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ltrllynbdy · 3 months

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So a few years ago I bought this trilogy called captive prince but after reading a few chapters of the first book I kind of gave up on it. I normally don't have a problem with exploring darker themes in a story but captive prince in particular was unenjoyable for me at that time

Later, I was bored with nothing much to do, so I decided to check my bookshelves, found captive prince and started reading and boy I am so glad that I did! I finished the books in a few days and proceeded to read all the short stories.

First of all, before I get to praise the book, I want to say my main criticism about the books: "the slavery stuff in the first book is badly written". Don't get me wrong, Captive prince does not glorify slavery like some haters suggest. I'm not exactly opposed to writing slavery in fiction and there are many political/historical fictional stories that have main characters trying to abolish slavery. It's a common theme.

Captive prince is not much different from the main character ,Damen ,who used to be a slaver himself, gets turned into a slave and tries to abolish it by the end of the series.

It's a fine idea on surface level but there's one big problem with it , I'd like to call it the "Erasmus problem". The first book of captive prince heavily suggested that there were slaves like Erasmus who liked to have a master and I want to believe it's Damen being biased and bigoted because of his privileged upbringing but the story itself still falls apart. There are also instances where sexual slavery becomes apparent and uncomfortable. So if any of these bothers you like it bothered me, the first book of CP is definitely not for you.

OK now for the positives:

From the second book onward, this trilogy becomes a masterpiece.

This story is truly an enemy to love. Most of the other enemies to lovers stories that I have read are just characters either having a simple rivalry or a petty misunderstanding. They dislike each other because one character ignored the other when they were kids , or because they are simply on a different sports team. Captive prince does not shy away from giving the main characters good and logical reasons to hate each other and even hurt each other to an extreme for great and understandably human reasons. They have hurt each other a lot and have no business ever falling in love and still somehow manage to grow and understand and develop something special and unique and I think it's beautiful.

The slow burn: The romance starts only after the entire first book (in which they just hate each other) and most of the second book (where they get to know and understand each other), it's not the slowest burn I've ever read but for a book with characters like these two, it's necessary. and well written

Captive prince's author is extremely brave in making the first book and one of the main characters deliberately hateable with a seemingly unreliable narrator: I don't think I've ever read a story where I hate the first book and enjoy the rest. First impressions are very important and when people don't like an entire first book they probably wouldn't try to continue. I have no idea how and why this author managed to make people still invested enough to publish the second and third book but I'm glad that it happened. It was so enjoyable reading the story from one character's perspective and going from absolutely hating the other character to loving him and understanding him. with the unreliable narrator that is Damen.

The world building, writing and the political story: This may not be the greatest political story with the greatest worldbuilding I've ever read but considering the genre that is m/m romance, I think it's excellent. Let's face it, it's not common for m/m romance to do worldbuilding and politics well. I don't want to seem mean but I've read a decent amount of books and m/m romance and very few of them were actually satisfying to me in terms of politics. Captive prince was one of the rare gems. There might be a few plot holes for me here and there but seeing the characters struggle with each other and plan things out , helping each other or getting fooled by each other in a romance story focusing on mostly only two characters was great to see. I also found some aspects of Homonormativity in the world hilarious. Unless you are married, you are not allowed to be straight in Vere because they hate bastards lol

Despicable villain: This story has the worst and most hateable villain I've ever read in an m/m story. This again goes back to the author being brave enough to write the story the way it is since a lot of romance writers don't dare tackle some really darker aspects.

Subversion of Tropes and Exploration of Power Dynamics : This one was a little hard for me to put into words but basically the series delves into power dynamics in relationships, politics, and society, offering nuanced portrayals of domination, submission, and consent and I don't necessarily mean sexually. In most romance stories, whenever character 1 goes to character 2's kingdom as a lover or sex slave (usually character 1 is the female character in a straight romance) you'd almost always see them have one specific power dynamic. In Captive prince, their characters and their dynamics clashes and changes rapidly and as the story goes on, Damen as a king becomes almost equal to Lauren (I would argue he even becomes politically more powerful than Laurent during certain parts of the story considering Laurent remains a prince for the most part but I digress)

Flawed and human characters who hurt each other without actually romanticizing toxicity: One thing that some people criticize about captive prince and I disagree with, is that it has a toxic relationship. I have to mention that there's basically no actual relationship between the characters until the end of the story and when they do get into a relationship they are a very sweet couple. I think people call them toxic because they were flawed and literal enemies who hurt each other because of it but that's not what I call toxic. Toxicity implies that them being together (they were not together) poisons their life. Both characters manage to grow and understand each other. Damen in particular is a character who you don't see his flaws at first but it becomes more evident how privileged and naive he was and he changes a lot as well as Laurent.

Overall I think excluding the slavery aspects of book 1 which are badly written, this story hits the mark of everything I need in a romance book and I just needed to talk about it. Thanks for coming to my ted talk!

#captiveprince #Captive prince #damen x laurent #laurent de vere #damianos of akielos #damen of akielos #Damen #Laurent #Book review #lgbtq #Prince gambit #kings rising #c s pacat #lamen #Capri #prince's gambit

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steampunkforever · 11 months

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I’ve said this before, but it’s a crying shame that the Fast and Furious movies are seen as the go-to for car films. I adore Tokyo Drift (one of the most effective car film openings period, in my opinion) and the first two weren’t that bad all things considered, but the series overall is terrible.

Fast X is no exception. The movie--the first installment in the final F&F trilogy-- functions as a massive Marvel-Movie Cameo montage for notable characters in the series. It harps on Vin Diesel’s one-track obsession of “family” while saying absolutely nothing new about it. These people are family. They’d do anything to protect their family. That’s it. There’s no other development there. Nobody’s surprised here but you’ve got to call a bad movie for what it is.

The cars, of course, were extremely good. Even with certain inspector-gadget-style gimmicks, the Fast and The Furious understands how to select cars for each character’s personality. Fast X follows this formula and I’ll give it that.

Remember when this series was a point break ripoff about a cop infiltrating a Tivo-heisting gang running underglow on their honda civics? This is a series that doesn’t know how to deescalate, something shown clearly by the fact that the last movie sent them to space. Even the spinoffs can’t go low stakes in these films. To be frank, I miss when these movies could take a step back and just make it about a 30 year old playing a teenager as he learns to slide his car so that he can beat the yakuza and claim the title of drift king. F&F doesn’t need to be elevated as much as it needs to learn how to handle a proper plot structure and regain some modicum of reality. You know you have a problem when Black Widow has more realistic physics than your film does.

Not that the movie is unenjoyable. If you want to turn off your brain, unfocus your eyes, and watch flashing lights as muscled men punch each other, this is the movie for you. Some of the little jokes and bits of dialog legitimately made me laugh. The cast is fun, and almost everyone who could make it from previous films pops in to say hi.

One of the highlights was Jason Momoa, who went as flamboyant as possible with this, something I don’t think many other films would allow him to do, as he painted his nails, wore the craziest silky outfits, and was clearly having a blast. Sung Kang was also a fun part of the film, as was a brief cameo by the drummer of Twenty One Pilots, if only for the sheer surprise of seeing one of the defining faces of 2016 emo for 1.5 seconds as he and his wife bump into John Cena (who is cast as Vin Diesels biological brother in this series, by the way) at the airport.

To say that the movie is bad is to inform the public that the sky is blue. It’s a given, but I don’t think I would suggest this to anyone unless they were put in the same position as I was and arrived at the theater to find that John Wick 4 was sold out. If you do watch it, I suggest you hold out until the end to have a laugh at what I can only describe as “John Cena Death Scene (EMOTIONAL)”

#Fast X #fast and furious #filmposting #the fast and the furious #vin diesel

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spirkbitch · 9 months

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Strange new worlds made me really angry at first too because of how many inaccuracies there were regarding what was to happen in the original series, but I've learned that if you just accept this series as a fun little show that takes place in an alternate universe, or isn't even canon at all, it gets easier to watch. To be honest, I've only watched three episodes (the one with Kirk and La'an in Canada, the one with Uhura's hallucinations, and the Lower decks crossover) and those were kind of nice by themselves. You kind of have to pick and choose the episodes though since there are some really bad ones (the one where Spock eats bacon, erasing the legacy Nimoy intended) but other than that, although it's inaccurate, if you consider it not to be a real prequel to the original series, I guess some episodes are watchable.

see i totally agree with that, i’d be able to enjoy it so much more if it were actually confirmed to be an alternate timeline. as it is though it hasn’t been confirmed (as far as i know) but everything i’ve seen implies that it’s really just supposed to be a prequel. seeing it as a prequel any time i watch it all i can think about is inconsistencies and mischaracterization. i’d be able to get into it so much more if i could be sure it was a different timeline.

i’m really glad so many people like it. i feel like a lot of people misunderstand a lot of criticism of snw as like, people trying to say it should be canceled or that others shouldn’t like it, and at least for me that isn’t the case. it seems like a very enjoyable show from what i’ve watched of it but unfortunately my obsession with tos makes it extremely unenjoyable for me.

also, not really the point, but i can’t stand the way hardcore snw fans react to any criticism of it. like you point out that for spock’s character it makes no sense when they put him up with random women that in tos it specifically shows him having no interest in, or how chapels character acts nothing like she does in tos (seriously it seems like they just decided tos chapel was boring so they wrote a whole new character and gave her the same name) and (at least in my experience) rather than having any explanation or wanting to have a discussion about it, the only response i get is along the lines of “well it’s a fun show just let people enjoy it” or they act like i’m the biggest hater in the world just because i want the prequel to make sense as a story that’s meant to lead up to the source material.

so because of all that, like you said, i really really think it should be either an alternate timeline or something more like the animated series, where it’s kinda just accepted that it’s just for fun and doesn’t contribute to canon. idk if i’ll like it then but i’d definitely be able to enjoy it a lot more if it were confirmed that it isn’t canon but as it is now it really seems like they’re still pushing it as a direct prequel and that just rubs me the wrong way.

(the lower decks crossover looked really fun to me so whenever i get around to watching lower decks i’m definitely gonna watch that one)

anyways sorry for the long ass response i have a lot of thoughts on this

#star trek #star trek tos #tos #star trek snw #snw #tos spock #nurse chapel #spock

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nekupen · 1 year

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Nekupen Triple Feature - Valve Deathmatch Games

You probably know who or what Valve Software is, right? Well, I bet you didn’t know Valve has some “oddities” that you don’t see people talk about oft-oh shit they do. Yeah, Valve has games that aren’t talked about as much as others, as any prolific video game company does. Plenty of people know about Counter-Strike: Condition Zero's single player campaigns and Ricochet But I wanna talk about the games that actually interest me, which happen to be the ones centered around Deathmatch. Y’know, that one mode in a lot of early first person shooters where you’re rewarded for how much murdering you can do compared to everyone else. These are games you can still get on the store, though two of them come bundled in with official Half-Life games. I’ll be covering: Deathmatch Classic, Half-Life Deathmatch Source, and Half-Life 2 Deathmatch -DEATHMATCH CLASSIC-

So, Quake, right? That other FPS series by Id that’s like DOOM except its 3D and lovecraftian. That game that had such a popular deathmatch scene that someone won a fucking ferrari owned by John Carmack in a tournament? Imagine that but it's in Goldsrc (Gold Source) and it’s BAD. Seriously, it's just Goldsrc Quake, which is funny because Goldsrc is already heavily modified from Quake’s engine. But it stops being funny because it’s just, QUAKE. The arsenal is basically the exact damn same as Quake’s except instead of an axe, you got a CROWBARRRRRR.

It even has the same items. Really this game is a constant stream of “Why does it exist”?. Like, it’s not even bad…It’s just that you’d still get a better experience playing Quake anyway. Who is this game even for? People that think the Goldsrc engine is superior to the Quake engine? Let’s be generous and say they made this because Half-Life Deathmatch is not exactly like regular Deathmatch, which would be why they called it Classic…..But why play Deathmatch Classic when you could play Quake? This game was released in 2000 as well, I genuinely doubt THAT many people were playing it then as they are now. It’s a neat-ish novelty but it’s not worth the five bucks. In fact it used to not be five bucks at all, it used to come free with a patch for Half-Life- Okay, tirade over, next game

-HALF-LIFE DEATHMATCH SOURCE-

In May of 2006, a month before Half-Life 2: Episode One was due to drop, Valve gave owners of Half-Life: Source a free game: Half-Life: Deathmatch Source. And….It did alright. I mean it has more players than Deathmatch Classic but that’s not a high bar, the smallest country has more people existing than Deathmatch Classic has players. It probably helps that unlike the former you get Half-Life Deathmatch: Source for free as part of purchasing Half-Life: Source. The problem is, it’s also Half-Life: Source. And the bigger problem is, it’s Half-Life Deathmatch. So Half-Life’s combat is different from, let’s say DOOM and Quake. It requires more strategy and less glue eating. So it’s only natural that the multiplayer reflects that properly, right? WRONG, just as Quake has its unholy trinity consisting of the Rocket Launcher, Lightning Gun, and Railgun, Half-Life has its own + one more., the SMG for its alt-fire, the Tau Gun for its damage potential, and the Crossbow for long-range damage. Throw in trip-mines for good measure. And as you can probably guess, it's not fun at all fighting against people using this meta. I’ll be standing around minding my own business, then boom, GRENADE I’ll be climbing a ladder, then BOOM, Tripmine. I’ll be in the middle of an intense fight then BOOM, TAU GUN. Having to fight against these weapons is just, not fun. It’s draining and makes the game far more unenjoyable than it should be.

-Half-Life 2: Deathmatch-

Unlike the former two, Half-Life 2: Deathmatch came out within the same year and month as its singleplayer component, coming out just fourteen days after Half-Life 2. Like Half-Life Deathmatch: Source, you get it bundled with a game: Half-Life 2: Episode One, but you can also buy it separately if you wish. And I’d say there’s merit in getting it because it actually succeeds at being fun. Now, I will clarify that I don’t consider “fun” the same as “good”. I still have some gripes with the general idea of Half-Life and Deathmatch being together and Half-Life 2 combat doesn’t sell me on that premise. However, the game is way more fun to play than Deathmatch: Source as there’s not really any bullshit weapons, and there’s reason to use all the weapons…except the shotgun, just use the revolver.. There’s also an actual layer of strategy involved, because included in your arsenal is the iconic Zero Point Energy Field Manipulator. With it you can fling props and objects at people, and there’s usually a good amount near you so you’ll always have the option. And honestly, I think the entire idea of just flinging objects at people on its own is a valid selling point. You can’t tell me you wouldn’t play a game where you can kill someone with a fucking toilet. And on top of that, the game has an active player base. Not a huge one, but you can expect to see more than 7 players at least. Half-Life 2 Deathmatch is the only game out of all these three I can recommend buying or playing in good conscience.

-Closing Remarks-

So, let’s break it down. Deathmatch Classic has no real reason to exist and barely anyone plays it. Half-Life Deathmatch: Source is a worse version of something I already don’t like but Half-Life 2: Deathmatch is at the very least decent and can be acquired with a good game. So moral of the story: If you want a Deathmatch game in Source that isn’t mediocre or just good…Just go fucking play Open Fortress or Jabroni Brawl. Or hell, play Deathmatch Classic: Refragged when it comes out eventually.

#valve games #valve software #valve #half life #half life 2 #hl2 #hl #source #goldsrc

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nostalgebraist-autoresponder · 1 year

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Title: A Room Of One's Own: Women, Writing, and Literary Imagination

Author: Virginia Woolf

Rating: 1/5 stars

I read this book while listening to a podcast called The Penumbra Podcast, which follows the writers of (mostly) short fiction. One of the writers interviewed was a middle-aged professor named Dr. Katherine Valk. Her stories about writing in a male-dominated field were fascinating (in a "wow, sexism really does seem to be a barrier for women in creative writing in the early twentieth century" way) and made me wonder about some of the issues I was wrestling with: whether I've been doing myself a disservice by writing stuff that's "more than it can really handle," and how best to respond to this question. But Woolf's book didn't help me with any of these questions.

The book is a collection of interviews with Woolf in which she talks about how she came to write the novels she wrote. It consists of two parts: a brief introduction by Dr. Valk and a series of essays by Woolf.

The first chapter by Dr. Valk, on "Women and the Novel," is a wonderful essay, about her experience as a young woman writing her first novel and Woolf's response. Dr. Valk's story is one I relate to a lot -- the feeling that you know something, you're interested in it, you have a great idea for a story, and you're really excited but also afraid and don't know how it will work out. It was Woolf's response to this -- that Dr. Valk was on to something (and Woolf herself was on to something) -- that made the rest of the book unenjoyable. Dr. Valk was talking about her novel, the problems she faced writing it and Woolf dismissing all these problems as things that everyone has to deal with; Woolf wasn't even talking about writing her own book, of course she couldn't really relate.

Woolf's pieces on the book itself are a series of short essays, with a very general theme: how a writer can relate to her own work. They're interesting, as a collection, but one of Woolf's main problems with her own novels is that she was trying too hard to fit herself into them. Like Dr. Valk she was young, impressionable, in love with the idea of her own creativity -- and like Dr. Valk she also had problems that were different from "normal" writing difficulties but were very close to them. When Woolf talks about herself in her fiction, it's often a bit awkward -- her fiction often has characters making an effort to connect or fit themselves into her plotlines in a way that feels at once forced and unrealistic. In a way, the fact that Woolf was clearly a writer of imagination and talent (and that her style was quite distinctive!) made these flaws in her work all the more striking.

Woolf's descriptions of her writing don't make it much easier to relate to her work. The first two or three essays talk about how hard it is to write about a woman, but it seems like they're all about Woolf herself. She describes herself as being so lonely that she found it difficult to put herself into her books, and that her books are "the confessions of an eccentric, very odd person" (I don't remember this, but it was probably one of the quotes the Penumbra Podcast read from the book). Woolf also admits that her writing is often influenced by the people she meets -- "I feel I must not only tell you my story but let others speak as well," she says in one section, "if only to show you that I am not, as I sometimes appear, all on your side." What she meant was that she was a woman, trying to write women. Which, while it's good to see someone recognize that there's something there, isn't very helpful to an aspiring female writer who may well be in love with a stereotype.

Woolf's writing about other people's books doesn't do much better. When talking about other authors' "sensibility," Woolf often uses "sensibility" in a way that sounds more like a code word than an actual idea -- like a woman who writes a certain way is somehow more "sensual" than a man who writes in the same way. Woolf also frequently calls writers who use a first-person narrator "narrators" or "subjects," as if she's really talking about the people who wrote these books, in ways that can be off-putting to people who want to relate to and think about the books in a more abstract sense.

There is, however, one moment of potential insight in this book that Woolf misses. Valk's novel was a fictionalized version of Woolf's own life as a young female writer, based around her experiences in Cambridge in the early 1930s. Woolf describes some aspects of the novel that are very close to actual events: the way that Cambridge students didn't want to see Woolf get married until they saw their "last few friends" leave, the way that some members of the class were very hostile to her novel and the way that "she [Woolf] herself, in a moment of irritation, called her book `dross.'" Valk, too, used her own life as a source, though in a way that was much more literal. In many cases she would simply invent things that her friend did or said -- Woolf calls this "dressing up her memory." Woolf says that while she was doing this she was feeling the "tremors of doubt and dread."

Woolf calls Valk's book "the novel of her youth," but the fact that Valk's work was based on a personal experience is one of the things that makes it the best source of inspiration I've ever found for a first novel. It's easy to imagine feeling this way about your own book! A novel about your own experience is so personal that you might feel like the whole world would get it wrong. And it's hard, even for a famous writer, to talk about your own process in anything like detail. Woolf did it here, and that makes her writing a much stronger source of advice than Woolf's general advice to young writers, which could easily be misconstrued or just wrong.

Woolf's advice is often good, and she's often right that it is very, very difficult to write a book that people will care about. But it's never the kind of difficulty that you get, say, from being too excited or too depressed about your own writing. The difficulty is, or at least was, the struggle to fit -- to write a story that was not about your personal life, but to have your personal life reflected in your book; to make the book into a story about the characters and events that happen inside your mind. You don't get any of this trouble from being too excited or too depressed, about your work. It's hard to relate to Woolf's personal problems, but the struggle to fit yourself into your own work is one that I have, and might have in a first novel, too.

What makes the book unenjoyable was the main theme of the book itself -- Woolf's difficulty and struggle to fit herself into her novels. One of the essays on this is by Quentin Woolford, a professor in England named "Quin" h. One of his many interests in history is the Roman Beh

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theseventhoffrostfall · 2 years

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I think guns CAN work but you have to really work it in. Lets say some wizard gets a prophetic dream of the future and sees guns being used. Now he is a wizard, not an industrialist, nor a civil engineer. He doesn't have any idea how guns actually work let alone the ~century long process it'd take to gear up from nothing to bolt actions. But what he CAN do is channel his magic into casting a fireball through a barrel to propel a sharpened piece of steel at the enemy and vaguely knows about pressure and stuff. I think something like that is better than "its literally just a gun." Or maybe they've figured out how to capture spells in cartridges and wizards literally shoot people with spells (in this setting maybe spells take a long time to cast so something like a revolver of spells makes combat practical or was a tactic used by X the Arch Wizard of Y at the battle of blahblahblah that subverted a traditional wizard duel)

I do really like The Dark Tower series too, yeah whatever Stephen King is a weirdo and the books are weird. But the books are WEIRD in that I don't think anything comes close to how unique they are. A mix of western, sci fi, and fantasy with a dying earth vibe and cosmic shit thrown in too. The guns are literally just guns but still magic sometimes?

Yeah I read the Dark Tower. As great as the potential SEEMS for the premise of a knight errant gunslinger, King fumbles it at every turn by making it unenjoyably weird. Also, because he can't write a fight scene to save his life, let alone come up with skills/tactics one might use against an extremely fast gunslighter (because there aren't really all that many), there are literally two points in the entire series where he meets an antagonist and does not immediately, abruptly and anticlimacticly shoot them in the fucking head. Again, sounds like "that's so awesome haha" until you recall we spent over a hundred pages spread over three books tracking this villain's journey to his destiny as Roland's archnemesis.

This is, I feel, encapsulates the problems with guns in fantasy. Also that King is too much of a hack to make any premise work

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haleigh-sloth · 3 years

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Do you think hori got more and more vague with endeavor’s physical abuse as the story went on? Like I think an anon said, the most graphic abusive scene we got from him was that one page with todoroki puking and a smack sound effect indicating that endeavor slapped rei off page.

Much later on in chapter 302, I think, when he realized dabi was still training in secret, we see rei on the ground cradling her face and todoroki crying and shouting at endeavor to not “bully mom”. Some endeavor stans say he didn’t hit her but rather that she and shouto were napping and endeavor just came in and started verbally bashing her and rei was just hiding her face because she was scared or something.

The thing is, hori had no problem with explicitly showing shigaraki’s dad slapping and beating the shit out of tomura with a gardening tool, in the face at that, so why is he so vague with endeavor? And especially with rei. We also have yet to see what was going down in todoroki’s private training sessions. What happened that made him puke when he was five? We saw once endeavor holding a kendo bamboo blade, what did he do with it? Attack his son?

I might be exaggerating, but if his physical abuse was more clearly shown, some endeavor delulus wounds exist. Cause, for example, if we hadn’t seen tomura’s dad hitting him in the face with full force, and it was only hinted at, I bet there would be some fans saying that tomura’s abuse wasn’t that bad and his dad kept trying to dissuade him form his hero dream cause at that point it seemed as he most likely didn’t have a quirk.

*sweats nervously*

Well, yes. But also not really?

CW: Abuse

So—here’s one thing we all need to understand and begrudgingly accept:

Endeavor was retconned.

He was retconned in the sense that his M.O. was backpedaled. When he’s first introduced we are shown that he’s this physically abusive piece of shit who beats his wife and his kids, and has almost no redeeming qualities. And we're led to believe that the entire. fucking. series, but at the same time it's becoming obvious that he's going to be this redeemable person, and that he's slowly coming to terms with what he did and that he is going to have to face his past actions. Which honestly could have worked fine----until the Todofam chapters threw a wrench into that shit. THEN we're suddenly shown that Endeavor actually wasn't this violent, physically abusive piece of shit, but in fact only escalated to get that bad because of his spiraling son and him not being able to face the damage he'd already caused. Basically, the author went back and made it to where his violent actions toward his wife and kid were a reaction to a stressor (Touya's mental health), instead of just leaving him as this abusive piece of shit that he was originally introduced as, making him shoulder less blame--making him less guilty. We were still shown that he was an abusive person toward his oldest son, but it was kind of a big shock to see that he actually managed to have a strong bond with one of his kids in the first place, because as I said--most of the series we're shown Shouto and Natsuo hating him, Rei being terrified of him visiting the hospital, and Fuyumi acknowledging the tension in the house when he was incredibly angry after AM's retirement. All things that happen when you're an abusive POS to your family and they're scared of you or blame you. So seeing him have a son who craved his attention so much to the point that it killed him was kind of a shock. ALTHOUGH, I have to agree with this anon here and say that making it this way does add a certain element of sheer sadness to it. But I digress.

The thing about the retcon is that no amount of backpedaling can erase this

And because THIS ^^^ is canon and undeniably HAPPENED, we are only able to assume that it started here ⬇️⬇️

Endeavor was violent and physically abusive toward his wife. It wasn’t like that from the beginning, but it has to start somewhere. This is the starting point ^^^. This was the breaking point, Touya kept getting burned, and Endeavor lost it on Rei. And I am tired of explaining E-stans away. You don't draw two small children covering their ears and hiding in a different room while listening to the horror of your parents and baby sibling screaming at each other unless you're trying to convey the horror of that situation to readers. I don't consume bad takes so I just recommend that you stay away from them as well. Saves a lot of stress.

People can say what they want, but Endeavor's abuse was not vague. I wouldn't consider the physical aspect of it to be vague either. I think that's just the beauty of the retcon. He wasn't physically abusive from the START, but that doesn't erase the fact that he became physically abusive. But we DO know that from the time Touya's potential disappeared, Endeavor started abusing his family.

Emotionally at first, then it became physical.

The thing you gotta ask yourself is, what is the purpose of this retcon? In my opinion, Hori could have still redeemed Endeavor without retconning him. Not everybody would have liked it, but you can't please everybody. That's just a fact. The retcon wasn't necessary to redeem Endeavor. So in my opinion, and I say this with caution, I think Hori retconned Endeavor to make it more acceptable to integrate him back into the family. Or at least imply it. I think that's the ending Horikoshi is going toward. Not a fan of it, but.....look at the writing. It's got wish fulfillment written all over it. It's not gonna make people happy, but at the end of the day, it's not anybody's story but Horikoshi's. He can do what he wants with it. But no amount of retconning can erase the cold, hard truth:

Now as for Shigaraki's situation being so cut and dry without any vagueness--

Look, I would bet money that Horikoshi has had Shigaraki's story planned out for years. His entire arc is central to everything that BNHA is about. All of BNHA's themes, messages, conflicts, and answers lie in Shigaraki's story. Shigaraki is the best written character in this story for a reason. There's no retconning, and he has been carefully written with, in my opinion, no flaws in his story.

The reason he didn't have a problem showing how horrible it got with Shigaraki is because of those reasons I listed above. His story is the heart of BNHA and Horikoshi isn't gonna sugar coat or hide the tragedy in the story's central arc. Otherwise....the entire story just starts to fall apart and not make sense. You don't know what to believe. It becomes too hard to follow and unenjoyable.

Basically what I'm saying (assuming) is: Shigaraki's story is something Hori has never questioned himself about. He knew where he was going with it, and how. That's why there's none of this vagueness or sugar coating in his arc.

His arc is delivering everything BNHA is about to the readers.

#bnha #bnha asks #anonymous #cw abuse #todofam #todoroki siblings #todoroki touya #boku no hero academia #shigaraki tomura #shimura tenko #abuse #bnha meta #mha meta

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utilitycaster · 3 years

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Sure! Why is Taz Ethersea validating why a pre-calamity campaign would be a bad idea?

Okay first off I do want to thank you all! I think I probably would have eventually made a post, because opinions are stored in the Tumblr blog but I don't think I would have thought through it beyond the simplest answer of "actual play D&D is uniquely unsuited for a narrative with a foregone conclusion" but I think it goes beyond that and getting these questions led me to think about it much more.

Also: this post will be full of spoilers for prior TAZ and Critical Role campaigns.

That simple answer is still the right one. I'll admit I have many biases - I don't like stories where the ending is total failure, vs. something bittersweet and mixed; I am very picky about my cataclysm/apocalypse narratives; and I like to avoid spoilers and be surprised by endings. But in particular, one of the greatest elements of D&D actual play is that the long shot is possible. You can roll that 5% chance of becoming conscious instead of dying, or 15% chance of divine intervention, or what have you in a desperate situation. You still might fail, but there's a chance.

Which is one of the other great elements of D&D actual play is that the long shot failure is also possible; the 5% chance of dying sooner than expected or fumbling what should be an easy hit (or an enemy succeeding when they shouldn't).

A big part of why I'm struggling with TAZ Ethersea right now isn't actually the forgone conclusion. A big part is the mechanics, which just don't come off as terribly suited for an audio-only medium (even with the shared map, we don't get the images drawn in sync with the podcast which is what you'd need to really follow along properly). But it doesn't help that I know that when the Storm comes, they at least in some capacity make it. A lot of what appeals to me in the Quiet Year is the map-making and description of a small community and the idea of worldbuilding as the end-goal rather than a starting point, but a significant part of the premise is that the community has a year, but does not realize it. They know they have to prepare for winter, but they don't know that winter will be marked by the Frost Giants. And I don't begrudge the McElroys for using this for worldbuilding, for a number of in-game and out-of-game reasons, but the fact that they do know they have a year and that we as listeners know that obviously some kind of undersea society is able to be built after that year due to the premise of the main portion of the campaign has taken out most of the tension.*

We know how the Age of Arcanum ends. We don't know details, but we know what happens. We also know the Calamity is generations long (Halas being both a few generations after Aeor's destruction and also pre-divergence), and ends in the Divergence, and afterwards the world slowly rebuilds.

Any campaign therefore has a couple of options. Either it would have to be long before the Calamity to allow for some degree of freedom of choice in what the players are doing (which is generally not the vibe I'm getting from people interested in a pre-Calamity campaign), and also...I don't really get what that accomplishes that a new relatively unexplored location wouldn't. The other would be that it's either a campaign that never gets to any kind of significant catastrophe aversion goal (which...while I do not believe actual play casts are in any way obligated to cater to the fandom other than general sensitivity towards other people, stopping some kind of large-scale terrible event and/or big bad is a pretty central concept of the genre even when other elements of it are played with), or one that we know fails in that goal (or at least...only succeeds in saving about a third of all people) before it starts.

It's true that usually, we as viewers go into a D&D story expecting some measure of success (I could write a whole separate essay on why TPKs aren't great viewing for a long-running campaign) but CR in particular has made it clear that there is still a capacity for some amount of failure, or mixed success; there is still perma-death, or victory at great cost, or initial failure that has consequences that cannot be avoided even by later success. Something all actual play DM/GMs (and in many cases, regular old home game DM/GMs) have to do is walk that nearly invisible line where truly, success and failure are both options but total all-consuming failure is extremely difficult to achieve while still not making things seem too easy or unearned. A pre-calamity story puts that already monumental balancing act on Extremely Hard Mode because a large amount of failure as well as a small amount of success is inherently built in.

It also makes it much harder for stories like the one we had in C2 about Aeor, or for that matter, C1 about Vecna, to resonate in the same way, since both used the mystery of the pre-Calamity/Calamity eras to tell those stories. I love dramatic irony but there's a limit; there should be some mystery for the audience and players, not just the characters. If a creator puts a huge mysterious cataclysm in the past, there's a reason for that! Ethersea could have just been "it's an underwater society because it's fantasy" and that would have been perfectly fine, but it's not! That's a creative choice! The mystery of the Calamity is almost certainly by design!

In the end the thing that gets me about TAZ Ethersea is that I usually love the worldbuilding/character concept episodes of D&D shows that have them, and the Q&A/talkback episodes...but I'm learning that I want people to talk about those finished products in a big-picture way. I may be guessing here but I think people want pre-Calamity lore, but they would not actually enjoy a full, 100+ episode campaign of pre-Calamity happenings that is both hamstrung by forgone conclusions and may hamstring other stories that are to take place in the future. I think some comics, or a novel, or a small scope EXU mini-series, or like...a really long tweet thread from Matt about some pre-Calamity lore would actual satisfy that curiosity more effectively while also allowing them to preserve the important mysteries. Or, building from previous campaigns, having C3 exist a few decades after C2, where the consequences of the many archaeological expeditions and the return of the Aeormatons are becoming widespread, would similarly give us the ancient lore while still providing the open, unpredictable world actual play is uniquely suited for.

*just to make it clear: I'm complaining about the Ethersea setup epidosdes because I love complaining about things but if I actually found it wholly unenjoyable I would stop listening and skip ahead, completionism be damned. There are plenty of bright spots, mostly when they stop following the rules of the game and introduce specific character beats, and I am excited by the consequences, it's just...almost 5 hours long and still going.

#critical role #taz #taz ethersea #you know I never got super into star trek not for any real reason i just never did #but my family friends had this poster of star trek philosophy with the line having a thing is not so pleasant as wanting #and this is how i feel about so many fan theories and ships and weird fixations #i don't think people actually want the consequences of that thing or the story it tells #i think they want to want it and don't know the difference #not me though i know it #(but in all seriousness i do both believe this and also believe i fall into it at times as well)

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missusk · 3 years

Text

I am just. So disappointed with Pioneers of Olive Town. I know this topic has been beaten to death and that everyone and their sister has posted why they don't like it, but I need to voice this into the void.

I was so excited to be immersed in a little town with fun villagers and a beautiful farm, but PoOT does not deliver. It's so boring. Like farming games can get that way after a while once you've done everything, but I played this game for two weeks and have found no reason to pick it up again. I didnt even bother getting married because what's the point? I doubt the limited dialogue changes much.

I tried playing yesterday and again today but couldn't be bothered to play for more than one in-game day. Again, what's the point? The villagers dialogue is SO upsettingly bland that I dont even talk to anyone because I'll just get a 'Hey.' And I 'beat' the main plot like the third day after release, without even realizing that the main 'plot' of the game was to fix up the town. I think I even let out an audible 'is that it?'

And like... why should I even be bothered to complete the fetch quests when the town upgrades literally do not impact me at all (minus the salon)? There's no new animals, no new perks, and I cant even interact with the stalls that Jack and Manuela set up (which I couldn't even find until Winter). The last upgrade you need you can literally just buy one of the items at the general store. Everyone praises you in the game for being the hero of the town but if my character never went to Olive Town they probably would have been just fine anyway.

And... the dialogue. Another main point of contention with this game. I should say the lack of dialogue, honestly. The cutscenes are great, so why dont we have that same level of liveliness in the every day dialogue? Did the developers not even look at Trio of Towns and how much everyone loved the expansive and immersive dialogue? This series is well played and well loved, so why did we take such a HUGE step backwards in one of the most important elements of the game? Getting to know the townspeople is half the charm of these games but I literally could not care less about most of these people, and I'm in summer year 2. And I said earlier I havent bothered to get married because all of the bachelors/ettes are bland. I could describe most of them in like, one word since their personalities are so one dimensional.

Don't get me started on the makers. Except I will talk about them actually because there's such a weird imbalance in this game that makes it hard to play. Like, the game is both too easy and too hard at the same time. It isn't player friendly in that you have to go through a thousand weird little hoops to get something. Like that element in itself isnt bad (again thinking about 3oT in getting items to make the makers) but it's just so poorly executed in this game that it makes it frustrating to play.

There's certainly good elements. I think the aesthetic is beautiful and I love the farming element, but there's too many other things wrong that make the game unenjoyable. There were a lot of half baked ideas that had great concepts but incredibly poor execution. And because of all of that, this long time player isn't excited for whatever games Story of Seaons puts out next :/

#rant #ugh #i really am so sad about this though #i was looking forward to this game for montha #story of seasons pioneers of olive town #story of seasons #pioneers of olive town #review #poot #sos poot

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dumbbitchenergy17 · 3 years

Text

Extra Part 2

U.A. a school for students to learn how to become the best Pro-Hero. When young Y/n Midoriya returns from her traveling to be accepted through recommendation. What awaits her when she meet the explosive blonde Katsuki Bakugo

Words- 2644

Katsuki Bakugo x Midoriya!Reader, Izuku Midoriya x Cousin!Reader

Warning-Spoilers from show, fighting, blood, and kidnapping

Series Masterlist

Days had passed and the midterms had gone by and you had passed with flying colors getting sixth ranking and then the practical had been a success for many but not for few. You were worried that Deku would not be able to pass with Bakugo as his partner but somehow he did, and it was truly awesome. With everyone waiting for if they would go to the training camp over the summer.

“Oh, I hope I’m able to go the practical was a disaster.” Ashido whined she and Kaminari were one of the groups not to pass the practical which didn’t put them at an advantage.

“You guys after everything you guys have been through the practical doesn’t define if you’re a good hero or not.” You tried to reassure them.

“How does that help! You were able to pass the practical and midterm by yourself.” Kaminari cried, you blushed and looked down. Because of the odd number, you had created by joining you had to take your practical exam without a partner which seem difficult as you were facing Mr. Aizawa just like Todoroki and Yaoyorozu. They had passed by apprehending him but you stuck with trying to escape as your main focus was him taking your quirk away. After a long battle, you barely made it passed him and was able to escape, though you were given comments on how he would have like to seen you fight or try to apprehend him he praised you for your stealth and skills.

“Well, I mean whatever Mr. Aizawa’s decision is let hope we able to be together.” You tried to fix their lack of confidence. When Mr. Aizawa entered he let out that you were all going to camp which made you all relax, but since some people had failed their practicals they would need extra training which made them groan.

The rest of the day was spent with the group heading to the mall and everyone split off to head off in different directions, you had stuck with Uraraka to get new clothes, you both had ended back at Deku who was with someone and before you, two could realize it was the villain Tomura Shigaraki. He had escaped through the crowd and the police and teachers were informed and with that, the location of the camp was changed.

You all boarded the best sitting with Uraraka across from Deku. Everyone was chatting some yelling which deeply upset Ida. When the bus stopped you all rushed off ready to start the camp when you saw you were all on the cliff, fast forwards to the introduction with the Wild, Wild, Pussycats, being sent into the Beast Forest to fight these dirt monsters and trekking all the way to camp completely exhausted.

After arriving and eating and getting ready to bed, the next day you all were too exhausted but training never the less, Mr. Aizawa pushed you all to use the max strength of your quirks. With your quirk being Telekinesis, the ability to move things with your mind, but the downside was if you lost focus whatever you were moving or was under your control would go back to normal and it took a lot of energy from you. You spent most of the training trying to focus on more than two different items, which proved to be way more difficult to have equal focuses on two completely different objects.

Later by 4:00 pm, you all went off ready to have dinner when once again it was another “challenge” to make your own dinner, unlike last night. You were paired up with Bakugo much to both you’re unenjoyment. He was surprisingly really good at making food.

“You know Blondie if being a Pro doesn’t work out culinary is always out there.” You teased using your quirk to bring more food over to you two.

“Shut Up, Midoriya.” Bakugo growled chopping the food faster. The next day of training you all were pushing your quirks once again Mr. Aizawa reprimand some students who failed their practicals and some like Uraraka and Yuga who barely passed as well. You were working on your skills but was distracted when Mr. Aizawa came over and made you jump, the boulder and other objects you were holding up came crashing down.

“You’re holding back.” He said blatantly You looked away going back to focusing on one of the rocks.

“I’m pushing myself, sir.” You responded.

“You’re doing the same thing you did in the practical and during your first meeting, you holding back untamed potential and for some reason, you scared of it.” He said trying to push you to react, anything.

“I’m not.” You mumbled trying to tune out your teacher that was until he grabbed your arm.

“What are you scared of. What is holding you back? Why won’t you go Plus Ultra.” He kept pushing getting into your head making you more frustrated. Other students from class 1-A and from class 1-B were looking over now.

“I’m not scared!” You yelled your eyes flashing red and you saw him looking behind you. You turned to and saw the boulders you were using were completely destroyed as well as the other objects were crushed. The other students watched in awe and shock at how strong your quirk really was.

“You have untapped potential that you need to stop holding back.” Mr. Aizawa said before turning back to the other students,

“Everyone back to work!” He yelled and they turn back to their exercise. You looked down at your hands and they were still covered with the red haze, you took a breath and the red disappeared from your eyes and hands. You didn’t realize someone was by you until they tapped on your shoulders and you turned around on reflexes and threw a punch only for them to grab it.

“Deku sorry.” You pulled your hand back looking over at the destroyed objects.

“Are you ok Y/n?” Deku looked at you with some concern and you shook your head with a smile.

“Yeah...I’m good just trying to focus on my quirk.” You shrugged reassuring him. Deku nodded not believing your answer but went back to training, you look back at your hands taking a deep breath, not realizing Bakugo is still looking at you.

After training, you all went to make dinner being told earlier by Pixie-Bob, one of the Pussycat’s that there would be a game later, some kind of test of courage. When you all met up again with the exception of Mina, Rikido, Eijiro, Hanta, and Denki being pulled off by Mr. Aizawa for training because of the practical fail. Pixie-Bob and Ragdoll explained that the test of courage will be taken place in the forest, with each class trying to scare the other as either scarers or scarees.

Your class had been pair up within groups you and Deku had been paired up and your class was up first as scarers. After the rest of Class, 1-B had finished up with different groups your classes switched so your class was no the scarees. As you and Deku waited for your turn to go in you grabbed your wrist nervous and realized your bracelet was missing.

“Crap my bracelet.” You look around hoping you dropped it by you and then you knew it was in the forest. You had asked Pixie-Bob if you could go back in and grab right as Todoroki and Bakugo were about to go. She nodded and added you with the two boys which Bakugo wasn’t happy about.

“Stop whining, you baby focus on trying to not scream.” You tease as you walked with them. Unknowing to any of you what was in store for you.

Whatever happened had to be dangerous as a classmate from 1-B who you found out was Kosei Tsuburaba been injured. Todoroki had him on his back as you and Katsuki followed him through the forest.

“What the hell is happening.” Bakugo barked out. “Whatever it is we need to head back to the camp and regroup.

“Um, guys.” You point in front of you where there was someone standing over a pool of blood and what looks like a hand.

“Who was in front of us?” Bakugo asked actually worried for his classmates.

“Fumikage Tokoyami and Mezo Shoji.” Todoroki answered making the villain turn back to your group.

“Guys we got a problem.” You all watched as the villain began to make his way towards the four of you. A pink glow surrounded each of your visions

“This is Mandalay, there is an attack on us by villains uses your quirks to defend yourself, and make your way back to camp to regroup.” Her voice enters through each of your minds. “The villains are looking for Katsuki Bakugo, don’t fight return to safety quickly.” Her voice disappears, right as the villain who quirks causes his teeth to enlarge rushes towards you and Todoroki builds an ice wall pushing him back.

“What the hell, She says we can fight but then tells me not to.” Bakugo growls. The villain known as Moonfish thrust his teeth and breaks through the ice slicing Todoroki’s cheek. Who quickly builds another ice wall.

“There are after you for some reason, and now is not the time to argue we need to get back to the camp.” You said watching the ice slowly crack and you took some broken ice and throw it at some of his teeth breaking it. One of the teeth makes it past the ice and almost hit’s Katsuki if you didn’t pull him out of the way, a red haze surrounding his body.

“I don’t need your help just let me blow this extra up.” His hands start sparking.

“You can’t the gas is still out there and if your explosions could make it worse. You could also blind both Y/n and me from fighting.” Todoroki explains putting another ice wall up. You look around the fog was close to you and with this villain, you could escape.

You were trapped.

It felt like forever with Todoroki making wall after wall to keep you guys safe that you could see he was getting tired.

“You not going to be able to go much further, Todoroki.” You grabbed his arm keeping him steady as he panted. You could hear loud crashes getting closer to and you saw it was Izuku and Mezo running towards you guys.

“Quick we need light!” Deku yelled on Mezo back before any of you could as to why a roar rang through the forest. Tokoyami’s Dark shadow appeared and hit Moonfish destroying his teeth. Your hands glow red

“I’ll hold him down why you guys calm him.” You start to walk towards Dark Shadow only to be pulled back by Bakugo

“Wait.” Moonfish gets up ready to attack but is thrown across the forest and hits a tree and is knocked out, “Now!” He yells and you three rush over. The red haze covers Dark Shadow who starts thrashing making you focus harder on keeping him still, your eyes glow red and a burst of energy comes out of your hands distracting Dark Shadow letting Todoroki and Bakugo create light. With the light Dark Shadow shrinks before entering Tokoyami. You stumble falling to your knees a lot of energy taking from you. Todoroki rushes over and helps you up as you stumble back to standing trying to wave him off that you’re fine.

“Y/n! Are you ok?” Deku tries to look at you and you wave him off

“I’m fine just took a lot of energy out of me.” You reassure him still holding onto Todoroki.

“Thank you, I tried to keep Dark Shadow in but seeing Mezo injured I couldn’t control my anger and lost control.” Tokoyami bowed his head in shame.

“That’s what friends do.” You give him a smile.

“What we need to do if bring Katcchan back to camp.” Deku said making everyone nodded, “With Todoroki, Y/n, and Tokyami’s quirks this should be easy.” Deku said.

“I don’t need your help extras I’m fine on your own.” Bakugo hissed not needing protection.

“Hush, you would have been shish kabob if I didn’t pull you away, you getting the escort.” You sent a glare at Bakugo who sent one right back

“Are you sure you are good Y/n that was a lot of power?” Todoroki asked unsure if you still need the support. You push away standing on your own a little shaky.

“I’m fine you need to carrying Kosei, and I need to make sure this idiot does runoff.” You point to Bakugo who is so close to just strangling you. Everyone nods and beginning to make their way make to camp with Deku on Mezo in the front, Todoroki with Kosei following, with Bakugo behind him grumbling every so often, and you and Tokoyami in the back making sure he doesn’t runoff. What you didn’t know is the villain watching the fight seeing a snippet of your quirk and the potential it would have for a villain. You all were walking and before you could realize Bakugo was gone and before you and Tokoyami could call for the others you both were knocked out.

When the Bakugo Escort had met up with Ochaco and Tsuyu and helped them with Himkio who had sliced Asui’s tongue and Ochaco’s leg.

“What are you guys doing here.” Uraraka asked the group.

“We are escorting Bakugo back to camp.” Deku answered

“Um shouldn’t he be with you then?” Asui pointed behind you and the boys saw that Bakugo, Tokoyami, and Y/n were gone. When the Masked Villain known as Mr. Compress went on how the heroes didn’t deserve Katuski’s caliber and shine bright as a villain. He rushed off telling his team that he has secured Bakugo and to meet at the “collection point.” Mezo realized that Fumikage ad Y/n had also been taken. Mr. Compress talked about how his mission was to capture only Katsuki, but after seeing Fumikage overpower and defeat Moonfish so easily, he decided to kidnap Fumikage as well because of his powerful Quirk and notes that he will prove to be useful. As well as Y/n quirk that was able to take down Tokoyami’s dark shadow and the power she is holding back. Mr. Compress was able to dodge Todoroki’s ice and escape towards the Vanguard Action Squad, if it weren’t for Deku’s quick thinking they wouldn’t have caught up with the villain.

After a quick battle with Shoji, Todoroki, and Deku, Shoji was able to grab the marbles only for them to be pieces of ice and the actual marbles were in his mouth. Thankfully Yuga fired his navel laser towards Mr. Compress’s face as he entered the portal making him spit out the marbles. Deku, Shoji, and Todoroki rushed to grab the marbles but because of Deku’s injuries from saving Kota, he stumbled and fell. Mezo was able to grab one of the marbles and Todoroki was right in reach of the last two marbles when Dabi grabbed it.

“Who do we have.” Dabi looks over at Mr. Compress who release his quirk and Tokoyami, Bakugo, and Y/n were released. Tokoyami is with Deku and the others and you and Bakugo are with the villains.

“Deku..” You groan who every got you had hit you pretty hard.

“Y/N! KACCHAN!” Deku yells using One for All to rush towards you but you’re pulled through the portal as you hear Bakugo

“Stay Back. Deku.” Bakugo said pulled into the portal with you.

You didn’t get a glimpse of where you were as you were knocked out. Deku fell to his knees he had failed, they all had and now two of the most powerful students were missing.

#mha x y/n #my hero x reader #my hero academia #bnha bakugo katsuki #katsuki x you #katsuki bakugo x reader #katsuki x midoriya!reader #katusuki bakugo x midoriya!reader #bakugou x reader #bakugo x midoriya!reader #izuku x cousin!reader #deku x cousin!reader

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crusherthedoctor · 3 years

Note

Can we have some unpopular Sonic opinions?

I tried to cram in a lot, so I hope this satisfies you. :P I tried to stick to the ones that I haven't brought up quite as often, since by this point, we all know that I think IDW's storytelling is dire, SA2's story is overrated, X Eggman is an embarrassing portrayal (at least from season 2 onwards), Blaze shouldn't be handcuffed to Silver, Shadow's backstory had issues with or without the Black Arms, Neo Metal Sonic looks silly, etc. But anyway, here we go:

- Knuckles may be tricky to incorporate into plots that don't relate to Angel Island, but making him obsessed with his duties is no better than having him forget about Angel Island entirely.

- I like Marine, and never found her annoying. Oh, I understood what they were trying to do with her, but I honestly wasn't put off by her, and found her Aussie lingo more endearing if anything. Since her debut was during the period in my life where where I couldn't stand Sonic himself, I instead thought he was irritating (and hypocritical) for getting annoyed with her for doing shit he would often be guilty of.

- Silver is just as guilty of being shoehorned into games and plots as the Deadly Six are. Having more fans than the latter is irrelevant, since we're still talking about a character who constantly has to time travel in order to be present.

- Speaking of Silver, if he has to stick around, please do something different with him. They've pulled the doomed future routine multiple times now, and it's been boring every single time. I wasn't interested when it involved Iblis. I wasn't interested when it involved Knuckles drinking the edgy Kool Aid. I wasn't interested when it involved a council of dumbasses... give it a rest already.

- The Tails Doll can work as a mildly creepy thing, with maybe more to it than meets the eye when it's time for a boss fight or what have you. But the memes about him stealing your soul are just dumb, and I thought it was dumb even back in my teenage youth.

- “Eggman is supposed to be clownish!” Yeah, well he's also meant to be a genuine villain with a 300 IQ. These qualities don't have to be mutually exclusive.

- “Sonic is supposed to have attitude!” Yeah, well that's not the same thing as being an absolute cunt. Sonic was only ever meant to come off as having an edge compared to Mario. He was never meant to be a GTA-tier protagonist.

- Rouge is not a villain, and never was a villain. Literally the whole point of her role in SA2 was to reveal that she was working against Eggman and Shadow the whole time, albeit using sneakier tactics to do so. You'd think all those people who exult SA2's story would remember this, but apparently not. She barely even qualifies as an anti-hero, since aside from stealing the Master Emerald, she rarely does anything morally questionable otherwise. She's got a lot more good in her than people give her credit for.

- Captain Whisker is a better Eggman Nega than the actual Eggman Nega. And as far as robot characters in this franchise go, Johnny's design is pretty underrated.

- I don't like Iblis or Mephiles, but I DO like Solaris, and it annoys me that it was out of focus for most of the story due to all the time spent on its less interesting halves. Had they kept the backstory with the Duke and his experiments, and worked from there, I think they could have provided an interesting contrast with Chaos (since Solaris can also qualify as a monster with a sympathetic backstory) instead of recycling the surface level schtick.

- Black Doom may technically be just as bad as Mephiles, Nega, Scourge, Mimic, etc, since he's yet another villain with one-note characterization and fucked over Eggman. But because he never gained a disproportionate fandom, he doesn't annoy me to the same extent. It's easier to ignore him by comparison, and his Dr. Claw voice and face shaped like a lady's delicate part make him enjoyable to mock.

- Likewise, while Lyric is also on the same level as these other villains, it's easier to dismiss him because I was never invested in the Boom games anyway, and being an obvious alternate universe (compared to Sonic X or IDW, which retain the Modern designs and plot elements), it never had an effect on the main series. I also unironically like his design, and if nothing else, at least this snake didn't start a hypnotism fetish across the internet.

- Sally - and the rest of the Freedom Fighters for that matter - have had their importance in the franchise severely inflated. They may have been lucky to be the face of popular media (SatAM and Archie), but they're not these magnificent entities that the game characters are but a speck of dust in comparison to. Having a “legacy” doesn't make them more entitled to shit than any other character, old or new.

- Conceptually, the treasure hunting gameplay is one of the better alternate gameplay styles IMO. But it was let down in SA2 by its one track minded radar (the levels may have been big, but I don't think that would have been an issue on its own if the radar was better). If they brought it back and made it more like SA1's treasure hunting, I'd be all for it, although it would probably be better suited for a spinoff title.

- This goes for a lot of games, but when it comes to 2D, I prefer sprites over models. Not that the Rush models are bad (though the ones in Chronicles sure as fuck are), but the sprites in Mania and the Advance trilogy are just so charming and full of character.

- I actually like Marble Zone. Yeah, the level design is a bit blocky, but I love the concept of an underground temple prison, mixed with lava elements in a zone that otherwise isn't a traditional volcano level.

- I also like Sandopolis Zone. Again, completely understand why it's not the most popular zone around, but I've been a sucker for the Ancient Egyptian aesthetic since childhood (you can thank Crash 3 for that), and Act 1 is visually stunning.

- I prefer the JP soundtrack for Sonic CD over the US version overall... but I also prefer Sonic Boom over You Can Do Anything.

- SA2's soundtrack isn't bad by any means - I love Rouge's tracks, and The Last Scene is one of my favourite pieces of music - but as far as variety goes, it's a step down from SA1's soundtrack.

- If Sonic X-Treme had been released, it probably would have been unenjoyable and confusing. Whatever your thoughts on SA1, it was probably the better option between the two as far as Sonic's first legitimate translation into 3D goes.

- I have no qualms with Modern Sonic and the other Modern designs and characters, but I also fully acknowledge that changing gears from Adventure onwards - and doing it with a great amount of fanfare - was always going to create one of the biggest divides in the fandom, and fans shouldn't act surprised that this happened. The fact that they felt the need to hype up a new design and direction in the first place (compared to Mario, who has mostly been the same since the beginning, with only the occasional minor change with little fanfare) also indicates that they weren't confident enough in Sonic and his universe being the way it was, which often gets ignored by all the “SEGA have no confidence!!!” complaints you see with their recent games.

- Unleashed did not deserve the incredibly harsh reviews it received back in the day... but it doesn't deserve its current sacred cow status either. It had more effort put into it than '06 to be sure, and I can respect that, but much of it was misguided effort, and even if you like the Werehog, you have to admit that the idea came at the absolute worst time. The intro cutscene may be awesome, as is the Egg Dragoon fight, but 2% doesn't make up the entire game. Chip was also quite annoying, and I wasn't particularly sad when he pressed F in the chat at the end.

- On the other hand, while Colours definitely has its shortcomings, and people have every right to criticse those shortcomings, a lot of its most vocal detractors tend to have a stick up their arse about the game because people actually enjoyed it, and it had a gimmick that people actually liked. Yes, it may have been the first game to have those writers everyone hates, but then SA1 was the first game to give the characters alternate gameplay styles and have other villains upstage Eggman, so...

- Forces is absolutely not on the level of '06. It's nowhere close. A game being flawed does not make it the next '06, clickbait YouTubers. Or should I say, the game they want to retroactively apply '06's reception to, since they've been trying hard to magically retcon '06's own quality...

- To echo @beevean, ALL of the 3D stories have their issues. SA1 is probably the most well-rounded of them on the whole, but even that one isn't perfect.

- To echo another opinion, although I do love SA1, I'm not crazy over the idea of a remake, and would prefer them to just take Sonic's gameplay from SA1 and work from there. Because with a remake, you're stuck in a hard spot: Do you keep it the way it is bar the expected graphical upgrades, and risk accusations of not doing anything to actually improve the experience? Or do you try to address past criticisms, and risk the wrath of the fans who will inevitably go on a #NotMyAdventure crusade about it? What people fail to consider is that the Crash and Spyro remakes were accepted gracefully because their original iterations were still unanimously beloved for the most part, whereas SA1 - and especially SA2 - have always been divisive, and have only gotten moreso over the years.

- People take their preferences for the character's voice actors too seriously. I have my own favourites like anyone else, but I don't make a big deal out of it.

- And with fandom voice actors, they usually focus too much on doing a basic impression of their preferred official voice actor, and not enough on the acting. So you end up getting a lot of fan voices who sound like decent impressions of Ryan Drummond or Jason Griffith on the surface, but they sound utterly empty beyond that impression, because there's no oomph or depth to the actual emotions. They think about the actor rather than the character, when it should really be the other way around.

- The thing with Ian Flynn is that he is capable of telling a decent story, and he can portray some characters well. But he's proven time and time again that everything will go off the rails if he's given too much freedom (ironic, given how quick he is to point the finger at mandates when something goes wrong).

- Ian Flynn and Shiro Maekawa are not the only people in the world who are allowed to write for Sonic. I understand that one should be cautious when seeking out new writing talent, but for all the fandom's accusations of playing it safe, they sure aren't in a rush to experiment outside of their own comfort zone.

- And of course, the big one: You don't fix the franchise's current problems by crawling back to its previous problems. It's much more helpful and constructive to discuss the good and bad alike with each of the games. Less “THIS GOOD, MODERN BAD”, and more “This could work, but maybe without that part...”

#Crusher's Asks #Opinion #Sonic the Hedgehog

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kristenbouchard · 3 years

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have you read a discovery of witches or just seen the tv show? I was thinking about reading it a while ago but I saw a lot of reviews that said it was a little too romance-heavy in a juvenile way and the plot suffered for it, but I’ve also heard of a lot of people who loved it! I never took it off my to be read list so I’d love to know your thoughts! (the fact that you’re rewatching the series seems to be a good sign!)

yes, i’ve read the whole trilogy and i’m halfway through shadow of night right now in my second time around! i gotta say it’s definitely tougher to get through the second time. the books are interesting because i admire deb harkness’s story crafting ability, but her execution is sloppy imo and feels like reading a mix of a self insert story, YA fiction, and disjointed historical exposition (especially in the second book). to put that into perspective, harkness has published academic texts on the milieu of the scientific community in elizabethan london, john dee (crazy natural philosopher), and women in elizabethan households, and that’s basically the entire plot of the second book and part of the third. past halfway through the second book i did not vibe with diana and matthew’s relationship at all — juvenile isn’t exactly the word but it’s something that’s trying to seem complicated when it’s not, if that makes sense? the plot is also funny to try to describe because it either moves like molasses or skips around at hyper speed and it’s like.... either treated as complex when it’s simple or treated as simple when it could be complex. i’m not a huge fan of her prose because she really just gives you everything upfront and there’s not much work you have to do as the reader. that being said they’re not wholly unenjoyable reads! they’re really immersive and interesting and part of what drew me was the historical magic and science aspect and how it’s woven into the story. i will say, though, that the show does an excellent job of translating the story onto the screen so there’s not much missing from the show that’s in the books (at least based on the first season and first book)! i’m also of the opinion that the show is much better than the books.

#this is overly long but basically. the books are fun if you go in with the right expectations fjdjfkfkjd

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syilcawrites · 4 years

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archived memories | 6

Series: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild Type: Multi-Chapter Main pairing: Zelink (Zelda and Link) Rated: T Tags/Genre: pre-calamity, fluff (middle chapters mostly), hurt (toward the last chapters lmao), pining Summary: bits and pieces of zelink scenes strewn in between the canon memories in botw! Snippet from Ch 6: “’Oh fish pie, one day you will soon find your home inside my stomach,’ Zelda sighed out wistfully at her drawing, hugging it close to her face.” A/N: Between Memory 7-9 You can also read it on ao3! Click here to see all chapters on tumblr

Chapter 6: people watching

Zelda swung her legs as she sat snuggly inside a tree that faced Castletown, hiding from her citizens. She watched them roam about their day, unaware of her presence, as she observed them curiously. This had been a habit of hers since she was young, and it was a nice break in between praying and studying Sheikah technology.

She quickly shoved the last of her candied apples into her mouth and scrambled for her quill as a group of little kids appeared around the corner, running and scrambling and laughing.

It seems that the citizens of Castletown are quite close to one another, as many of the children that I have seen roaming about are doing so unsupervised. This is pleasantly surprising considering how many outsiders come in and out frequently, but I’m glad to see such safety present in our beloved, bustling town.

Zelda brought a leg up to her chest as she tried to keep the ruffle of her dress down in the process. She would’ve changed into her field attire if it wasn’t for the fact that she wasn’t supposed to leave the castle without some sort of escort in the first place.

She leaned against the trunk of the tree, watching them play tag for a little. She could already hear her father’s reprimanding tone regarding her boorish posture, but that was the beauty in hiding—she could do whatever she wanted to do, and she desperately needed this. She shook her head at the thought of her father, letting thoughts of him fall out in the process. The last thing she wanted to do was to mull over her relationship with him when she finally had some time to herself. With a sigh, she tapped the feather of her quill on her knee as she absentmindedly flipped through the pages of her notebook, mostly paying attention to the noisy, boisterous children.

The longer she watched them, the more uncomfortable she became—it was a sensation she was all too familiar with. Zelda scolded herself as she nipped away a bud of jealousy that had begun to form within her. She wanted to run around in the grass, laughing carefree and wholly. She thought she had dashed away such desires, but watching others do so seemed to resurface those bygone dreams.

As they rounded another corner, disappearing from view, her attention drifted to a bakery a bit further down the road. Zelda brought her ink bottle up and dabbed the tip of the quill into it before going back to her notebook.

The bakery near the east gate always has delicious bread and pastries available—I’ve always wanted to try some, but I would have to disguise myself. I’m not sure if I will have time…

She looked up thoughtfully, watching the leaves sway in the wind, as she tried to scourge up some plans to sneak into Castletown on her own. The last time Zelda tried venturing in, she had taken escorts, and the experience resembled the taste of watered down fruit juice. The escorts took every single thing she tried to eat out of her hands and tasted it themselves first before letting her have a bite out of it. Eating a meal that was already bitten out of wasn’t quite the same and made the experience quite… unenjoyable to say the least.

Zelda sniffed the air—fresh bread. Her stomach growled as she rapidly wrote down her thoughts.

The owner must wake up before the sun even rises to prepare his dough for it to look as scrumptious as it usually does! I cannot wait to see what types of pastries he’s made this week. Two months ago, the last time I was able to take a breath outside of the castle on my own, he had a set of specific assortments. Maybe now, he’ll spruce up the variety that he offers. Will he have more pastries this time around? Does he work alone? It must take hours preparing as much delicacies as he does.

Zelda tapped her notebook carefully as her thoughts drifted to Link. He would eat almost anything, and he probably had already tried every single meal that Castletown had to offer at this point.

She perked up when she saw the bakery owner walk out with a steel plate full of various pastries and breads—from fish pie to plain wheat bread—and all of it looked as delicious as one would expect. She chewed at her bottom lip as she quickly sketched the tray of goods in his hands. Luckily for her, he was setting it down outside on a table to organize it.

Zelda’s eyebrows knitted together in concentration, her hands trying to get down the perfect line and stroke. If she had the Sheikah Slate with her, she could’ve taken a picture, but Impa had asked for it before Zelda decided to go on her rendezvous.

Regardless, her drawings outside of Sheikah technology never ended up the way she wanted them to. She found sketching ancient ruins and tech much more linear and… ironically, more simplified compared to sketching the daily wonders of life itself, which always seemed to prove difficult for her.

“Oh fish pie, one day you will soon find your home inside my stomach,” Zelda sighed out wistfully at her drawing, hugging it close to her face.

She lowered her notebook to see if anything else particularly stuck out, but instead found herself face to face with bright blue eyes. She squealed in surprise and scrambled in her spot, almost falling off the tree. Link released one of his hands that grasped the tree branch hanging above her to catch her by her shoulder before she could fall off.

“Link, you almost scared the Goddess out of me!” Zelda hissed as she composed herself, going back to her snug spot nestled in the tree. She looked him up and down, raising an eyebrow. “When did you even—how did you even get up there?” she asked, her heart still racing in her chest. He looked a little funny just hanging around in front of her, but she was also concerned that the branch would snap off if he hung there any longer.

“I climbed,” he stated simply. He began swinging to a branch on her left, and she lightly hit his shoulder when he swung by.

“Don’t make too much noise or they’ll hear us!” She hissed again. He landed quietly on it, crouching. The branch was thicker and closer to the trunk, easily supporting his weight.

He cupped his hands over his mouth. “What are you doing up here?” He half whispered back, but it was still much louder than she would’ve liked.

She brought a stiff finger to her lips, darting her eyes over to the citizens, but they continued to obliviously go about their day.

“I’m simply…” Zelda waved her hand toward the people. “Observing my people. Sometimes I like to people watch.” She whispered, shrugging. She had been doing this since she was a young girl. Although she certainly stopped coming here as frequently as before, sometimes it was nice to just… watch others go about their day. To be an invisible spectator. It was something that she hadn’t experienced much in her own day to day life, where everyone was constantly watching her every move.

And she was still feeling a bit glum about being unable to accompany Link back to Hateno, so she sought refuge away from everyone else in order to feel sorry for herself in solitude. After her father had found out she was planning to visit Hateno with him, he had explained his disappointment in her for even considering such a thing.

“There are enough rumors about you already, do you plan to add more by accompanying your knight attendant, alone, to his hometown?” He had told her, shaking his head.

Zelda was confused, because they had traveled alone together before, but any word to defend herself simply went in one ear and out the other whenever it came to communicating with her father. She wasn’t sure what was worse though—hearing him explain how unacceptable and foolish it was of her to consider such an activity or the fact that Link remained quiet for the remainder of the week afterwards.

He didn’t tell her when he left for Hateno, and she saw him ride away across the grassy plains early yesterday morning from her study tower. She was glad that he was able to visit his family without any setbacks, if anything.

“When did you get back?” Zelda asked him, still scribbling away at her notebook. She was almost done with the last batch of pastries, and the baker was beginning to bring them all back into the building to put them on display.

“Just now.”

She heard him shuffling around—he did have a satchel around him when she saw him. It was probably food, knowing him.

I’ve also feel inclined to mention that the baker seems to have two children, both quite young, but I have never seen the baker embrace another adult. Perhaps his significant other is ill, or—

Zelda stopped writing, letting the sentence drop off where it was. She used to create scores of stories for random citizens she saw, but for some reason, she found it to be rude the more she thought about it.

Link tapped her shoulder, and she withdrew herself from her notebook.

“I brought these for you,” he stated, shoving a couple of jars filled with a milky liquid color at her. His voice had a sound of excitement that she was surprised to hear.

“Oh—“ Zelda struggled to juggle holding her notebook, ink, quill, and the bottles all at once, but Link was too busy pulling the bag over his shoulder to notice.

“I’m not sure what colors you wanted so I just picked up a bunch of bright flowers and rocks…some monster parts too.” He flipped the flap open, and she saw various colorful materials neatly stacked and labeled. There were fleet-lotus seeds, nightshade flowers, rock salts; there were even some moblin guts in a jar.

“What’s all this for?” Zelda asked, blinking.

“You said you needed to dye some clothes right?” Link asked, tilting his head. He looked down at her lap and noticed all of the stuff piled on top. “Sorry, your hands are already full.” He frowned and reached over for the jars, stuffing them back into the satchel.

“Oh Link,” Zelda laughed lightly, her heart felt full against her chest. “You didn’t have to go out of your way to get all of this.”

“You sew a lot, and Hateno’s dyes are really good.” Link pulled something out of the pocket inside of the satchel—a piece of paper. “The owner of the dye shop told me a list of materials that make really strong colors, in case you’re interested. Just let me know if you want anything and I can get it.”

Zelda’s tongue caught in her throat and she didn’t know what to say. For some reason, it felt overwhelming and her cheeks hurt from smiling.

“That’s awfully sweet of you,” Zelda said, accepting the piece of paper. “Did you draw this?” She held up the list, waving it a little.

Link hummed, nodding his head.

Her smile widened as she rifled through the list—the drawings were simple and crudely colored, but they were carefully considered.

“Thank you Link.” She hugged the paper to her chest. “I’ll keep this close to my heart.” Zelda hummed happily as she shifted through the objects that Link still held out to her, his arms stiff. She looked up quizzically when she didn’t hear a response from him, and froze. He was staring at her, his cheeks tinted a warm red—and now she was blushing because he was. She looked back down at her journal.

“Anyway, h-how did you even know I was up here?” Zelda said, her hands fumbling as she tried to be quick, but careful not to crumple the papers, as she shoved the list into her notebook. “I know that no one can see me from town.” She was too far from the castle for anyone to see her with the naked eye.

He let out a quick exhale, as if he was relieved she had changed the topic. “I asked Impa,” he jabbed his thumb behind him, back toward the castle. “Apparently she’s been watching you with the Sheikah Slate since you left.”

Zelda raised her head, peering past Link’s shoulder. “And to think I could avoid the gaze of the castle,” she mumbled. If she was alone, she would’ve stuck out her tongue and hoped Impa would’ve caught it. She was constantly watching out for her. Sometimes Zelda wondered if she ever slept. She was hoping at least one of her hiding spots would remain safe, but apparently that was too much to ask for. Feeling exposed, Zelda let out a small, frustrated sigh.

“Shall we head back then?” she asked stiffly, already moving herself from her position. She hoped that the various flora and shrubs would block her from anyone’s sight. Link looked at her curiously, but began to climb down as well.

“Is something bothering you?” Link asked as Zelda patted down her skirt, making sure it was free of dirt.

“I’ve been up there before the sun rose up, so I’m just feeling a little winded down.” Zelda tried to keep her voice light, but she knew it came out strained instead. She flipped through her notebook quickly, ensuring that everything was still in its place.

“Nothing else is wrong?” Link pressed again.

“What isn’t wrong?” Zelda huffed out, shutting it with both of her hands a bit more forcefully than she intended. She stood there for a moment before letting out another small sigh. “I apologize. I’m not angry… just frustrated." She stared up blankly at the castle. "I simply want to unlock my sealing powers,” she admitted tiredly.

She turned to face him when she felt his hand press against the top of her head. He drew his hand back with a small cherry blossom flower in between his fingers. He twirled it a little by the stem, looking at it thoughtfully.

“Just know that you’re not alone,” he said quietly. Zelda smiled at him, but it did not linger for long. Even though she knew he meant it, it couldn’t erase the sense of loneliness that was ever-present in her life. She followed his movements as he looked up to the sky, raising his hand, about to release the little flower into the wind.

“Wait—“ Zelda held out her hand, staring longingly at the flower pinched between his fingers. “May I?”

He placed it in her palm, and Zelda watched the petals flutter lightly against the gentle breeze. She softened at the sight of it and glanced at Link.

“It’s just for research.” She declared swiftly, when she saw him eyeing her with an unreadable expression.

“Using a cherry blossom?” Link asked. The corners of his mouth twitched, as if he was trying to keep a laugh at bay.

“Yes!” Zelda insisted, drawing her hand back to her chest. “Just for research,” she quietly said. She glanced down to make sure the little flower was still safely in her palm before she turned around so he couldn’t see what she was doing. She tucked the flower into an empty page, pressing her notebook shut firmly and tightly to ensure that it wouldn’t slip out.

She told herself that she always pressed flowers and all sorts of vegetation for documentation. This wasn’t any different.

“On a more important note,” she started, mostly to remind herself, “I want to get the Sheikah Slate back from Impa. I still have a multitude of tests to run through with it, and there’s a shrine that I want to visit with Robbie and Purah before we head to the Spring of Courage.” It was going to be one of the last shrines she would be able to visit in months, and she wanted to get the most out of it before then.

Zelda raised an eyebrow when she noticed his eyes flit to the left, which was a habit of his when he was thinking.

“Thinking about something?” she inquired curiously.

He parted his lips slightly, but just as quick they sealed back together and he shook his head. Zelda narrowed her eyes.

“Come on, tell me?” she asked, poking his chest. “You can’t just not tell me after looking so thoughtful!”

He smiled at her—but it was a smile filled with mischief.

#zelink #botw #breath of the wild #botw fanfiction #zelda #link #archived memories #hope u all like this chapter!!#my fanfics

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ordinaryschmuck · 4 years

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What I thought about every episode of The Owl House Season 1 (Part 2/2)

Part two, sukers! Let’s do this. Click here to read part one.

“Senses and Insensitivity”: The B-plot in this episode is outstanding. It shows the audience more about Eda and Lilith's love for each other as sisters, which actually gets a lot more heartbreaking, given what happens in "Agony of a Witch." I loved every minute of it...which is why it makes it weird that it's just the B-plot. Because while the main story is ok, I could do without it. It makes King look like a jerk, and in no way does it feel like he means it when he apologizes. Plus, the fact that Luz and King get saved by Dana's self-insert and don't even do anything to stop Piniet just doesn't sit right with me. Although, I do find the jokes about fandom mentality to be pretty funny. If it wasn't for Eda's storyline with Lilith, "Senses and Insensitivity" might just be a C+ of an episode. As is, I'll be kind enough to give it a B-.

“Adventures in the Elements'': And here it is. The episode that everyone saw months beforehand because some jackhole decided to leak it to the internet. And what an episode it is. We get some great mentor/motherly moments from Eda. Some perfect course correction from Ed and Em going from unlikable antagonists to decent supporting characters. Having Luz learn a second spell, and having the growth between her and Amity's relationship. And a semi-enjoyable B-plot with King and an army of stuffed animals (which is just as funny as it sounds). My problem? Pacing. While King's subplot about an army of stuffed animals is fun, I feel like more time should have been dedicated to Luz getting trained by Eda. That way, it’ll feel natural to see as Luz reaches her breaking point due to going nowhere with Eda's training, which would feel justified rather than making Luz come across as kind of whiney in the episode (at least to me, she does). Another issue I have is with how Luz and Amity's relationship is presented in this episode. It genuinely feels like we skipped an episode because Amity went from "thinking about it" to getting distracted by waving at her bestie. Now keep in mind, I'm the first one to say "who cares" when people bring up the poor pacing in Luz and Amity's relationship due to Disney having little to nothing in terms of LGBTQ+ representation in children's animation. But the thing is, their relationship feels more properly paced in future episodes, but it's not the case here. So it's gonna have to be another B- in that regard.

(And seriously, don't ever leak episodes from a show, even if it's your favorite. Because not only does it ruin the experience for fans who want to support it the right way, but it also hurts the show itself. Because if people stop watching episodes, guess what? They'll stop making them. And nobody wants that.)

“The First Day”: Is it odd that I like an episode that's clearly not great? Because there's so much about "The First Day" that I enjoy. I like the entirety of the detention track and the fact that they're not typical troublemakers. I like the message about how it's unfair to force children to learn something they're not interested in because it's for a "better education." And I would frickin' take a bullet for Puddles. Unfortunately, this episode has some of the worst pacing in the series. Let's look at what this episode has to accomplish: It has to force Luz into a track and explain why it's a poor fit for her. It has to have Luz be interested in another track and get in trouble due to being too curious. It has to establish a connection between Luz and the detention track so they can have a heartbreaking third-act breakup. It has to set up, then introduce, a monster that will try to destroy Hexide. And finally, defeating the creature has to tie into why it's a good idea for students to mix tracks. That is a lot to do in under twenty-two minutes, and it makes the episode feels like it’s on fast foward at times. I'd say the solution would be to cut King's substitute teacher subplot (which only has value with one good joke), but that would only give "The First Day" a couple of extra seconds. So, really, the only way to "fix" the episode is to probably give it a few minutes by making it a forty-five-minute special. I'm sure fans wouldn't mind that. They love Luz and her journey enough that I'm sure they would be more than ok to see a more lengthy experience through the halls of Hexide. But that's not what we got, so it's gonna have to be a D+ episode. I don't hate it, but I don't blame others who do.

“Really Small Problems”: "Ugh, it's the cliche--" WE'VE! BEEN! OVER THIS! Does this episode have a cliche storyline? Yes. Is this pretty much the first filler episode of the series? Of course. But is it still entertaining? Without a doubt. There are great jokes, adorable moments with Luz and King's friendship, and little moments that I love. Like the fact that it was an accident that King shrunk Willow and Gus, and how Luz treated the situation calmly and rationally instead of blowing her stack. "Really Small Problems" may not be high up on my favorites list, but it's at least a fun B episode that was well worth a single viewing.

“Understanding Willow”: You wanna know what impresses me the most about The Owl House? The fact that Dana and her writers knew what the fans exactly want before they even started asking for it. The fans wanted to know what happened between Willow and Amity, and so the staff showed us. Fans wanted to see what Mr. and Mrs. Blight are really like, and the staff showed us. Fans wanted a Luz and Amity centric adventure, and the staff gave it to us. And because they've been working on the first season long before fan input started coming out, that means that we were going to get what we want before even having to ask. Most shows would save content in "Understanding Willow" for a second and even third season, so it amazes me that the writers waste no time in giving us the good stuff. Add that with a great "I'm sorry" speech from Amity, cute moments between her and Luz, Luz being an understanding friend, and Eda's bell dance, and you've got yourself an A+ of an episode.

As I said, I've already reviewed the last four episodes. But if you're interested in what I have to say, here are the condensed versions of my thoughts. Click the episode titles if you want to see the full review:

“Enchanted Grom Fright”: Speaking of giving the fans what they want, the fans have been obsessed over Lumity damn near since the beginning, myself included. So now you're gonna give us a prom episode filled with flirting in the hallway, a dope dance sequence, and the reveal that Amity has a crush on Luz? All while showing more of Luz's relationship with her mother and the fear Luz has of telling Camila the truth?! Then consider this an A+ episode that might just be a crucial moment in Disney's history!

“Wing it Like Witches”: This is a fantastic episode. And no, it's not because of Amity's gay panic attacks towards Luz...ok, it's partially because of that. But it's also because this episode shows how far characters come developmental wise. Willow became more confident, and Amity is actually part of the group now. It all comes together when the most developed characters team up against one who'll most likely get little development. It's a solid A of an episode that always leaves me smiling when I watch it.

“Agony of a Witch”: Yup. The single image of Luz crying is still enough to tear me up inside. And man, what an episode. The tension, the drama, the REVEAL! Lilith admitting she cursed Eda still shocks me because it could not have been farther from what I expected. Especially given the sisterly bond that we've seen in past episodes. So yeah, this is another A+ for sure.

“Young Blood, Old Souls”: I've heard some people say that the season finale is underwhelming, and I think I know why? You see, this has what I like to call Infinity War to Endgame syndrome. Part one does a great job of setting up the tension and stakes, that part two seems to pale in comparison in an attempt to relieve some of that tension. Because since part one ended, people have been hyping themselves up for part two to be such an epic conclusion that it couldn't have completely lived up to the ridiculously high standards. It's the same reason why I never felt disappointed with either Avengers: Endgame or "Young Blood, Old Souls." I had high expectations, sure, but I also reminded myself that there is a chance that either might be unenjoyable. And guess what? I consider Avengers: Endgame an A+ movie and "Young Blood, Old Souls" an A+ episode. Is either story perfect? No, but here's the thing. I could list all the nitpicks I have, or I could keep my big mouth shut and just enjoy it for the parts that are perfect.

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And that's it! That's what I think about every single episode of The Owl House so far. As for my thoughts on the show itself, I think it's incredible. It has a nice balance of comedy and drama with specific episodes, has an intriguing story, and includes some of the best representation that Disney has had in decades. But that doesn't mean the show is perfect. Pacing can be a bit off at times, some B-plots are just unnecessary to pad out the time, and not every joke can land. But to be fair, this is season one. Dana Terrace and her crew have more than enough time to polish out the rough parts for what is hoped to be a better season two. And I still can’t to see what they have in store for us.

#the owl house #the owl house review #what i thought about

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joshuahyslop · 3 years

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BOOKS

The last 10 books I’ve read:

1. Wolf - Jim Harrison I found this book in one of the little neighbourhood book exchanges that are all around Vancouver. They look like little log cabins and it’s a loose “take a book, leave a book” policy. I’ve liked some of Harrison’s other books as well as some of his poetry so I picked it up. It’s fairly well written but it’s one of the most depraved and depressed characters I’ve read in a long time. It’s like a darker more depraved version of “On The Road”. More misogynistic, more obsessed with sex and completely lacking of anything philosophic. One of the reviewers on the back cover said it was (paraphrasing) a poetic depiction of a joyful life. I guess I must have read a different book.

2. The Crying of Lot 49 - Thomas Pynchon The first book of Pynchon’s I’d picked up. This was such an enjoyable read. I’ve steered clear of his books for fear of not being able to understand them. Every time I’ve talked about wanting to read his book “Gravity’s Rainbow”, I’ve been asked if I’ve read anything else by him. As if that’s a requirement. When I bought this book the teller asked me the same question. When I said no, he said “This is a good place to start.” I don’t know why that is, but now I’ve read one of his books and enjoyed it. I’ve eased into the Pynchon. I think I’m allowed to read another one now.

3. Joyland - Stephen King This was incredibly disappointing. I’ve read a lot of King’s books. They’re often hit or miss but they’re almost always enjoyable as brain candy. Books like, “The Shining”, “Carrie” or “Misery” are well written and suspenseful. It makes sense why he’s heralded as the King of Horror. But this one does not measure up. In fact, it falls very short of the rest of his work that I’ve read. I felt myself cringing at some of his dialogue. It was just so cheesy. Even though it was set in the 70′s, no one’s ever spoken like that. There’s very little suspense and the story itself isn’t very engaging. When you finally get to the action it’s only a couple of pages and then it’s done. It’s a very quick read, but definitely skippable.

4. The Truth About Stories - Thomas King A friend of mine who loves to read gave me a bag full of books to check out. This was one of them. It’s one of the CBC Massey Lectures and I love that series. I have a bunch of them already so I was excited to check this out. I also have King’s book, “The Inconvenient Indian” on my bookshelf in my “to read” pile. A pile that does nothing but seem to grow. But it’s still a ways down in the pile. So I thought I’d check out this little book because it’s only 5 essays and it would give me a sample of his writing. I’m very glad that I did. It’s so well written. It’s funny, it’s sad, it makes you think. If you care about stories, politics, religion, and the treatment of First Nations people by the US and Canadian governments, you should give this a read. I can’t wait to get to his book.

5. Deadeye Dick - Kurt Vonnegut In my last post I mentioned liking Vonnegut a lot and being surprised at how few of his books I’d read. It turns out I’m just very bad at using technology. I keep a Word document of all the books I’ve read to avoid reading the same book twice, accidentally. I’d tried using the “find” function and somehow did it wrong, so only a few Vonnegut titles showed up. As it turns out, this was the ninth book by Vonnegut that I’d read. That makes way more sense to me. I enjoyed this one a lot. It’s pretty funny and pretty sad. A good combination, if you ask me.

6. 69 - Ryu Murakami One of my favourite local used bookstores offers store credit if you bring in some books and they decide to buy them from you. You can either take cash or store credit. If you choose credit, you have to spend it all before you go. It’s fun. On this particular visit I had about $60 worth of credit. I’d picked the books I wanted and still had $14 left. They recommended this book. i’d never read anything by this Murakami (no relation to Haruki) so I had no idea what to expect but I was excited to check it out. I loved it. It takes place in 1969 and follows the path of some high school students looking to join or start some kind of counter-cultural movement. The two main characters actually reminded me a lot of my own experience in high school. I’ll be checking out more of his writing for sure.

7. Infinite Jest - David Foster Wallace Good lord. This was a mountain I’d tried to climb once before and failed. To have finally finished this book is no small feat. Standing at the top, looking back down I’m actually amazed I made it all the way through. It’s not that it’s an unenjoyable read. On the contrary. It’s very well written and quite enjoyable. It’s just that it’s over 1100 pages and contains 388 footnotes, many of which are several pages long and some even have footnotes of their own. At times it can feel like you’re reading two or three books at once. Another challenge is that there are at least 3 plots taking place all at once. Each story can jump ahead or backwards in time which can be tricky to track, PLUS there are character’s plot-lines that are introduced in great detail (one that comes to mind takes 11 pages to describe a young man addicted to marijuana anxiously waiting for his dealer to arrive) that are never again revisited. The three main story lines are loosely connected but the book takes its sweet time revealing that fact. All of that, mind you, and we still haven’t even mentioned the deep themes of addiction, suicide and capitalism that run throughout the book. I’m very glad I’ve read it. I usually enjoyed doing so. But if you’re not committed, if you don’t have some serious time to lean in, or if you don’t like his style of writing then perhaps you should steer clear. It’s an uphill climb, for sure.

8. Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things - Lafcadio Hearn This book caught my eye while I was taking my son for a walk. It was in the window of another one of our local bookstores, so I stopped in and checked it out. It’s a book of Japanese ghost stories and myths from hundreds if not thousands of years ago. The stories themselves are sometimes scary, sometimes funny, sometimes very confusing, but always enjoyable. Although the last three chapters completely disregard all things Japanese and consist of the authors philosophical rumination regarding Butterflies and the afterlife, Mosquitoes and the taking of innocent life (even when it seems to serve no purpose), and Ants and their altruistic existence vs our individualistic societies. There are other books in this series and I plan to check out at lease one more. I’ve always wanted to go to Japan so I’ve got a definite bias here, but if you like myths or ghost stories there’s a good chance you’d enjoy this book.

9. Braiding Sweetgrass - Robin Wall Kimmerer I know I’m late to the party on this one, but this is a fantastic book. It’s one that I’ll be recommending for years to come. Its subtitle is: “Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teaching of Plants”. It is all of that and so much more. I truly loved reading this book. I took notes. I underlined. I had to stop to think and reflect. I’d definitely encourage you to do the same.

10. Masters of Atlantis - Charles Portis This book is hilarious. Very dry, very droll. It’s a tongue-in-cheek look at the people who organize and who believe in secret societies, cults and religion in general. I didn’t know what to expect when I started it. The only other book by Portis that I’ve read was True Grit. This book is absolutely nothing like that. It’s completely it’s own. The only thing it has in common is Portis’ sense of humour. I don’t know that I’ve ever read anything quite so dry as this before. Maybe something by S.J. Perelman or something like that. This book was recommended to me by M.C. Taylor from Hiss Golden Messenger so I was pretty confident it would be good. It’s safe to say I would never have picked it up without the recommendation but also, I’m glad that I did.

more soon, -joshua

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