wonder, did Tomoki really refer to her as a “chick”? It’s a minor grievance, but the difference does say quite a bit about Tomoki’s character. The term “chick” connotes a sense of misogyny for some people, but that doesn’t seem to be Tomoki at all, especially since in previous chapters he’d use words like “girl” instead. Hmm...

Honestly, as heartwarming as Yoshida’s smile is, I’d be lying if I said it kind of freaked me out a bit. I can’t recall any other time that Yoshida had a smile as big and as genuine as this, that for a second, I thought it might’ve been a different character. Perhaps it’s fact that a smile like this isn’t going to last very long, especially for someone who switches gears at the drop of a hat like Yoshida.

Funny enough, I love how Yoshida’s emotional state doesn’t really change the way she talks. In this case, she still has the nerve to call Tomoki a punk, which she’d probably still do if she were in a more sour mood. Basically, all of her dialogue here could be copy-and-pasted if Yoshida were feeling more confrontational.

I’ve been seeing people accuse Tomoki as being just as judgmental and rude as Tomoko is, but I don’t think that’s really being fair to the guy. We’ve all had moments where we would quietly make unfair judgments on people we just met, but most people have the decency to not be vocal about it until proven wrong or right. It’s different from Tomoko, whose filter seems to fluctuate between on and off at the worst times. Tomoki is only human, after all.

So there’s going to be another field trip arc in the future, huh? Now I’m REALLY excited. I wonder what we can expect from it, given that the first field arc was Tomoko’s first major turning point. Will there be a big fight between Tomoko’s friends (Yuri vs Minami), or perhaps Ucchi will confess to Tomoko on the ferris wheel (not happening)? I’m sure Yoshida will have a huge role, though. Maybe she’ll have her dreams shattered and Tomoko will try to comfort her and fail spectacularly.

If you thought being in a different class could stop Ucchi...

...you were so, so wrong.

Ucchi being a stalker is nothing new at this point, but there are a few things pull apart from this seemingly simple gag. For one, it’s not just Ucchi’s action that makes for a laugh–it’s her demeanor, too. She goes into the classroom with a smile, and comes out with a smile. Obviously, the latter is her trying to keep face in front of her friends, but there isn’t a twinge of hesitation in her actions. She must really be going for her.

But the other, somewhat more depressing part of this joke is how Ucchi’s friends apparently didn’t even notice she was gone for three seconds in another room. We’ve had hints before that Ucchi was the outsider amongst her circle of friends, but did you notice how Ucchi effortlessly re-inserted herself into the conversation? It suggests that Ucchi’s done this several times before, and she’s gotten used to being excluded. Poor Emoji-girl just wants to be noticed.

It’s not everyday that Nico Tanigawa gives us little tidbits to remind us that Tomoko is a girl, with all the issues that come along with it (for those who don’t know, women’s bathrooms often have long lines because they aren’t designed to fit the cumbersome routines women go through just to relieve themselves). Any time Tomoko’s gender is directly brought up, it’s usually in a sexual context, but this here is just an everyday issue about being a girl. I wonder if the artist had any input on this...

So I’m guessing that’s Emoji-girl 2.0′s shtick is that she’ll be doing all of these really impressive feats in the background, yet we won’t learn a single thing about her personality-wise. A gag character at its finest.

Cute.

It was only a matter of time before these two met each other.

Yuri sure has come a long way in regards to how she treats Tomoko. I doubt that if this was right after the field trip arc, she wouldn’t have bothered to confront someone rifling through Tomoko’s locker. Maybe she’d tell Tomoko later, since that’d be the passive choice, but that’s definitely not the case now. Ever since Yuri admitted that Tomoko is her friend, she’s noticeably been more considerate of her.

And pray tell, Yuri, what did you expect Tomoko’s brother to be like? We’re you expecting someone just as crass, weird, and idiotic like the sister? That’d be a reasonable assumption if all you’re going on is Tomoko herself. But speaking as someone with a sister who is very much different from myself, siblings being polar opposites are a lot more common than you might think, Yuri.

Wonder why Tomoko is particularly happy about her brother stopping by? I’d assume that she thinks her relationship with the popular Tomoki would make her look more popular by comparison, but popularity hasn’t been a goal of Tomoko’s as of late. Maybe she just wanted to freak out Komiyama...

Oh snap, she’s doing the sleeve grab! This is such a shoujo manga move, complete with the highlight and everything, that you cannot tell me that the mangaka doesn’t know the implications here.

I think this the first time we’ve seen Yuri act without fully thinking things out first, and it’s kind of amazing that someone like Tomoko is actually encouraging her to be a little more bold, though not to a degree Yuri can handle yet. We’ve already seen just how far Yuri is stepping out of her comfort zone to maintain her friendships, but I suppose forcing a conversation is not quite her speed yet. Baby steps, Yuri.

I guess now is as good a time as any to address the elephant in the room that is the YurixTomoki ship. Do I think it could work? In all honestly, I think it could. We really don’t know anything about Tomoki’s taste in girls, if he has any. But if the less than pleasant reactions he’s had to Tomoko, Komiyama, and Yoshida are anything to go by, he probably wouldn’t want someone vulgar, creepy, or challenging respectively. Likewise, we don’t know anything about Yuri’s taste in guys, if one exists. But I think it’s a safe bet that she wouldn’t want to deal with someone aggressively outgoing. That being the case, my only argument for them is that Tomoki and Yuri would likely be a very easygoing relationship if the ship were to start sailing.

Comedy-wise, I think the possibilities for Komiyama and Akari’s despair, and Tomoko being the awkward third wheel are endless.

It’s always funny to see how easily Komiyama can go from being the sensible one to being the dunderhead when the circumstances are just right. Most of the time, she’s the straight woman to Tomoko’s idiocy, but whenever baseball or especially Tomoki are concerned, she ends up being more of a fool than Tomoko. I’m not even annoyed that she insulted the best girl, since it’s obvious Komiyama is just thinking on impulse, and her words are only that of a jealous lust-filled admirer who needs to deny the possibility that Tomoki could be interested in any other girl besides her. You can be such a lovable bitch at times, Komiyama.

Komiyama sure is channeling her inner Tomoko, isn’t she?

I see the writers took the time to capture Yuri letting go of Tomoki’s sleeve. We have no clue whether Yuri knows what’s going on between Komiyama and Tomoki, despite Komiyama being an open book. It’s probably just a throwaway action, but I’d like to think that Yuri is aware of how it must look for a girl to cling onto another guy, and wanted to avoid looking like she had a relationship with Tomoki lest Komiyama get the wrong idea.

And yes, Tomoko’s friends truly are “the crazies” now, huh? To think that group used to be a population of one, aka. Tomoko.

One thing that’s been on my mind is what Tomoki actually thinks about Komiyama? We already know he views her as some kind of “pure pervert”, but it’s still up in the air whether he finds her truly repulsive or not. He likely has some inkling that Komiyama has a crush on him (he ain’t no oblivious MC), but probably doesn’t intend to reciprocate those feelings any time soon. At this point, he’s probably deliberately avoiding her just to keep from being sexually harassed again. But now that he’s been confronted, he’s got to throw her a boner.

Good gracious, this woman needs help.

I’m noticing some confusion at this line, and while I myself can’t adequately explain the inner workings of the female body, I think the important thing to understand is what this reaction means about Komiyama.

Whether or not Komiyama’s period actually happened is not what matters here. The overall impression is that Komiyama had such an immense reaction to Tomoki that it literally sent her sex drive on overload. One interpretation is that her hormones raged so bad that it jump-started her period. But what I personally think happened is that Komiyama had a “climax” and is using a period as a coverup. Either way, Komiyama truly is the most depraved girl in this manga.

The only girl that could outdo Yuri in the tsukommi department.

Now I’m curious as to how Komiyama and Itou met. Even better, how exactly did Itou see past all of Komiyama’s grossness to eventually become her friend? I’d imagine that the circumstances mirror Tomoko and Yuri’s relationship in some way.

And this is why relativity matters, folks. Even for us readers, Tomoko at the start of the series always seemed to be the abnormal one, but that was only because for a while, she was the only character we really got to see, which made everyone else look hyper-normal in comparison. So yes, Tomoki, your older sister actually is pretty normal...relatively speaking.

You know, I was worried that Tomoki, being the sole recurring male of this manga, would get sidelined in favor of all the new female characters. But thankfully, that doesn’t appear to be the case. Tomoki’s role in this story was initially that of an observer, a audience surrogate who could join us in reacting to Tomoko’s antics. But even that couldn’t last, so I guess the mangaka has been trying to find some way to characterize him even further. For now, it seems that Tomoki may soon find himself being more involved in Tomoko’s social circle. Just don’t steal your sister’s harem now.

So what do you suppose Tomoki’s role we be from this point on? Will he be characterized beyond having a desirable dick? Will a hidden dorky side bubble up to the surface? Or will his heart grow three sizes someday? But even if he stays in the background, I’ll always have certain fondness for the guy. Why?

Cuz he has not once, ever raised the siscon flag.

#watamote #watamote review #no matter how i look at it it's you guys' fault i'm not popular!#chapter 123 #tomoki kuroki #masaki yoshisa #ucchi #potential-san #yuri tamura #kotomi komiyama #itou #review

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wlwvoltron · 7 years

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why lance (probably) won’t be the red paladin, and also why keith (probably) won’t be the black paladin

alright, so, chances are you’ve watched and rewatched the season three trailer multiple times. or, at least, i have. in it, we see lance in both the blue lion and the red lion, and we also see keith in the black lion.

lots of people are speculating that this means black paladin keith and red paladin lance are basically canon now, (and they could very well be right) but i don’t think that’s how the season will progress.

i mean, first off, there’s this analysis by @radioactivesupersonic, which is a perfect description of how keith, character wise, would crumble from being the black paladin. it would give him no positive character development, and it just brings back keith’s abandonment issues/trauma and whatnot. and honestly? you can see that in the picture above. keith looks, quite frankly, miserable, but he’s trying to just...toughen up and pull through, because shiro, the only person who’s ever been there for keith, the person he’s probably trusted with his life on multiple occasions (before voltron, too), the person who’s like a brother to him, told him to do this. so of course he’s going to listen. but that doesn’t mean keith has to be happy about being the black paladin.

you can also say that this expression can be a reaction to lotor telling the team he’s going to destroy them, but look at hunk and pidge - their expressions are so different from keith’s. because keith has to lead now, and, truth is, he has no idea how to. now, this isn’t me hating on keith’s character or whatever, but simply stating a fact - keith does not know how to lead a team, and he’s only ever had to look out for himself. if shiro had told keith how to lead or handle the pressure, this may have been different. but shiro didn’t do that, and keith is clueless as to what to do.

also, in season two, keith’s bond with the red lion was emphasized so. much. in episode six, when keith and allura both suspect that they are the reason zarkon can track voltron, they go into a pod to see if zarkon is actually tracking voltron through them. when the pod explodes, they’re floating in the void of space...until the red lion saves them.

so the red lion is like...basically keith’s mom, lmao.

not to mention that keith’s big character arc was already in season two, and while i’m not saying that multiple characters can’t have character arcs at the same time (in fact, the story is a lot more interesting if they do), putting keith as the great black paladin of voltron would draw so much attention to him that keith’s amount of screentime would be extremely disproportionate with the rest of the paladins.

now, to the fun part: lance.

a lot of people have speculated that lance being the paladin of the red lion will tie into the narrative that lance is just keith’s replacement, and that lance’s insecurities will only grow from this. that’s true, and it’s definitely a factor in why i, personally, don’t want lance to be the red paladin, but it’s not necessarily a reason why lance won’t be the red paladin (i think).

because if the writers wanted to draw focus to lance’s insecurities in a way that will amp them up, red paladin lance would be the plot they’d go for immediately. because, hey, lance would hate being keith’s replacement yet again. it would be just like the garrison.

but...what would that resolve?

all that red paladin lance (and black paladin keith, for that matter) would do would be to make everyone Very Sad. granted, the trailer somewhat contradicts this with lance yelling, “woo-hoo!” in the red lion, but i’m certain that’s not all of it.

because the red lion is shown to be the fastest and most agile lion, and, come on, if you were in an extremely fast giant metal cat, wouldn’t you be having fun, too? (that is, if you don’t get sick.) because the thing about lance is that he’s a normal teenage boy, not a tragedy. he can be pretty sad about being keith’s replacement again, but that doesn’t bar him from, you know, having a little fun in a really fast machine.

anyway, what i’m saying is that lance being the red paladin will do nothing for his insecurities but make them bigger. and that wouldn’t be easily resolved. a simple, “hey, lance, you’re not just keith’s replacement,” probably won’t suddenly make all his insecurities go away. there’d have to be some serious focus on lance for that to happen, and with keith as the black paladin and allura (presumably) as the blue paladin, there would simply be not enough space (haha, get it? ‘cause they’re in space.) for lance’s development to go to the full extent. voltron only has 13 episodes per season. is that really enough time to fit in three complex and overlapping storylines? the writing would have to morph from good to spectacular for that to work out.

also, the red lion is the most picky lion. i highly doubt she’d just allow herself to be piloted by a new paladin, especially so soon after bonding with keith.

and, also, lance has an attachment to the blue lion, as well.

in this screencap from season two, he hears keith asking about the blue lion and gets defensive immediately. this could be tied to lance feeling like keith is always trying to be better than him at everything, but also, lance has a connection to the blue lion. i doubt he’d give her up that easily.

or, at least, he would, because lance’s character is honestly very selfless, and he’d do anything for “the greater good,” but, assuming he’d be giving up blue to pilot the red lion, this would just tie back into the unresolvable insecurities. yikes.

also! also. keith and lance are shown to have a very opposite dynamic. they’re fire and ice (literally). lance switching from the blue lion to the red lion would be a...very hard change to navigate through without running into the insecurity problem or changing his character completely. as the leg of voltron, lance is support. he holds the team up along with hunk, and he makes sure they don’t fall (figuratively and literally). going from this position to being an arm would change things for the worse. the arms are the fighters. they keep voltron from being destroyed by delivering the punches and whatnot to the enemy, not by supporting the team and being cautious. so going from a leg to an arm would be shocking, to say the least.

and the qualities required for the red lion are not like lance. yes, the red lion is temperamental, and i’m not going to deny that lance is. however, he is only temperamental when he feels someone isn’t listening to him or is directly wronging him - as seen multiple times with keith and once in season two with shiro. in a fight, more often than not, lance is careful and strategic, much unlike keith (as seen in season one episode seven). so there’s one reason why he would not fit the qualities of the red paladin.

the red lion also requires a paladin that relies on instinct more than skill. it is heavily implied that lance is the opposite. this post by @cheritsundere says that lance (most likely) studied constantly to learn how to fly, which shows that lance relies on skill far more than instinct. keith, however, is a natural with flying, showing that he relies on instinct more than skill - which makes him a great red paladin.

we don’t know the traits of the blue lion despite the fact that she is the friendliest and most accepting lion, which mirrors lance. he’s an extremely social person, which can be seen in, you know, almost every episode of voltron.

and now, to the final part of my analysis: the trailer.

okay, as i’ve been practically obsessed with voltron for a year now, i’ve watched the trailers and the episodes over and over, to the point where i can probably recite the dialogue in my sleep. one thing i’ve noticed with the trailers is that the audio they use is usually overlayed with the wrong scenes.

in the season three trailer, we see lance smiling, looking excited and happy, but with the audio, “we gotta get out there and help the others,” overlayed. in the audio, he sounds serious, like something terrible is happening. that leads me to believe that the scene and the audio do not match up.

how could this possibly tie into this analysis, though?

well, in the season one and season two trailers, we’ve seen footage from episodes early in the season, and usually only that. the only exception is the scene in the season two trailer which shows the paladins standing and looking bravely in the distance, but, to be honest, i really think that the only footage that could have been used from later episodes in the trailer was the scene of lotor. yes, i know, we see keith in black with that audio playing, but, again, voltron likes to fool us and play the audio from one scene over another.

so what does this mean?

it probably means that keith piloting the black lion and lance piloting the red lion are from episodes, say, 1-5, when the team is still trying to figure out who goes in what lion to form voltron. and, with all the evidence here, those placements most likely aren’t going to work out.

to conclude: a bunch of evidence says keith won’t be the black paladin and lance won’t be the red paladin. also this took me over an hour to write so please reblog it i need the Validation

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next-lvl · 7 years

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Majority of my followers know what Wakfu is, but not all know about the game: how many wounds it left in my heart, and everyone else’s. This post isn’t gonna be precisely explaining the wrongs that Wakfu did, I just wanted to mention that, in aftermath, it was a disaster of a game that left its most loyal players hurt, disappointed and immensely sad. I still keep meeting people who love this franchise, but can’t stand the game anymore since it’s.. Changed too much and didn’t stay enjoyable, to say mildly. I’m surrounded by, literally, traumatized veterans who look back at the good old days and shed tears. And I’ve been talking a lot about GW2 recently, not for no reason.

I want you to heal, just like I did. I mean.. I’m still hurt over Wakfu and I’ll stay this way forever, but I found a game where you can feel safe, loved, cared about. Devs in GW2 are humans who talk to us, who put smileys and memes in their posts, who hang out on reddit and ingame. This’s one of the major and striking differences between Wakfu and GW2. I’m still genuinely stunned by my own experience with customer support, I had a few troubles during my 1.5 years in GW2 and the response was not only fast and effective, it was HUMAN AND CUTE. I’m still not over it. Now that I’ve been invited to be a creative partner.. I’m still not over it too. They shower their regular players and content creators in gentle attention and kindness. I cry. During the 5+ years of being the most active and visible artist in Wakfu fandom, literally promoting it with thousands of drawings, I’ve never got a tiniest bit of official recognition. Not even a single placement on official media. When I took part in contests, I never won. Overall it’s been a one-way street. During my first 1.5 years in GW2, I’ve been noticed, picked up by the team, pampered and spoiled to the point of barely believing it’s true. That’s my personal experience, but it should indicate Anet’s general attitude towards the players. They. Do. Care.

I just wanna try and convince more ex-Wakfu players to give GW2 a shot. The two games are different in the visual and core gameplay aspects, yes, transitioning from an isometric 2D turn-based to a 3D, real-time game was somewhat harsh, but boy, how glad I am that I did it.

There’s EVEN MORE TEXT, brace yourselves. :D In GW2, I found everything that I wish was in Wakfu.

GW2 is a true sandbox. You log in, you do whatever the fuck you want. Level your first (second, 12th, 33rd, 68th) char? Grind mobs and dungeons? NO. Run around, look for events, explore, literally everything you do and everywhere you go, gives xp. You can level via crafting! Which, btw, is relevant throughout the entire game, unlike in Wakfu.

You do have dungeons of two kinds, and you CAN farm them if you want, but it’s your deliberate decision. There ARE farms in GW2, but they’re fun, if you’re not trying to get a legendary weapon in a month. I personally like running around with a bunch of random people who are there to FARM events in a specific map, but that happens once every two months.

Said legendary weapons ARE hard to get and yes, they can get you burnt out in no time if you don’t have a concept of a “long term goal”. Leggies are a prestige item, and, just like other prestige items (auras, specific minis, skins, etc), they’re meant to be your ultimate show-off item. People see you and know that you’ve been through.. A lot. BUT. Your hard-earned prestige item is to stay prestige. I assume you know relics in Wakfu? Then you must know what happened to them after a few years.

There’s no devaluing in GW2. Your trophies stay relevant and rare. Your prizes, your exclusive titles, skins, etc stay exclusive. You aren’t losing half of your wealth just because the devs decided to revamp ALL GEAR FOR THE THIRD TIME.

Speaking of the gear, the orange set you get at 80, is endgame gear. GW2 is 5 years old, so that orange gear is. People crafted it on the release and.. It stayed endgame. Yes, there’s also pink gear, which ~5% better than orange and is only needed if you do high lvl fractals or are min-maxing in raids. If you’re casual or just starting, you don’t even have to think about it. But once you craft your set, it stays relevant forever. People’s effort is never shoved up their asses.

There’s no constant carrot-on-a-stick gear upgrades. Level cap is 80 since release and will stay so. The game promotes safety and stability, that’s what attracted me. You take a 2 years break? No problem, you log in and go play. Nothing has lost its value, you don’t feel inferior, you don’t need to catch up to play with your friends.

Which reminded me: there’s a wonderfully done level downscale system. You’re a lvl 80 in a lvl 16 zone? Your stats are auto-adapted so the enemies you fought as a noob are still dangerous, and your reward (xp/gold/materials) is adapted to your true lvl. You go and play anywhere you want, and get fair rewards.

Crafting materials of all levels are also demanded and relevant. Oh yeah, you can run around for hours just gathering wood/ore, familiar to Wakfu players? It’s nice and relaxing until you meet another player. Well, in GW2 all gathering nodes are NOT shared. You see a tree? It’s your tree. That dude who runs up to it won’t steal it from you.

Oh also there’s no kill steal! Which is big, imo. You’re encouraged to play together, to help people kill stuff, to contribute to any event you see around, since everyone gets rewarded equally.

Legendary stability of GW2 servers. Lemme just say: there’s no weekly maintenance. There is. No. Downtime. Even on the big update days, you can download and play pretty safely. If there’s a hotfix, the game KINDLY WARNS YOU that you need to update and you have TWO FLIPPING HOURS to do so. Before you did that, you still can play, finish whatever you were up to.

Everything revolves around player’s happiness and convenience. There are constant quality-of-life updates. Your bags are full of crap? Here, salvage it into materials with two clicks, then deposit into your bank with two clicks (from anywhere in the world), then compact the rest of your shit. Yeah, with two clicks. x’D

There’s wonderful Fashion Wars. The game offers so much customization, and it’s taken so seriously, that it’s one of the endgame aspects. There’s 30000+ achievement points to earn, which are mostly fun and make you go out of your usual way. Dailies? You get 10 points and 2 gold for doing 3 easy tasks that take ~15 minutes.

There’s LORE. There’s fun little interactions all over the world. You just did an event? Stay here and listen, probably npcs will say/do something and start another event, logically following the previous one. The world lives and breathes. You can just walk around and observe. You’ll learn so much. And of course, there’s always a good cause to laugh. Dialogues/reactions are just hilarious sometimes.

Regarding the lore: there’s a so-called personal story which accompanies you up to lvl 80, then there’s “living world”, smaller events and single maps being rolled out every once in a while - so far there’s 2 seasons available, and 1 being “historical”, not playable anymore. In that season, they fucking crushed the main capital city. It changed forever. It was an epic event, which I missed, but watched people’s videos later. Then season 2, then HoT, then season 3, and now we’re waiting for PoF, second expansion. The updates have picked a nice pace and are frequent now.

There’s just so much to do. Just go, dive into the world and drown forever. :3c And meet me on the bottom. x’DD

GW2 feels different from Wakfu, but I found similarities for myself. It’s a sandbox after all, and later endgame has a lot of strategy. GW2 is never tank-and-spank. You just, literally, can’t facetank shit here. You gotta use your skills wisely, time your dodges, play with traits/passives until it all flows together. You’ve got a HUGE BUILD FREEDOM. There’s 9 classes, each having at least 3 defined roles, with more variations. You don’t just go ranger (oh archer it’s like a cra rite??) and do pew pew from max distance. Well, yes, you have a bow and can pew pew.. Or you can be a melee fighter, you can be a full blown healer/support.. As a ranger, yes.

I’ll be wrapping up now, I swear. GW2 is true f2p. Which of course does have a few restrictions (can’t trade or use map-chat), but you can get to 80, gear up and explore to your heart’s content before you decide to pay. I personally played for 5 months, every day, before I bought HoT.

Why’d you buy an expansion? More story, more maps, new class traits, gliding in HoT and mounts in PoF. The expansion and living world content has been constantly improving, visually, mechanically and lore/writing-wise.

Other than that, there’s a gemstore offering cosmetic and convenience items (gems can be bought for cash OR ingame gold). There are infamous rng boxes, but none of those are p2w. GW2 is oriented at the western consumer, which means, yeah, they know that we hate p2w and they’ll never do that to us.

*breathes out* I had to get that off my chest. I wanna talk about GW2 forever, but it’s exhausting to do one-on-one. :P Hopefully someone’s still reading this!

Now lemme remind you that now I have those partner links, if you use this to create a new account and play for free (for an hour or two months? w/e), or this to buy an expansion, I’ll get paid a bit. Not much, but it definitely helps!

And I was gonna write this wall of text regardlessly of the partnership one day, now I just have more incentive. x’DD Plus, we’re gonna have a beta weekend on 11-13 august, where you can preview the second expansion for free! It’s a perfect timing to write this post and try convincing you. You’ll just need a f2p account, and you’ll be given a lvl 80 boost and whatnot for that beta weekend. I’m not sure yet, but I assume you WILL. Just please register using my link above, so that I get paid for the two hours I spent on this post. :D

#wakfu #gw2 #guild wars 2 #please read it's like a matter of life and death to me #gw2 is everything for me right now #and i want YOU to play a game which would love you back

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seenashwrite · 6 years

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juppschmitz replied to your post “julia-sets reblogged your post and added: ...”

@seenashwrite No worries, I'd already seen it :) btw, do you think Dabb got the message when his SECOND attempt at a spin-off wasn't picked up?

@juppschmitz - Oh, but no. I cannot speak to the man’s ability to be introspective, but I do believe the evidence has shown that “critical thinking” is not in his tool kit, as it were.

Thing is.... it was a better pilot than I expected. And not just comparatively to the agonizing trope garbage that was wrapped in sexism then coated with bad plot batter before being deep-fried in month-old oil from the studio commissary. Somebody actually put some thought into it, and even though I found it predictable and it had some weird choices in dialogue and character (like, I don’t know why they nerfed Jody’s badassitude, but here we are; am glad they punched up Alex, to be sure) but I thought it was a decent “back door” effort. Now, the real pilot would have to be much better, but they had a good lead-in with the Kaia angle, so I thought it had a chance.

Also - just a weird decision on the studio’s part. Built-in fanbase, pretty low overhead, cast/crew who are fully aware of what they’re signing up for, etc.. At least for a season or two, it’d be free money. It’s as close to a sure thing as Hollywood has, and.... they passed. They passed on little risk, and took on (from what I’ve heard, somebody check me) BIG risks - especially in light of losing a real ratings horse soon with Crazy Ex-Girlfriend closing up shop - with remakes of Roswell and Charmed. Loyal fans of those are still around, and don’t typically go for do-overs of beloved properties. So business-wise? This was.... odd.

Which brings me to one of my suspicions as to a possible (maybe even probable) element in this equation.....

....with regard to negotiations possibly breaking down, maybe why it took so long for the studio to pull the trigger either way even though the ratings were respectable, and that suspicion of mine has to do with:

So here’s my thing:

(1) her agent/management/whoever are geniuses on some level I cannot fathom, because this chick - seemingly bright and witty and conversational and whatnot from what I’ve seen around here via snippets of interviews and behind the scenes and such - is such a dull bulb on camera, so flat across the board in her expressions and delivery, I just don’t get it.

And LOOK at that LIST - two of those movies were Oscar noms/winners, and the mini-series was all over the Golden Globes/Emmys. Halt and Catch Fire was a critically lauded show. The reviews I’ve seen of the PBS adaptation of Little Women have been glowing.

(2) On the other hand, maybe I do get it - now, I haven’t seen Lady Bird, nor have I seen but snippets of Halt & Catch Fire, so maybe somebody can chime in about the characters she played in those, but I *have* seen Big Little Lies and Three Billboards, and I know the character of Amy March well - spoiler to anybody reading this who doesn’t know, Amy is the self-absorbed oblivious superficial sister of the March gals.

Including the character of Claire, they are all bratty teens on some level or another who are excruciating to have to watch, and I understand the reason for the characters in these stories, but that’s not my point - my point is, she’s a one-trick pony overall. So maybe that’s it, casting people believe she’s a sure thing for stuff like that. Problem is, she does it poorly. I don’t need the characters to be “likable”, they aren’t supposed to be likable, but I don’t see her putting any depth into them, and even bitches or sullen people or “mean girls” or whatever you want to label them have depth.

I’ve seen plenty of stuff with headstrong teens in them, where actors play them with more nuance even when they do bend bratty, and these folks aren’t painful to watch; for me, this gal is grating to watch. I dread her scenes in SPN, dreaded them in BLL, and in the limited time she was in 3 BB, it was.... it was bad. It was embarrassingly bad, watching her trying to hold her own with Frances McDormand. And I’d say “Well, she has to follow the director’s advisement”, except it’s Claire. She was Claire in BLL and in 3 BB and I betcha she’ll play Amy March the same way.

(3) I say all that to say, if this is her trajectory? Those kinds of projects, with those kinds of directors and co-stars (I ain’t gonna list them here, but y’all have a look-see, it is *insane* the people this kid has gotten to work with in her short career)? I have to wonder if one of two things - or both - happened:

(A) Her team wanted a firm commitment of at least two seasons, with her in a starring role on par with Kim and Brianna, first billing with them, being in all the eps, etc., with a banging salary to go along with it, and/or (B) something in her contract that allowed her to come-and-go as she pleased in order to do these other roles. Which, if I’m them (the execs/producers/etc.), I’d have probably been cool with the billing thing and certain amount of episodes thing, but the rest would be a nightmare to deal with on a brand new show/a weekly show.

Like I say above, lots of elements go into picking up or not picking up a show, I mean, of course there’s more than one reason the show isn’t going to happen. I would just be surprised if her involvement in the project - and I don’t fault her, not at all, you go get you some, girl - was part of the issue. And as for my thoughts on that element, assuming I’m correct.... well, I tweeted this:

Nobody asked for this. I apparently am having a ramble sort of day.

#Nash Replies #juppschmitz #Wayward Sisters #SPN #Supernatural #Nash Ponders #Queueby Dooby Doo #Dad's on a blog post and #he hasn't been queued in a few days

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somanysoundtracks · 5 years

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The US Air Force IS NOT the co-star or “real star” or w/e of “Captain Marvel”

It’s not like... the villain, either. Minor antagonist at times, maybe. Well... Ish. And it’s more generally the US government and institutional sexism and gender stereotypes. It’s not really clear what part of the government Carol worked for. You can definitely imply it, but we don’t get US Air Force stickers plastered over everything or filled into dialogue. It’s name-dropped... I think once? The entire film? (negatively, I might add) Carol only ever deals with two people who were potentially superior officers, and one of those, given the plot, shies even farther away from the “The Air Force is my home/amazing” thing.

I’m just really confused by all these posts about how it’s an Air Force recruitment ad? Because it isn’t? I can understand the complaints given the trailers, because the Air Force is definitely far more present in the trailers and ads. Carol’s story does involve her love of flying, like in the comics, and she does fly planes. But that is not the central focus of the story (in the sense that she’s not wistfully hoping to jump into some new plane every five seconds), nor is there some underlying message of “If you join the Air Force, you TOO can fly/become a superhero”. Or some nationalistic “do this for your country” or even “do this for your planet” message. In fact, it’s implied that if you do that, very likely bad things will happen to you and the people you care about? In the comics, Carol spends a lot of time around planes, fixing planes, racing, talking with pilots, etc. That’s... I mean that’s part of the movie, but there’s a lot more focus on figuring out her past, dealing with people (rather than planes) and plots (that do not directly involve planes). Like air and space travel is always important to the plot. But honestly if you’d said Carol worked for NASA, the movie probably wouldn’t be that different.

There’s also no message about how being in the Air Force made Carol like.... a stronger or better person or like “you join because you want to help people” or something. Carol loves flying, but the movie kind of changes that into... Carol wants to see the stars/the skyline? Honestly if you forget that the Air Force is a thing, the movie almost makes it sound like Carol wanted to be an astronaut. Or she’s an adrenaline junkie who enjoys it most when she’s flying or racing someone.

This is a story about Carol, first and foremost, and the People around her, and her journey to become a superhero (well, more of a superhero). And also about institutions, after a fashion, and assumptions we make about the institutions we’re a part of.

Like I went in fully expecting one of the many, many recruitment ads I see on TV for the US military, in the form of a movie, with some superhero trimmings. That is not what I got. I actually had to remind myself during the movie that the Air Force is a thing. That’s how not an Air Force recruitment ad this movie is.

Now you COULD argue that it’s very subtle marketing, which is actually BETTER than stamping ads and adding in dialogue and whatnot and centering the plot on it and all that. But even arguing that the marketing is really just SUBTLE requires a LOT of editorializing, and that “subtle” marketing is rather... muddled, at best, and actually quite negative about the Air Force, or at least the US Government. Sticking it under a spoilers cut to wrestle with it.

So one theme of the film (although not really a central one; this is a theme of Past Carol that Present Carol never really overtly follows up on; Present Carol is more demonstrably an adrenaline junkie) is that Carol loves flying, and an underlying message, if you squint, is that the Air Force was somehow her only option to do that.

Now there’s nothing in the film that says that the Air Force was Carol’s only option for flying. Maria states that the Air Force wasn’t letting women pilot combat jets, so she and Carol piloted Dr. Larson’s experimental planes in test flights as their only option. As a note, this is the only time I remember the Air Force being name dropped. Fury might say it once earlier in the film, but he also might have just said “the military” or “the government”. So if you look at this whole, singular scene, which is the only solid evidence for “the Air Force was Carol’s only option to fly”, 1) the Air Force is stated, in dialogue, negatively, because it wasn’t letting female pilots fly - both characters in the scene are female pilots who weren’t flying, thus, they are the ‘antagonist’ of the current scene, 2) Maria and Carol actually took an alternative - Larson’s planes - because the Air Force wouldn’t let them fly in combat. So actually the Air Force wasn’t Carol’s only option to fly. They wouldn’t even let her do it. It’s unclear where exactly Project Pegasus fits in the US military structure; whether it’s part of the Air Force or just a secret project organization in the military. 3) Dr. Larson is an alien, so actually it wasn’t even the US Government who was giving Carol the option to fly. It was an alien. 4) Perhaps most importantly, while speaking, Maria states that the US military (potentially name dropping the Air Force again I can’t remember, or at least implicitly calling it the ‘they’ in this conversation bit), covered up Carol’s death like it never happened, again painting the US military/government/Air Force as the bad guy.

Brief tangent, but later in the film, Monica watches Carol fly off into the sky. The camera does a close up on Monica’s wistful face, looking up into the sky, watching the trailing flames of Carol fade into the distance. It’s a very wistful moment you can easily imagine in other movies, TV shows, video games, even ads, etc., promoting going into space or, potentially, joining the Air Force so you can fly. So yes, I can see how people can look at the film and say, the marketing is there for people to join the Air Force, it’s just subtle.

But see how much editorializing I just did? On top of that, the only scene where we get any indication that the Air Force was Carol’s only option to fly, the Air Force is negatively remarked on at least twice, in what is one of the most emotionally charged scenes in the film. And we’re actually implicitly told that the Air Force isn’t Carol’s only option for flight, because the Air Force wasn’t letting her, and more importantly, the US Government wasn’t even the one giving her the chance. Sure, the US Government was funding Project Pegasus and by extension, Dr. Lawson’s research and her planes, but it’s implied that if not for Dr. Lawson - another woman involved with the US Government/military, amidst a dearth of women in authority/military positions (note, the only two women in government positions that we’re shown who aren’t Maria, Dr. Larson, or Carol, are one and possibly two unnamed SHIELD agents, one of whom has no dialogue) - Carol and Maria wouldn’t have had that chance. You can imply that, as is typical in a lot of similar stories, they’d have just flown some other test planes, like Carol did in the comics. But you have to imply it. And editorialize it. So basically, if not for an alien, Carol and Maria might never have been able to actually fly planes. Not the Air Force. Not the US Government.

There is a photo of a US spy plane in one scene. Carol is looking at a photo of another plane, and the spy plane photo is next to it. While the other photos on the wall are blurred a bit, the US spy plane photo is rather emphasized and shares about 1/3 of the screen with Carol and the photo of importance. It’s an odd choice. It’s also one of the only overt Air Force marketing things in the film. And other than it simply being there, there’s nothing else about the photo that says JOIN UP WITH THE AIR FORCE TODAY! It’s actually almost a reminder of HEY, REMEMBER HOW MUCH SHIT OUR SPY PLANES HAVE GOTTEN INTO OVER THE YEARS? YEAH, SO DO WE? So you can editorialize about it being stuck on the wall and emphasized how it is, but that editorializing can be negative just as much as it can be positive.

Another big theme of the film is how putting too much blind faith into institutions can be very dangerous. Whether that’s religion or the government or the military or the police force. The Kree AI is seemingly a god and a Big Brother government system that creeps you out from the very first scene you meet it. You literally have to be wired up to talk with it while it invades your mind to speak with you. Later we learn that Ronan the Accuser (younger Ronan, before the first “Guardians” movie) is working for the Kree government, which sends up other warning signs. Hey, remember this dude? He’s a major antagonist in another movie. But he works for the Good Guy Government right now! You know. Bombing... planets...

When Fury and Coulson show up at the Blockbuster to investigate, for maybe... a 10-minute stretch of a scene, it’s unclear whether they’re SHIELD or FBI (or posing as FBI), because it kind of looks like a bunch of cops with a pair of FBI agents, and I think Fury even flashes an FBI badge to Carol when he introduces himself. They then partake in a chase scene against Carol. So, in the movie, as is the case in many vigilante stories, the police and potentially the FBI are the baddies. And even though HYDRA isn’t brought up, the way the Skrulls mess with SHIELD casts the SHIELD agents we see (save for Coulson and Fury) as the bad guys. When Carol and Fury go to Project Pegasus, they are stonewalled and detained for no apparent reason, but possibly because there’s something to hide. This is the last new government agency we encounter in the film. So basically, story-wise, every government agency, for whatever reason, is opposed to the protagonist of the story. That’s not exactly a glowing endorsement joining a government agency, like the Air Force. Even though Carol spends the film with Fury, a government agent (of SHIELD), she’s with him specifically because he’s going against orders and not taking her in or attacking her. They’re both renegades, and that bonds them together.

At the end of the film, when Fury has seemingly been promoted, we don’t embrace government institutions again. There’s no evidence that what Fury did got him a promotion, or specifically why (I assumed his boss was grateful that Fury got rid of the shapeshifter who was impersonating him). After all, what exactly did he do? Potentially help stop aliens bombing the planet, I guess? By defying dozens of directives? Fury is taking over an organization to change things up, specifically by setting up the beginnings of the Avengers Initiative. There’s actually no evidence he was even promoted. It’s implied that he and Coulson are partners when they’re first introduced, but Coulson is clearly his subordinate at the end of the film. So the ending of the film could either be Fury moving up in the world or just going back to business as usual.

In short, in the film, government institutions are creepy at best, unhelpful and even antagonizing and downright evil at worst, and there’s no point where the heroes of the story do anything but say “we’re going to tear down what’s in place and build it up better”, which is no glowing endorsement of such institutions. It’s not an Air Force marketing ad.

#Captain Marvel #the US Air Force #not to like attack the air force or anything #but I came in expecting to be bombarded with YOU TOO CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE #BY JOINING UP TODAY #and it's #not??#like I'm sure Disney took the US Government's money because of course it would #but there's a line where the government doesn't subsidize a film because it too negatively reflects on the military #and I think this movie really skated that line #it wasn't like THE MILITARY IS EVIL #or anything #but jeez it does get close #heck AMATEUR PILOTS ARE A THING IN THIS #like people who are HOBBYISTS #with no reference to the military whatsoever #they're probably retirees or something #but still #Carol's story is about the people in her life #not the institutions #in fact the story is very much about if you let institutions BE the people in your life #that's a BAD thing

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