#lost pilgrims studio

[linuxgamenews]

Unleash the Excitement with Praetor Edition for Vagrus - The Riven Realms Game

Praetor Edition releases now for Vagrus - The Riven Realms fantasy RPG game for Linux, Steam Deck, Mac, and Windows PC. Thanks to the brilliant team at Lost Pilgrims Studio for their creativity. This new bundle is now available in the Steam Spring Sale. Lost Pilgrims Studios, the masterminds behind Vagrus - The Riven Realms now offer the Praetor Edition, their latest offering. Available now and perfectly timed with Steam’s Spring Sale. This isn’t just any release; it’s a loaded bundle designed to ramp up your experience. So, what’s in this special edition of the game? First up, an updated original soundtrack that promises to immerse you deeper into its world. Next, the Patronage Pack - think of this as a treasure trove of extras. While expanding what you can do and enjoy in the realm. But the real cherry on top? The Season Pass. Praetor Edition includes not just one but three major additions: the “Sunfire and Moonshadow” expansion, a “Companion DLC” coming in the first half of 2024, and a “Region DLC” due to arrive in the latter half of this year. This means more adventures, more challenges, and essentially, more fun. Now, here's the kicker – if you grab the Praetor Edition during a sale, you're in for a double deal with cumulative discounts. That means more savings, which is always great news. Also, if you already own some Vagrus content for Linux and Steam Deck, you only pay for what’s new to you in this edition.

Vagrus - The Riven Realms - Launch Trailer (pre Praetor Edition)

If you’re new to 'Vagrus,' here’s the lowdown. It’s an award-winning fantasy RPG that’s heavy on story, open-world exploration, and strategy. You’re the vagrus – a caravan leader – navigating a dark, fantastical world, making strategic choices, and facing the consequences. It’s intense, engaging, while testing your leadership skills. The Praetor Edition by Lost Pilgrims Studios is a testament to their commitment to the community. They’re not just about releasing new content; they’re dedicated to enhancing the overall experience and value. It’s clear they listen to the community and are hell-bent on delivering top content consistently. The Praetor Edition is more than just a new version of the game; it's a testament to a studio that genuinely cares about its players and strives to deliver their best. With so much on the horizon, it's an exciting time to be part of the 'Vagrus' world. Let’s dive in and see where these new adventures take us. Available now in the Steam priced at $52.79 USD / £48.86 / 52,79€ with the 34% discount. Continuing Linux, Steam Deck (verified), Mac, and Windows PC support.

#vagrus - the riven realms #praetor edition #linux #gaming news #lost pilgrims studio #ubuntu #steam deck #mac #windows #pc #unity #Youtube

[spacessie]

average t4t couple at the beach tbh

#i dont think scott pilgrim is trans necessarily but i made him trans for this because i wanted to. hope this helps <3 #scott pilgrim #scott pilgrim vs the world #this is a redraw of something that i now cant find lol.... #lost in the tides of time #kinda like. thats kinda like. how scott is l #its kinda like htat #ramona flowers #digital art #digital painting #this was kinda experimental idk if i like it but thats okay #clip studio paint

[theresattrpgforthat]

Hello! Do you know what TTRPGs are out there for playing as members of a stereotypical western boyband? (With roles like ‘the brooding one’, ‘the sunshine one’, etc.)

THEME: Boyband RPGs

Hello, I found some games that are within the realm of playing a western boyband, but some of them might need some tweaking to get exactly what you're looking for.

High-Speed Boar-Band, by garvoy.

You are Teenagers. You have a Band. You have a Van. Tonight is your first ever Battle of the Bands! Also, you are Boars.

Ninja Turtles meets Scott Pilgrim, High Speed Boar-Band combines everything that's terrible about being a teenager with everything that's great about being a Boar.  A One-Shot, One-Page TTRPG for 1-8 Players and a GM.

This is less about a western boyband and more about being teenagers trying to make it big, but it does give you some archetypes to play into, called Boarsornalities!. These include options such as Casanova, Wallflower, and Burnout. Your obstacles come in the form of police, family members, inter-band drama, and other bands. This game certainly lives up to its name - character creation looks sleek, requiring only a few dice rolls before you’re ready to go. The game is also divided into acts, so you’ll know exactly what you’re doing after each scene.

Limelight, by Session One Studios.

Limelight is a game where you play high school students who started a band. Can you balance your home, schoolwork, job and personal obligations and issues with life in a shitty band? Will you burn out, fade away or make it big-time? 

Another high school band ttrpg, this game is more down-to-earth. You don’t have any special powers, and you’re just regular high-school students; but you have to find a way to balance all of the responsibilities of a teenager while also pursuing your dream. There are ten character types to choose from, as well as pre-generated characters if you want to get to playing as fast as possible. This game is an ashcan, so don’t expect perfection - hopefully the designers have more coming out soon!

Fantasy Boy Band, by AuContraire.

You play as bards in an unnamed generic fantasy land. The job market has been difficult and it turns out that there is even not that many jobs for artists. And this is how your adventure starts - instead of falling into despair -  you and your friends from the Arts and Poetry Academy decided to form a boy band to finally achieve your well-deserved fame! You are the first ever boy band in those lands! Navigate through blood-sucking managers, the lacking equipment in villages lost in the middle of nowhere, people misunderstanding your art, fans in love and more!

This is a resource-management game that’s just one page. This game does have the different roles that you’re looking for - the shy one, the romantic one, and the bad boy, for example. You’ll deal with problems like the manager from hell, rival boy bands, and literal dragons. Your biggest obstacle is money: you need to be able to afford to get to your next gig with all of your stuff intact. If you want to play a stereotypical boy band but in a fantasy setting, this game is for you.

Sing As One! by Naomi Norbez.

Sing As One! is a TTRPG about being a singer in an up-and-coming group of young superstars.  All of you came from different paths of life, and have varied ambitions & goals, but are coming together in your quest to make music!

This game is more targeted to replicate bands found in anime, so expect a game that’s more about helping you write a narrative, rather than replicating what it means to be an entertainer. Your character has two actions: I Want and Show Off. I Want actions are rolls that you make against a set difficulty, because your character is interacting with the world. Show Offs are contested rolls, rolls against opponents with their own skills. Show Offs happen in this game’s version of a battle, except you’ll likely be competing against rival bands or trying to escape rabid fans. If you want a game about dealing with the life of a star, Sing As One might be for you!

#tabletop games #indie ttrpgs #dnd #game recommendations #asks #boybands

[popculturebuffet]

Scott Pilgrim Takes Off Review: That's How It Could've Happened, But How About This?

WARNING: SPOILERS FOR SCOTT PILGRIM TAKES OFF AHEAD. IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN AT LEAST EPISODE ONE, TURN BACK. SERIOUSLY DUDE. DO IT NOW. IF YOUR COOL WITH SPOILING YOURSELF, ROCK ON.

Hello all you happy scottaholics. I"m back in the saddle again. For those just tuning in i'm Jake, I review stuff.. and a few years back I reviewed the entirety of Brian Lee O'Malley's masterpiece, and the movie as a chaser, having been a fan of Scott Pilgrim since my teens but only having just revisited it at the time I started my retrospective. It was a wonderful journey that made me appricate one of my favorite comics even more and gave me a ton of my best running gags. You can find links to each review HERE in one masterpost.

So naturally when the anime was announced last year, I was entirely on board: I loved this story in all three of it's major forms and was excited to see it again, maybe updated a tad. I was also curious if the story would get a setting update, what would change , and what subplots we'd FINALLY see on screen after the film had to trim a lot thanks to half the series not being finished yet and a tight two hour run time. I was cautiously optimistic when the cast was announced as while I was happy to see the massively talented breakout cast of the film return and get another shot at the characters, I was worried it'd just be the movie but animated.. which thankfully turned out not to be remotely true once trailers came out. Instead they'd simply get a shot at playing the characters again but this time with diffrent characterizations. I coudln't be more stoked.

As it turns out though.. O'Malley had zero intention of telling the same story again. In fact, he almost DIDN'T sign on despite getting the juciest of offer, with the anime's studio, Science Saru, wanting their next project after their breakout hit Devilman Crybaby to be Scott Pilgrim and coming to O'Malley Directly.

The problem wasn't the offer: O'Malley, unsuprisingly, was a fan of Science Saru, who in addition to Devilman had also made Space Dandy and the early pilot shorts for OK KO. The problem was O'Malley.. really didn't want to simply retell scott's story a fourth time. It was a story that was personal, deeply loved and made his career.. but after a movie that everyone knew and love and a video game that was so well loved it was many's holy grail for a rerelease for over a decade after it was delisted, he didn't know how to take the story in a new direction and didn't want to do the story again if it was simply going to be a rehash: people could read the book sometime or watch the movie if they wnated Scott fighting the exes.

Thankfully for us, Brian brought up the offer to his good friend BenDavid Grabinski, a tv and film writer. BenDavid was a huge fan of Scott Pilgrim and thus when the idea came up coudln't help spitballing ideas. And one stuck: What if Scott LOST that first fight. It was naturally just a joke.. but like when Superman died.. it's one that had some heft to it. If Scott were gone what would happen to everyone else? How would Ramona react to his loss? Was Scott really gone? how would his friends go on without him... and what would happen to the exes now they weren't guaranteed to die in a fist fight and the entire problem with Gideon's whole plan was laid bare?

These questions and more are answered as Ramona gets to the bottom of what REALLY happned to scott, who unsurprisingly is not dead and even more unsurprisingly the truth is all kinds of bananas. The story of a human tire fire learning to be a better person and not runa way from his problems... becomes the story of a much more composed tire fire learning she can't run away from her problems after she chases after what might have been, forced to get closure with most of her exes as she tries to hunt down the ex that never was. Along the way there's messy bisexual love triangles, movie rental melee's, Tony Hawk style antics done on swarms of paparazzi ninjas, the greatest musical of all time, the rise of Matthew patel, the fall and re-rise of Gordon Goose, explosions, cameos, and more as Ramona Flowers gets it together while Scott Pilgrim takes off, resulting in one of the best animated series of the 2020's and possibly the best of a very stacked 2023. So take off with me as we press start on a fresh new take on one of my favorite franchises under the cut.

Ramona Flowers Gets It Together

This one's going to be a LOT to unpack, and the best place to start is with our new lead: Ramona Flowers. Ramona has never been unimportant to this franchise: after all it's her exes that make up the fight of the week each volume and who give the franchise it's hook, and in the comics she develops alongside scott: As I said in my reviews, Ramona develops alongside him, having to learn to not keep people at arms length and to not run away, nearly running away from everything before coming back, realizing Scott's worth it. Through each other, they grow stronger.

So with Scott gone... Ramona is forced to grow all on her own. If she wants to date Scott, SHE has to fight this time, and she can't run like she tends to. In the comics, she had to scrap with Envy and Roxy, but all the weight to evolve as a person was put on Scott: Ramona had a stable job, was content in her life even if her friend group was basically "Whoever scott happened to be friends with", she was seemingly all together until the last three volumes slowly chip away at that and reveal she's just as bad at staying and improving instead of noping the fuck out of an intense situation as scott. She has to evolve.. but her getting better isn't the point till the climax of the story. It's a lesson in how while a relationship can HELP you grow, ultimately it's on you to: Scott grows because he stops running and embraces his evil self and thus the memories of all his fuckups, embraces that he could sometimes be shitty so he can learn past it. Ramona has to choose to stand and fight gideon and let go of hte hold he has on her, to let go of running and embrace what she has.

Here without Scott and only the vauge mystery of a guy she dated once, Ramona instead has to confront herself: many a character question her doing this. While it starts simple enough with just Julie questioning it, because Julie hates scott as much as I hate the comics version of her, we get harder questions from Kim, whose dated Scott and knows how insesntive he can be, and Lucas who KNOWS Ramona and knows her style is to run. That a happy ending isn't as easy as finding scott again andmaking out intensely. Ramona has to make her own happy ending.

As a result instead of being the sneaky deutratonist or a prop depending on the version (I Love the movie but man do they not do her well), Ramona has to confront her past on her own, and instead of just getting cathartic punchings, she has to actually.. TALK to her exes and resolve things like an adult. And you can imagine how much she likes the prospect of that.

And this flip in how the story works.. is brilliant: It allows us to get to know Ramona: We're seeing things from her perspective instead of Scotts so we see her way more vunerable, genuinely shaken by Scott's "Death", obssesed with solving his kidnapping, and forced to confront her past. Granted like the books we also get to see the lighter side: Ramona is still the straight man to a lot of the cast especially her exes. She and Kim are the sanest one's here and Kim is often out of focus, leaving Ramona one of the few rational people in a sea of gloriously goofy nonsense. Yet we also see her own intrests: she's a columbo fan, turns out to be a natural for stunt work, and has a meticulous routine for her hair dye. We also find out she's a blonde which is only TECHNICALLY cannon to this version.. but fits too well as her hair color to work.

We get to see Ramona not as some ideal to chase slowly turned into a person but just.. a person. Funny, aloof, kind, easily baffled... this is easily my favorite verison of her. Granted it's not exactly ac ontest: The comic's version is great and this simply takes the best of that and fleshes her out, the video game is a 16 bit brawler, and the movie... well look I like the movie, but the film version is a nigh emotionless prop that barely gave Mary Elizabeth Winstead anything to work wtih forgetting ramona HAS emotions who instead of simply having her emotoins amplified is outright brainwashed. I used to think Kim got the shortest end of the stick but doing this review.. no it was Ramona. Ramona got screentime but had any personality stripped. Thankfully both Ramona and Mary Elizabeth get a second shot on the screen here.

Mary Elizabeth's performanc ecan't be overstated: she nicely ballances Ramona's stocisim, something key to her charcter as her main problem is distance, that she puts up and that she creates by running away, with the emotoin peeking up just underneath to say hello. IT's a truly great performance and I hope she'll consider doing more voice acting, she's an natural.

And this is great as Ramona's quest eventually leads her back to scott.. and to an ending that's both profound.. and pokes some holes in the series itself.

The Adventures of Scott and Scott

So turns out Scott was kindapped by of ALL characters, Robot 01, the Katanagi Twin's robot minion who shows up for one fight in the comics and video game and then explodes real good. Here he's their little robot son.. and how Scott got kidnapped.

But thankfully the culrprit isn't the Twins. I would've liked for them to get more to do, more on that later. THeir involved, having leant their robot boy to a friend since , as a robot who can't eat, Robot 01 has never had meat and has no human limits and thus is the strongest robot vegan who ever existed.

God I love this stupid reveal. Anyways, turns out Scott's kidnapper.. is SCOTT. Specifically a version of him who did the usual story, won, had a happy ten years with Ramona, then it fell apart after an argument which he assumed ended in divorce.

This is another twist that was brilliant.. I thought Scott's kidnapper was another scott, but I assumed a clone situation. I never thought FUTURE Scott but it's such a brilliant move. We see a Scott who won.. but who simply didn't let the lessons he learned stick. It's easy to learn something about you sucks, I have many a time.. it's harder to make the changes stick. I can't tell you how many ephnaiinies i've had only to end up back where I started. Some change has stuck with effort, but it's not easy. You have to constantly work at it, to grow. And it's easy enough to backslide.. and thus sadly easy to buy that this verison of Scott , when hit with his relationship not working, spiralied instead of working at it , not helped by Old Ramona, their words not mine, ghosting him.

He's a ghost of Scott future, every bad thing about the guy amplified: he's oblivious, thinking his newest band is going anywhere with his gloriously crappy music video, and refusing to accept it was his fault, throwing a tantrum when Young Scott states the obvious solution: just tell his younger self some of his fuckups and hopefully that'll right the relationship. Instead Future Scott goes for the solution that's easiest and laziest: use time travel to undo his relationship. And naturally this being Scott he got this stupid idea from taking a joke Wallace told him seriously. I love Wallace's "Buddy I was kidding".

I also love the performance here. Rather than use Michael Cera , Future Scott is voiced by voice acting, comedy and beard legend Will Forte. Forte's goofy nature, penchant for playing man children blind to their own flaws, and deadpan deliveries make Future Scott work. He's deeplys ad, but also deeply hilarious, sharing some of Scott's weird intricates like assuming because Future Wallace's husband works for nintendo he gets all the video games for free and making a virtual boy scrapbook of his relationship.

He's still throughly Scott.. just one who can't get past himself, requiring Scott and Future Wallace to go to Future Ramona for help. Shockingly.. she's more than willing too: While she still has Ramona's own problem of running away at the first sign of trouble, she does still LOVE this idiot, she just dosen't know how to fix it and knows she can't talk him out of this, so she sends scott back to be with his ramona... well rides him back leading to some awkward selfies.

But naturally for this tale, Scott coming back.. dosen't fix things. And not just because his older self put anti kissing nanites in him.

Scott has grown some from seeing what he could be: He apologizes to Knives, in a scene that I truly love.. mostly for this line "Apparently a 23 year old dating a high schooler is frowned upon by society".

And I have to stop for a minute to give ALL the props to Michael Cera. He already had done plenty awesome this year as the boy of the year

He didn't need to go for two but he did. Cera wasn't at all bad as Scott the first go round: the character was different, a bit less goofy but still awkward as hell and oblivious to his own flaws: the core was there. Here .. Cera is playing the character as on page, if slightly amped up: Goofy, excitable, trying to ignore his painful past and flaws, charming.. all the good and bad of scott is bubbling around this guy. And the line deliveries my god: we have instant classics like "I'm using the world wide web" "The place where they make the video games", the instantly memetic sonic scene (Which would be me trying to flirt with a girl, ngl), and the above frowned upon line. Cera just bubbles in this roll, sliding into who scott is: Loveable but a total mess who needs to get his shit together and has made some grave mistakes.

Granted they also take steps to make sure Scott's relationship with Knives as judging from interviews, O'Malley is kinda tried of the take that scott pilgrim is a bastard man. I mean he is, but it's less that Scott has some shit to work out and need to be better and more that everyone acts like this is a new discovery. As the author himself said it's there on the first page and a good chunk of chapter one is the people who know him best asking what the hell is wrong with him.

Granted this is mixed with Stephen hooting and hollering as much as he can with his stoic personality, Neil being in awe and asking if they'd "done it yet" and Wallace being tempted with the idea of a high schooler himself, though I get the impression he never seriously considered it. So it is muddled slightly.. but not NEARLY enough.

I do get it with the movie: the movie.. outright portrays Knives as a legit love interest, and while it ages Scott down, it's not enough to make that not blehhhh and the game has Knives end up with Kim, which younger me didn't get was still pedophilia. So I do get it as while the comics make it clear this is messed up, it got muddled.. but it's also still a pretty weak gotcha when the source material has always said "This is wrong" They even bring up trainspotting for fucks sake, which I haven't seen but is a pretty good indication O'Malley knew what he was doing.

So here they make it clearer that while Scott's still stringing this poor baby girl angel baby along, he dosen't really consider it a relationship, or just dosen't want to and after seeing what he easily could be even with Ramona, apologizes way sooner. So they did make strides to make things a bit clearer here if only so another version didn't miss the point.

So one rant later while Scott and Ramona think things are wrapped up.. it's just not that easy. You can get closure, we'll get into the exes more shortly, but it dosen't mean your done or done growing... or that the past is done with you. Or future in this case. Like I said, Old Scott/Future Scott put nanintes in scott and after figuring out the exes aren't involved, the two get kidnapped along with the exes , knives, pretty much anyone who can throw a punch.

The kidnapper is naturally Old Scott.. EVEN OLDER SCOTT.

I love his look: he still has his old jacket, his iconic x-men one, but laso looks like Ryu from Street Fighter 5, just with a giant beard and crazy eyes, being a mix of that ryu and devil ryu.. and nega scott. Old Scott wasn't a great person but still had the potetial to turn it around if he got his finger out of his ass. Even Older Scott is every horrible thing Scott Could've been.. and this is something the comics foreshadowed was possible.

And the thing is while Ramona was being dickish in her own right there, not getting that while Scott cheated on Knives with Ramona he had changed since then, she's not WRONG. Scott was VERY close to giving up on change entirely if Kim hadn't turned him away. Hell had Ramona not come along Scott might've become Old Scott sooner just by dating a teenager. The potential to, like the exes, sink into his resintment and worst self was always there... this is just a Scott that did. A Scott who when faced with the fact change is hard would rather hull up, get buff and plan to kill everyone he cares about just to avoid changing. This is the Scott he almost became.. and sadly at least one scott did become.

He's also horrifying for more than just the implications of seeing this guy who while a dickhead, CAN be better if he puts in the effort and does change and grow in both main versions as his worst self. It's sad to see that.. but we also quickly see just how dangerous an evil ex scott would be: After all Scott beats all the evil exes... I mean original timeline scott beat Lucas and Todd via Indigo League style technicalities, but still. While Scott was still beatable, it took multiple rounds, a feint, and ramona's help to put down the last four exes, he was still fairly strong.. so give him 24 years more of experince with ten of those spent JUST training and specifically preparing to counter the exes , ramona and his past self.. and you have an unstoppable monster that NOTHING can stop and everyone else is very lucky they get sent back. They all put in a good offense.. but the league is out of their league.

Even Older Scott is a brick wall.. and one that smacks straight into Scott and Ramona trying to run from their problems. Scott is forced to face the fact that even getting better might not last even if he dosen't become this guy and Ramona's forced to face the hide this guy is right. Our heroes are up against the wall, their relationship almost over...

Enter Even Older Ramona. Turns out Even Older Scott just.. ghosted her. But her presence finally gives present Ramona the wakeup call she needs as finding our her older self just.. ran away each time her and scott had issues.. gives her a needed ephinay the same way Older Scott being a dumpster fire on cocaine gave this Scott one and Scott in the comics got one from seeing a dark mirror in gideon: Ramona Flowers.. always run. Lucas outright said as much and with the series fleshing out the exes more, almost there just give me a minute, we find out she just.. bounced on each relationship. Matt isn't a suprise, his backstory is the same as it ever was, and in some cases she was ENTIRELY justified in her assholery: Todd was an obnoxious prick she left another, far better guy for, the Twins were recontexculazed as serial predators who preyed on new freshman with Ramona dating them both being a way to get even on both of them, so while she still did a bad it was on legitly bad people, and Gideon.. is still Gideon. He may get more development here and have his own backstory.. but the series makes it VERY clear he was every bit as shitty to ramona as previous versions, he just hadn't got to using the glow or mind control chips levels of creep yet.

But as i'll get into more in a bit... she legitly hurt everyone else: While Matt didn't get into supervilanny till high school, it's hard not to think that being used as a weapon to keep other boys away didn't lead him down the tryhard path he now walks, Lucas was left devistated and became a xerox of a xerox of the kind of guy Ramona left him for, and Roxy was left genuinely devistated thinking she was nothing. All Ramona has done is run and deny people closure and the series reckons with that.. and like the comics forces Ramona to stand and fight, recognizing that her relationship with Scott could end badly.. but it's worth having.

It's a neat metaphor: our heroes see exactly how badly things could end... and that's how relationships can be. You worry about how badly things are going to go or how you'll fuck up. But the only way it can go forward.. is if you try. Risk the hurt for the good. present/past/whatever Scott made a valid point when trying to talk to his Older Self before seeing that was a lost cause: There had to be good times too? While Old Scott and even Older Scott bury them in self pity, a relationship, even if it fails.. has something to add. Something to help you grow. And given Brian himself had been through a divorce after a ten year marriage it's hard not to see the subtext, to see that idea of "would you talk yourself out of a relationship if you knew it'd end". And the answer he and Ramona have.. is no. It's worth the risk, worth the pain, and worth the possiblity that someone else can do it better.

Granted this being scott pilgrim doing it better involves the ramona's fusing and Even Older Ramona, while done with Scott (He ate up his second chance a LONG TIME AGO) gives both Scott's another chance. As she puts it "This one's just an idiot kid... and this one's a real mess" (When told to kick his ass) "It's never too late to clean up a mess.. " Despite it all.. part of her loves him.. and gives him another chance. Not with her, Oh lord no, but to be better. That .. we can always be better, no matter if your 23 or 47, you can become better. As Super Ramona says "What you've done in the past dosen't define you, hell me keep remembering that". It's a beautiful message: you can screw up, there is no happily ever after.. but you can always be better even if you stumble. And as our heroes face a new future together once again.. it feels a bit brighter this time, like these two kids will make it you know?

Not That Evil

One big pull of doing the story this way for Brian and BenDavid was the exes. Brian admitted in interviews he wrote the books by the seat of his pants and as a naive 20 something who didn't know how skaters or musicians worked except via magazines. Moving to LA among other stuff gave him more perspective, and he wanted to add that to the story, flesh the Exes out as people and use the bits he didn't have time for in the original.

As such 5/7 go from sometimes one dimension, sometimes wholly evil bastards for Scott to punch.. and Lucas, to 5 very flawed , very intresting people we get to see way more of and who all get something resembling a happy ending. Also Kyle and Ken are there. Getting them out of the way once again the adaptation barely uses them, as their more a plot device/backup so we can hear Will Forte sing the theme to Bubblegum Crisis. You know when Brian hinted at that scene in interviews pre show I expected to here Kirean Culkin, Bree Larson, maybe even Micheal Cera. I didn't expect Will Freakin Forte and god bless Brian for that.

So yeah the Twins are.. fine here and I love the anti climax: they don't get closure with ramona.. but are cool with Scott since they'll be buddies eventually. I also like that out of ALL the exes for Scott to befriend after they respawned it's these two guys.

Thankfully everyone else gets way more and no where is that more apparent than with MATTHEW PATEL, the first evil ex.. and the one who naturally gets the most to work with, going from the biggest jobber who ever jobbed, to the guy who killed scott pilgrim

Satya Bhabha gets to have a fucking feast here and I hope this leads to more rolls, voice acting or otherwise. While he was already one of the highlights of the film, easily, taking what was implied to be a music number and making it into this glorious thing.

The series takes it to new heights.. mostly by giving Matt his best life. Granted.. this life naturally dosen't include Ramona who walks out pissed off and Matt is befuddled "Wait we DON'T get her automatically if we win?"

So he does what you'd expect from an egocentric theater kid who realizes he was just played and this whole evil exes setup is a sham... call a meeting in GIDEON"S OWN LAIR to dramatically reveal it all. And punch the head off a good soft robot boy because he's a prick and a half. A loveable prick and a half but still.

It's something I just.. never thought about with the league. I assumed it was simply a "If I can't have you" situation as that was GIdeon's whole goal.. and to put her in his girlfriend freezer which i'm sure Matt released. Gideon and Roxy seemed like the only ones who wanted her back. But given the weird logic of this unvierse even if some of them DIDN'T want her, I like the idea they'd still like to keep that option open by unaliving someone. It's fucked up as it is sensical for a group that all gathered to keep their ex from moving the fuck on.

It makes equal sense that this was all a ponzi scheme, Gideon , being an entiled dick, just.. assumed he got her if anyone won. That the exes wouldn't object or, more likely, they simply woudln't make it far enough. They were just patsies so he could swoop in and score her on the rebound, also not getting that would never work and sh'ed just hammer his nuts so far in they'd be impacted.

What threw me after this.. was Matt's Challenge to gideon. Not him challenging Gideon, I expected that easily: Matt gets all of Gideon's empire if he wins, Matt dies if he looses. I figured Gideon would kill Matt, again, and would do some sort of cordinated strike. But as before Scott Pilgrim Takes off Decides

Instead we get an absolutely gorgeous, awesome fight scenes. one of the best i've seen in animation and one of the best of the year, which given Invincible came back, is saying something. Gideon, while not having his pixel or glow powers, fights well with swords, a harness and pure skill while Matt is consistently forced to push his powers in new and creative ways. While we get the ones he got to show off against scott, fireballs and demon hipster chicks, we also get to see a lot of cool new shit as he manifests arms ala the Hindu god shiva, with all his powers seeming to tie into Hindu mythology instead of "magic stuff I guess" like the originals. It's a tense fight I assumed would end one way.. but instead... Matthew Patel FUCKING WINS and wins Gideon's emppire, only leaving him alive as a brag

Yeah I assumed from this when first watching that this was some sort of Buffy "Superstar" situation, that Matt had altereted reality to make it better for him. Instead.. nope. This just happened organically. Turns out Matt is badass as fuck, Scott simply had the power of friendship and punches. No power scaling here bitches.

As a result... the League falls apart. Matt is TECHNICALLY leader.. but in practice the exes all go off to do whatever, with Ramona instead encountering them organically. Matt spends the season as a highly paid CEO, mostly showing up once in a while to shut down a whole movie production because it makes him look bad, pathetically hit on ramona.. then get scared when he finds out Scott is alive. My faviorite bit of that is his very timid "Is he mad at me?" like he's a second grader and Ramona's understandably irritated "I dont' know dude" as a response.

Granted this dosen't stop his dreams as Knives and Stephen are able to pitch him a Scott Pilgrim Musical, one of the most gloriously batshit subplots in the history of this franchise. Which really can be said for.. most of this fucking show, but I digress. Despite seemingly hvaing no talent, the prospect of finally getting his broadway dreams back after his dad crushed them is enough for him to level up again, do a performance everyone loves and become a broadway icon. I assume the last part. Hamilton move over, your new compettiion's in town.

(Sidebar to that refrence, I think Hidgens and Matt would be besties. THeir both weirdly violent and obessed with musical theater).

Hell Matt.. dosen't even get upstaged by Gideon. When Gideon tries a looney tunes plan to bomb the theater, the Demon Hipster Chicks just.. disarm it and Matt.. gives Gideon his company back. Turns out being a CEO is hard yo. He's already lost billions. So Matt has his career, his musical, the only thing he didn't want to give up and Gideon could care less about anyway, and a new evil bestie. Life is good.

And naturally it sucks to be Gideon Graves as a result, or rather Gordon Goose. I liked giving Gideon a backstory, aging him down to be julie's old peer who used to wear no fear shirts every day and got shot down hard. Huh I never knew the guy I knew in high school who gave every girl he knew an invitation asking them out in high school became a super villian.

So Gideon spends most of the series in a depressed daze secretly plotting revenge and watching anime. Why is every guy I knew in high school compressed into one sad canadian?

Where he's crashing though was a nice twist: Julie. For those who read my reviews of the comics, you'll recall I didn't exactly like Julie very much. And for good reason: she's the worst. Here she still is.. but Brian found the secret to having a character whose human garbage around without making the audience pull their hair out. You have to make them entertaing. Julie is still a high school alpha bitch all grown up here, but instead of just constantly talking about how Scott sucks, she gets to be funny. She swears constantly, taking a great gag from the film and escalating it, slacks off at her job, and snarks to Ramona about her taste in men.

She also.. gets redeeming qualities. Something I never thought any verison of Julie could possibly have, but here we are. Instead of just seeming to know Ramona and only claming to be her friend because Julie Powers is a starfucker, she's GENUINELY a good friend to Ramona, giving her the info she needs and being contrite when Ramona catches her with Gideon. Julie here feels more like a person and less like a blob of all the worlds sins congealed into that bitch.

And yes she ends up with Gideon, a ship I never thought of in my darkest day but somehow works perfectly. Their both awful in a way that's made for each other and Julie taking in Gordon at his lowest is genuinely sweet.

We get to see Gideon not as G-Man.. but as a nerd whose lost everything.. and gets the greatest and most wholesome montage ever with Lucas Lee. Seriously Lucas and Gideon fucking around Julie's house like two teenage boys is one of the greatest thigns ever put to film, even greater knowing it was somehow only 90 fucking minutes. It's fucking adorable.

What helps though is that while Gideon is a touch more sympathetic and pathetic... he's still not let off the hook for how he treated Ramona. He's not putting the glow in her and stuff, but he was still the same controlling manipulative asshat. I mean he still made the league just to win her back. It's just without the league or the trappings of power... he's a less charming scott, something the books largely hinted at. Ramona DOES get him to be a better partner to Julie, calling him out for leaning on her hard and taking advantage of her, and as a result instead of leeching off her they become equal partners in villianny with vauge never to be elaborated on plans at the end. And it's honestly.. sweet. It's nice their evil together. Sure they'll probably be meancing our heroes with a super mario bros 3 airship eventually, i'm sure, but at least their better. And matt freed his frozen kidnapped wives so we're good.

So moving right along fun and fancy free we have Gordon's best bro, Lucas. Lucas Lee takes more after the film, something Brian admitted was unavoidable for some things: after the movie made some versions of the characters more iconic he really coudlnt' go back. It's why getting the movie cast was so important: While this was going to be it's own thing, having them added a layer and frankly he didn't think anyone else could do it as well. I do think someone could've, there's tones of great voice actors, but i'm still glad he got the all star cast back as their just.. giving it their fucking best. God bless Michael Cera for reviving that email chains.

And you can feel the enthusiasm in most performances, but especially Chris Evans, who responded back within 20 minutes of being asked and hams it up. This Lucas is a bro whose on the verge of being cancelled and who is delightfully try hard, saying let's party as every other line in his films, throwing parties, and generally being axe bodyspray made into a person. He also tony hawks a lot, and you can tell BenDavid loves skater culture.

Lucas is fun to watch, being arrogant and an asshole, but one whose hilarious epsecially squeezed into Scott's t-shirt playing him in young neil's movie. It's a great visual. And his downfall being dating a 30 year old who happens to LOOK like a high schooler is both a brilliant meta joke on ellen wong, and just.. fucking great.

The show also, like all the exes, fleshes him out: It takes what we knew ,that Ramona cheated on him in high school, and fleshes it out: Ramona was his everything, helping a skinny skater kid get by, fixing his boards and generally being sweet.. then aburbtly left him for a fuck boy, with Lucas deciding to become the KING of all fuck boys in revenge.

Lucas isn't super deep, but I love that he's not just the dudebro party massacre we see on the surface: he does actually read the script, has genuine insight into ramona pointing out how unlikely the regular ending of the story is .. simply because she always runs. He also willingly skates into a cloud of ninja paparazzi to cover for her.

And the skating scene.. is one of my favorites in the show. Granted I like me some tony hawk even if I suck eggs at it, so that helps, but the animation is gorgeous. Granted this whole damn cartoon is gorgeous: Science Saru put their heart and soul into every frame and everything looks stunning, having a very early 2000's look with it's frayed edges on the characters, and capturing Brian's style perfectly.

The Skating Segment shows this off, with fluid motion, some great set pieces and some impressive jokes like the alien. It's fucking great.

So Lucas ends up not even able to afford a first class ticket back home.. but finds happiness as a barita. and Stacey finds happiness starring at his ass. Everyone wins. I kinda low key ship those two.. I mean Stacey's a bit younger, yes, but it's not knives level of age gap, and Lucas could use someone with their head mostly on their shoulders. They do try teasing him and kim.. but she'd eat him alive. It'd be fun but she would. So speaking of Kim and the evil exes, let's roll on to my faviorite, Roxie. Roxie is a fucking delight this time, with Mae Whitman, unsuprisingly, bringing her best. It's fun to get to see her cut loose and just play a horny lesbian ninja gremlin like she deserves, with Roxy hamming it up. She spends the evil Ex meeting dunking on everyone else ("Act like you've been here todd!"), and already being the best. She comes off as a combo of her two versions: she has the manic gremlin energy of her film counterpart, being as bi-furious as ever, but has the snarky energy of her book counterpart, being willing to take shots at people and question them... it's just spread to all of the exes since Scott isn't around to be the sole obstacle in her way of ramona.

She's then the first ex Ramona has to deal with herself on her investigation, and it perfectly fits her character: In the film she tried to jump the line, but got a cup of accidental boob punch instead, and while she did wait for Todd to get headbutted out of existence in the books, she also started her attack with some ninja poster clones of Canadian hillary duff in the excellent Free Scott Pilgrim one shot (The very comic that got me into the series), and tried the same sneak attack that ended up in boob punch city. No matter the version Roxy is an impatient little cave goblin and of course the second she realized Ramona was free and the others had stopped giving a shit she'd be the one to show up at her door.

She's also the only one Ramona has to fight instead of just having an adult conversation. And while Takes Off changes a lot by design.. it dosen't deny giving us another excellent Roxie vs Ramona fight, something that I didn't realize was a tradition till this one. Still they saved the best for possibly last as the two's video store dustup is one of the best fights of the series, only topped by the final battle with Even Older Scott and even THEN it's a very close call.

Starting with a furious one on one in No Account Video, one of my faviorite settings from the books i'm glad to see get fully fleshed out and used here, even if it gets wrecked and then shut down as a result, with sprinkler's going off, discount tapes being bodied and Hollie deciding fuck this i'm clocking out, we then get a fun take on an old trope as a stack of tapes fall on them, leading to the two getting stuck in video land. We get westerns, film noir, samurai flicks, Hollie griping about them ruining her faviorite movie but watching anyway, it's a gorgeous fight and the video tape grain just adds to it.

We also get at least one fun bit using the medium as when Ramona gets sucker punched, Kim simply rewinds to help her new bestie out.. and Roxie takes it like a champ and... exits the tape JUST to stomp the remote. Fucking amazing.

The best part though, like a lot of SPTO, isn't the punching, though it's glorious but the payoff. With both exhausted, Roxie lashs out in a brutally painful way, blood down her cheek. It wasn't just that Ramona left, it's that she left.. without saying anything: we get an actual sense of their relationship this time and rather than be the "phase" Ramona cruelly brushed it off as the last two times, we see the two slowly fall in love, a really cute shot of ramona throwing a blanket over the two of them.. and then Ramona moving out, almost saying something but not wanting to, leaving Roxie devistated. It's easy to see WHY she has this bubbling anger at Ramona: every time they've fought, she's made her feel like nothing, something she vocalizes here. It takes what was an extremley dated bit that made Ramona come off like a giant asshole in the previous versions, it's fine if she realized she's not bisexual (which any scene with her and kim in both the comic and this very anime proves is just.. factually false), but it's a face punching way to put it, and puts it in the context of really hurting someone. Ramona realizes she done fucked up, genuinely apologizes and the two.. just collapse. Their friends now.

I also love Roxie hitting on Kim. I could honestly see those two working out.. I mean yes there were no sparks but Kim was kinda put on the spot there and Roxie was on the rebound. Give em some time. Plus I think Kim would work well with a feral gremlin she has to reign in. She's done it before. Roxie also asking about hollie right after before cheerfully leaving.. it's the best. Mae Whitman's the best and I could see her headlining a spinoff easily. Give me more of my feral cave gremlin daughter comma you cowards.

Finally we have Todd. Unlike the others, Todd.. isn't really fleshed out more and is given an entreily new personality from the comics swaggering egotistical rockstar jackass (Since Lucas very much had that niche filled), and the film's errrr...

Brandon Routh done good with the cleaning lady bit, but he wasn't given much to work with. Here... he makes Todd into a gloriously dumb and horny slab of moron. The guy can't go ONE SCENE without nearly fucking envy, which is one of the funniest bits in the show, capped off with the glorious wolf whistling, then fucks Wallace about ten diffrent times that we see over three days, then gets an adorable wallace sailor tatoo.

Todd.. really isn't changed. He was a fucklord in high school and he's a horny cheating mess now. He's an excus efor an already rediculous show to take it up to 11.

So let's unpack the show's sense of humor since I hadn't got to yet: Scott Pilgrim Takes Off takes an already ridiculous franchise with psychic vegans, bollywood hindu sorcerers and literal one ups, and decides to take it to the next level with film fights, lucas lee pro paparazi ninja skater 3, future renditions of Konya Wa No Hurricane by will forte, the montage from stepbrothers: Canadian edition, stunt double fights, and Matthew Patel: The Main Character. This is a series that takes it's emotinal consequences seriously and not much else. And I love it: I love weird shit, I Love balls to the wall humor, and the humor still feels very much scott pilgrim just taken up a notch.

And episode 5 is where it hits it's what the fuck is this peak as Ramona infiltrates the set of the Scott Pilgrim movie. The episode feels like one long shit post and i'm entirely in favor of it. We have Wallace fucking todd and casually dumping him, Envy and Wallace siccing their stunt doubles on each other, an Edgar Wright stand in voiced by Kevin Mcdonald for some reason and Young Neil, who in this series is entirely shit post and i'm here for it. IT's glorious chaos and only the ending is really at all emotional on some level. I mean I feel for Todd, even if he was a cheating bastard, but it's hard to take his grief or envy's seriously when Envy is a carcature of herself in this series and Todd's depression is eating a KFC bucket of poutine and sadly recounting every place he and Wallace made out. Todd isn't given extra depth.. but even as a villian he never really had depth to begin with. He had a disapproving dad and a massive ego. It's fine if he's a giant goofy blushy man who's soul wallace destroys. Brendon Routh does a phenomenal job with that.

Overall the expansion of the exes is part of what makes this adaptation so fantastic. With the exception of the twins they all get to live their best lives, and we get to see more of them. It's fun to see them implicitly join scot'ts friend group, and i've already written little chats about that, as it's fun as hell now their full characters in the world instead of respawning back probably not having learned much except not to punch scott in the face.

And the Rest

So with everything upside down, how do the rest of the people in Scott's Precious Little Life fare when the main character their built to support is gone? It's another hook of this series: if scott's gone, even just temporarily, what happens to everyone else.

Sex Bomb-Omb naturally gets impacted the most, and the versions here are superb.

The standout of course is Knives who deals with Scott's death by discovering a new love: playing music. While Knives had always been a huge fangirl in past versions, it was in the way more teens find music: by glomming on to the first band or two that makes them feel something and guarding that new faviorite thing like a cat with a ski chalet

See? Despite letting these characters live rent free in my head for the past decade, I never once thought of this idea, letting Neil join shatterband, sex bomb omb's followup as it crumbles to dust in the comics, instead.

In hindsight this idea is the most obvious thing: Knives loves music, it's an easy excuse for her parents that eases them into the fact her friends are all 20 year olds, so she can stay with the group easier, and as for why Stephen and Kim would let it happen... both have always liked her. Kim's annoyance is more worrying about Scott scarring her for life, and Stephen an dher get really close towards the end of the series, with him becoming a big brother towards her. The two becoming big siblings to her and letting her join makes sense.

It's especially nice to see with Kim. Kim interacted with Knives a BIT in the books, being the only one on Team Sex Bomb-Omb (The band plus knives and young neil), to take scott to task for the Knives thing to his face, at worst getting annoyed Knives is copying her. Granted like most of the Team, Kim still fucks up with her, most notably.. this

Which at the time I, and apparently the devleopers of the game, saw as a shippable moment but nowadays I see as NOPE PLEASE STOP, PLEASE STOP.. PLEASE NEVER AGAIN. AGE GAP'S STILL AS WEIRD AS WITH SCOTT. PLEASE DONT' TRAUMTIZE THIS CHILD MORE. Kim gets more of a pass than her band mates and neil because she was drunk at the time and clearly regrets it, but it's still something entirely fucked up I wish hadn't happened and feel bad for all involved. This is not how you should find out your bisexual.

The series wisely avoids this as they've realized "This is also statutory". and instead nicely has Kim take up the big sis roll to Knives, being the only one to really look after her after her boyfriend allgedly exploded and was found to have been cheating on her.

Hence we get one of the the best scenes in the series, the drum session. Which I know some did interpret romantically but first off...

And secondly.. really dosen't given the context: Kim sees the band needs a bassist.. but more importantly sees Knives is trying really hard to learn and is clearly spiraling after Scott's death. So she invites her to play since Neil is busy with his screenplay and Stephen, as usual is handeling this sudden loss with all the grace and dignity he's known for

IT's a beautiful scene as two people simply bond as they jam, and both heal a bit from what they've lost. And we find out Knives is a musical progidy who mastered the Bass in only four hours, and masters a keyboard later in less.

This gives Knives her first real plot in the series that isn't tethered to Scott in some way, something that was jarring to realize, but easy to see why: the books are centered around Scott's life, his friends, his love intrest, etc. Their there as needed for his story. Knives has one of the most detailed and intresting character arcs of the main cast.. but it's still thorughly tethered to Scott: his dumping her sends her on a journey of spiraling depression and growth, eventually going from someone who puts scott on such a pedestal that she attacks his new girlfriend instead of seeing the obvious, to accepting Scott wasn't perfect, he cheated and that while he opend her world up, they were really bad together and it was never an equal paring. Even the fun subplot with her dad as the mystery swordsman in book 4.. is because he thought she was still dating Scott and thus attacked him for dating his daugther. The movie makes this worse by trying to make the relationhsip seem legit missing the point entirely. While Knives has a friend in Tamara an da passle of high school drama she gleefully tells scott about, neither are important to the narrative. We only meet her parents because her mom was there when Knives met Scott and her dad tries to run him through.

Here while Scott certainly is part of her story, why she met sex bomb-omb and why she wears his jacket for most of the series, and his death certainly had an impact, she moves on quickly here not because she forgot Scott like it seems a chunk of the cast do or she's TRYING to avoid thinking about him like Kim and Wallace seem to be, she just found a healthy creative outlet, something to put her pain into in a healthy way instead of getting highlights and trying to murder Ramona or dating a guy who looks close enough to Scott. Knives moves on faster here, taking what's implied to be maybe a month at most to move on versus a year.. because she's not isolated in her pain. Scott's friends dont' dump her because it's awkward now and then awkwardly let her stay around post neil because they feel bad. Kim invites her in and after hearing she can wail, Stephen warmly welcomes her into the band, and the two become besties. So we have to talk about Stephen really quick as his plot dovetails into Knives, with the two being a duo for half the series. Stephen is based more on his movie self.

Yeahhh while I love the books on re-read, Book Stephen sucks. He just.. sucks. If your wondering some of the lowlights i'm glad you asked, here's an expertly crafted montage.

And that's just what I could fit into a montage: he also cheats on Julie for most of volume 4, focuses on his affair with joseph to the point he refuses gigs when it's clear playing live is something Kim LIKES doing and helps her relax, and never even informs Scott the band's broken up. The last one's .. iffy because Scott was in a waking depression coma after loosing Ramona, so he coudl've told him and forgot, but out of Scott's friend group he's the most consistently dickish, with Kim's grumpy nature mostly being a wall. It's partly the writing as , again given this is scott centric, we dont' peel back the layers on him the way we do with say Ramona, Knives or Kim. We don't see why he thought it was easier to cheat like we do with Scott and Knives, which wouldnt' make it okay but would make him less punchable. we don't know WHY he stays with Julie. Stephen is just an enigma and as such comes off immesnely annoying when most of his major endevors screw up everyone elses life in some way. And as one final coda to this rant, i'm not saying telling knives about Scott's two timing is bad... i'm saying he's the wrong person to tell her as not only did HE cheat on his partner, and as the last panel shows, KNOWS it's wrong Ramona clearly dosen't know half a year into the relationship, but won't tell her anyway for a friendship he REALLY dosen't seem to remotely care about.

So yeah a hammy constantly anxious relatable stephen was better, and Mark Webber was a delight by contrast. We didn't get to know movie Stephen.. but I didn't want to punch him either. So having Anime Stephen be more like the one who isn't punchable was smart: He's still panicky, crying more over the fact Scott leaves them baseless than over the fact his friend's dead (Which is mildly douchey but as we learned with Julie, if it's for a joke it's fine), and still obessed with making music his career while his band mates are like "Yeah fine whatever", so he's not really changed hard from the core of the character, but he is a delight and him and Knives becoming best friends in a far less hypocritical sense is adorable.

I also REALLY love their pet project: After Young Neil's movie falls through, more on him shortly, they make Scott Pilgrim, the original timeline, into a MUSICAL, complete with a bread makes you fat music number. I do like the ocasional nod here and there: O'Malley and Grabinski conciously didn't want to just.. repeat a gag because it was expected, but threw a few of the more iconic bits in as long as they could remix the joke. It's why the pee bar and the shoe tying making cameos, as their in new contexts, while there just wasn't room for the l-word or scott going out a window.

This whole subplot is gold from Stephens aying "as a creative to another creative" a hundred times, something I relate to since i say as a critic way more than I probably should, to it paying off.

And this is where Knives asceneds. By the end she not only gets closure with scott, admitting she's glad he's back but is glad he died, as the relationship wasn't healthy and she could grow into a hit songwriter, but she has a huge career with an award winning (Probably) musical, a new best friend and mentor, and writing songs for her fav envy.

And most nicely for me.. .I get a reality where Sex Bomb Omb dosen't fall to pieces in some way or form. Yeah without Stephen's drama or callousness depending on the version and with Knives creative vision the band not only stays together, but has a real shot at being something, giving everyone in it a bright future. Knives Chau really got to take off.

Kim is as usual the meaning in my life and the inspriation, with Allison Pill getting to do more with the character since she's not shunted to the background to say one or two lines. I mean she's still IN the background sadly: She gets a major roll in episode 3 and then just shows up when Sex Bomb Omb's together, not even getting that involved in the musical. I really wished after the film Kim got a big beefy roll. She could've been Ramona's sidekick or something like that, the two been clue buddies together. But I suppose the raw sexual tension would've left Scott out. Still she plays of Ramona well and it woudl've been nice ot have Kim around to response to the madness of episodess 4 and 5 with ramona. Still she gets a better shake than the movie: Episode 3 highlights how this version is actually over him, but encourages Ramona's attraction to him, simply warning her of what he's like, is a good friend to Rammy, and gets that moment with Roxie. I love how sh'es just like "I'm not... oh alright". And I think given another chance there would be sparks. Kim is sadly not given MUCH but it's still more kim pine, and i'm always in favor of that.

Finally we have my newly adopted son Young Neil. Unlike with Stephen, they didn't really take from the previous neil, whose super excited, and goofy and better than the graphic novel version whose alright. They go back to the Graphic Novel's glass eyed, barely emotive werido.. yet STILL make him something new rather than just adapt that version.

The result is a neil whose spacey, barely emotive.. but also REALLY dumb and really weird. Naturally I love him and relate immensely. Neil is somehow CRITICAL to the plot this time and entirely unaware of what is going on. He's season 1 todd chavez and it's wonderful.

This Neil gets most of the best bits, with Johnny Simmons having perfect timing. A good chunk of this series weird shit comes form Neil, who takes Scott's death as as sign he should persue his passion for screenwriting and get's his big break when in a half assed wel lmeaning plan, ramona adapts his book into a screenplay and sends it to him. Neil sees a mysteriously cloaked future ramona writing the script.. then assumes it's his sleep paralysis demon and he's a scripting genius.

We then get two glorious episodes of Neil at a movie set not remotely qulaified to be there as he assumes Americans and then the japanese call golf carts mario karts, gets a perscription but somehow winds up with sunglasses, and barely registers Matthew shutting his expesnive nightmare of a film down becuase he can't drive golf carts anymore. It even takes a lengthy and fucking glorious scene with sex bomb omb for him to realize "oh maybe my sleep paralysis demon didn't write this". Just the casual way he says it while everyone else is baffled, and how Kim and Knives have to slowly explain reality to him is great. Neil is comic relief incarnate and I love him, easily the best version. I'm also happy that like most of the cast, he gets a happy ending, as he apparently got a job at the studio after Gideon reopened it driving his cart around. Nick Frost is right, Young Neil really is off the chain.

So onto the one charcter who over FOUR DIFFRENT MEDIUMS has never really talked to anyone I just talked about but knives, we have Wallace. First off: yes i'm still disapointed he never really talked to Sex Bomb Omb. I got it vibe wise: everyone has friends who just.. don't know each other, but the intro got my hopes up they'd actually.. hang out at some point. But just like everything else, the intro isn't remotely indicative of what happened in the anime. The comics sure. And it's a true banger.

Seriously the colors are vibrant, the song is vibrant and fits scott perfectly, with Necry Talkie really nailing him down, and it's a perfect intro. Even if it ends up being nothing like the series , I still love it. One of my faviorite anime intros of all time. Love that cute falling shot of scott and ramona and the bit showcasing the exes. So good.

What was I on about? Oh yeah Wallace. Wallace here is a mixed bag. As with the film Kirean Culkin is perfect as Wallace: he gets the dry tone down, his drunken antics down and the whole sarcastic vibes perfectly. He was the best performance of the film, and while the compettition's too steep here for him to win again, he's still amazing.

That said Wallace.. is a bit more of a dick here. He comes off more.. tolerating scott instead of having a genuine friendship with him, and the only hint we get of him mourning his best friend is just how plastered he is.. and even then he threatens to change the locks. If Ramona reminded him to. I get the two weren't going to be as focused on, but it's still sad.

I also wish his friendship with Ramona stayed. While it makes sense they don't bond, Scott isn't around to link them, it was one of the funnest parts of the books.

Really this Wallace shows why he needs Scott and what he might be like when his bestie isn't around: Just because Wallace is more put together.. dosen't make him not an asshole. While I admi the's more dickish here with reflection.. I have to say it's not out of character. He's still giving us killer bits from wanting to see a notriously straight actor play him, to his smug acceptance of becoming an actor, to his deadpan acceptance that todd's in love with him, he's still the wallace we love... it's just we're seeing the side of him that dosent look better with a dumpster fire constantly ned tot him.

The biggest douchery is of course stealing Todd from Envy.. but besides it taking two to cheat, Wallace stealing someone's boyfriend.. isn't new behavoir. I laughed at how out of left field the PARING was.. but Wallace is Jimmy's bi or gay or pan, whatever he is, awkaneing in the book and film, and Stacey's reaction in both makes it clear he steals her boyfriends CONSTANTLY. So him stealing Todd and then explaining it was just a fling to him.. is entirely in the realm of Wallac'es douchebagery. He's not a terrible person.. but like everyone else in the cast he's a mess. HIs abuse of his stunt doubles was a bit over the line, but is so over the top it works. And this wallace also sings us complicated. So while I wish we got to see more of the Wallace we don't in the books... what we do get is still great.

Envy.. gets the shortest end of the stick here next to the twins, as she at least had a fairly comepelling arc in the book, being the focus of volume 3 and a major part of volume 6. Here while Brie Larson is once again great there really.. isn't much for Envy here. Even the film, which basically squoozer her in at the last second, still gave us an awesome version of the phone call she gives scott and the iconic black sheep sequence. Here while Envy gets another all timer scene in her funeral concert, the second most obnoxiously awesome crashing of a funeral behind flintheart glomgold

Envy DID at least get to dance on his casket. Or a stage above his casket. still counts.

Envy.. is left at the face value we meet her at the start of volume 3: queen biatch, queen of all the chaos, queen of all you love and adore. She's still a lot of fun from the above horny antics with todd to her yanking Ramona out of a talking head interview to fight her battles for her, but there's .. nothing really to her and it stand sout in a series that gives everyone else but the twins something new.

Okay ALMOST everyone as Stacey is once again out of focus like the comics. The movie gave her a bit more, but here she's scott's sister who calls people. That's it. It makes sense, Ramona has no real reason to talk to her, but it's a waste of your Anna Kendrick to not find more antics for her, especially since they found wallace and Neil great subplots. That said she does live her best life at the end starring at lucas' butt.

I also want to note the presence of Hollie, kim's roomate, best friend and co-worker. She does little, Shannon Woodward does a fine job, but I like that she's in here at all: Hollie was a character I liked in the comics.. who went on to steal kim's boyfriend for plot convience. So having a verison of her that dosen't do that shit and is just Kim's snarky foil and friend again works for me.

Finally we have a bunch of cameos, the bulk of them legendary. We get Simon Pegg and Nick Frost as security guards, Weird Al as the intro narator for the doc on the failed Scott Pilgrim film, comedy and voice acting legend MIcheal Mcdonald as Edgar Wrong, Bowen Yang as a tv gossip, kal Pen as matt's lawyers and Kirby HOwell Baptiste as Lucas Lee's agent. All fun one or two off bits, all fantastic.

Finishing off the character stuff we have a missed opportunity too: Joseph and Lisa get to cameo.. but are once again left out, to my annoyance. I get not being able to fit them in and Lisa has less of a point without Scott around.. but it'd still be nice to get a scene or something, especially since I was far from the only person asking for Lisa Miller to get a proper apperance.

So with that we close the book on Scott Pilgrim Takes Off.. and it was phenominal. While I would've loved a new adaptation, this.. is even better: a spirtual sequel that expands the characters, is not afraid to go full nonsense, let's a lot of the cast from the film fully shine, and has a bitching soundtrack once again. Not a ton of original songs sadly, but I Feel Fine and Orange Shirt are bangers, and we get Will Forte singing an anime theme song. If the last part dosen't appeal to you, I don't know how you got this far in the review. Takes Off is one of the best entries in this franchise and leaves me hopeful we'll return to this world again. Maybe not on screen but hey, even with the mountain of work it took to get this cast together again, tthis adaptatoin has proven anything is posisble.

Thanks for reading.

#scott pilgrim takes off #scott pilgrim #ramona flowers #netflix #lucas lee #roxie richter #kim pine #wallace wells #knives chau #stacey pilgrim #gordon goose #julie powers #todd ingram #matthew patel #the twins #robot 01 #lbgtq+ #kieran culkin #michael cera #mary elizabeth winstead #brie larson #satya bhabha #jason schwartzman #chris evans

[trancylovecraft]

So how was the scott pilgrim anime?

uggghhh ong it was so fucking good like goddamn. (SPOILERS FOR ANYONE WHO HASN'T WATCHED IT, I RECOMMEND IT ALOT!!)

Like hoooooly shit first of all- The animation was literally so gorgeous, One of the best (Maybe even the best) I've ever seen in a cartoon/anime. The way the movement flowed and how stylized it was just- UGHHH. It had such a personal feel and it was so punchy.

The studio went WILD when animating it, I just gotta question how much the budget was!

It was definetly a show for the fans of Scott Pilgrim, Definetly. While I haven't read the entirety of the comics you could feel the love the studio had for the source material. Though it works completely for any first-time consumer of scott pilgrim, It's genuinely great how they balanced it

And honestly? I think it's what an adaptation should strive to be.

Something that is based off the original and doesn't try to be a carbon copy. It explores different scenarios and that can fit for old fans and the everyday consumer since it can give the old ones a new story and the new guys something entertaining to watch.

I loved every character (Wallace and Roxie are my favs) They were interesting and loveable and the way my jaw dropped at the twist that scott actually lost the battle with matthew, LIKE GODDAMN I THOUGHT IT WOULD BE A ONE-TO-ONE ADAPTATION.

The story enveloped me, And that's saying a lot since I am VERY picky with what media I like. If a show is boring then I'll drop it mid-way through.

But not with this one, It kept me watching and I appreciate that a lot.

It was funny, It was enjoyable. The pacing was amazing btw, Round of applause to the writers!

so yeah 9.5/10 would recommend. cant wait to see if theres a season two lol.

#ask! #scott pilgrim tv #scott pilgram #scott pilgrim vs the world #scott pilgrim #scott pilgrim takes off #scott pilgram vs the world #scott pilgram takes off #scott pilgrim spoilers #scott pilgrim anime #spvtw #ramona flowers #wallace wells

[dynared]

Lost in the New York Comic Con hustle and bustle including the first trailer for the Scott Pilgrim anime, Good Burger II: Do you want Good Fries with that? (Not the title but I am curious) and an Ultraman Blazar stage show that actually was filled to capacity, there was a little panel for something called the Nacelleverse, a ground up project from the Nacelle company with the goal of bringing numerous disparate franchises together.

And the panel really should have been recorded, because it was a very interesting TED Talk about how a company makes a franchise and how creatives build a shared universe from the ground up.

Seems easy enough, right? Well, the first thing they need to do is get some licenses people care about, or barring that, licenses that are available. And they got…well they got licenses.

There are a lot of moving parts in creating a universe. Finding partners in weird places, like how the Biker Mice from Mars reboot is actually a co-production with Ryan Reynolds of all people, building mythology where there was none and adapting it where there is one, and then finding a buyer for your show. For instance, while Roboforce had no real mythology and the writers built a story from the ground up (a very meta tale about a line of robots that were supposed to be the next big thing, only to be confined to menial work when a newer, superior line of robots completely upstaged their debut, which is essentially what happened to the 80s toy line when it was released opposite the Transformers). Biker Mice, meanwhile, was popular enough that people know what they were about, so in that case it’s more about bringing in the hot dog and (root) beer loving rodents and their story into the shared universe. Same with the Cowboys of Moo Mesa, a real thing that existed and even had an arcade game from Konami of all people (the game was a blatant but surprisingly playable Sunset Riders clone). Then there’s stuff like the Great Garloo, a Creature from the Black Lagoon looking guy with no story to speak of, being given the personality of a wisecracking comedian that happens to resemble the Creature from the Black Lagoon.

The panel was 10/10, would recommend to anyone the least bit interested in understanding how a franchise works. But I don’t know if that means the Nacelleverse will be the big franchise that they want it to be.

Unfortunately, while shorts and ads are online, along with the website, I don’t have the one thing that ties this whole thing together. The opening for Roboforce from Cartoon Conrad. As per their discussion, they specifically went with Conrad to make a loud, Western style opening with an opening theme song that bludgeons you over the head with the blunt end of the show’s premise.

Knowing the way these things go, by the time Biker Mice comes out and is ready to air, Hasbro will have an Energon Universe cartoon animated by Studio Trigger.

#nacelle #Nacelleverse #robo force #biker mice from mars #cowboys of moo mess #yes that was real #sectarus #power lords #Roboforce

[who-even-knows-0-0]

intro post finally haha

this has taken me way too long to build up the motivation to do but since im redecorating my entire blog i thought itd be appropriate

hi you can call me oscar or ozzy or oz and i go by any and all pronouns :]

i am pangender and pansexual and i am also a furry, therian, age regressor and i have d.i.d [separate blogs tagged below]

what i will post on this account:

mostly just random shitposts or funny reblogs and stuff, sometimes art if i ever get round to it haha. basically any random thoughts that spew out of my head, through to this laptop and Here.

[i also do take art requests and if you ask me any non-offensive question i will love you forever]

specific things that i am interested in [not in any specific order and not even including music oml]:

ultrakill

deltarune

the x files

lotf [lord of the flies]

the marauders

anne with an e

stand by me

wes anderson films

red dwarf

adventure time

scott pilgrim vs the world

the lost boys

labyrinth

what we do in the shadows

horrible histories/ghosts [just The Gang]

almost every alice oseman book

studio ghibli films

good omens

the breakfast club

donnie darko

other blogs i possess:

@the-honeybee-system - our blog for. well. all of us :D

@our-agere-blog - not in use right now but it will be for the age regressors in our system

@therians-of-the-system - our therian blog :]

@the-beastie-in-your-village - a blog for my oc [that also happens to now be an alter in our system] den

linksssss:

insta -

tiktok - https://www.tiktok.com/@oscartheoctopus11

pronouns page - https://en.pronouns.page/@who-even-knows

pinterest - https://pin.it/5YYU91FNB

pinterest side account - https://pin.it/2LNGsuV1n

guys i think thats it

i went through almost every app i have trying to gather information to make this post gang i have crawled into the deep dark depths of my pinterest account just for this

although i am tired and probably have missed out some stuff so i will be updating this frequently if needed :]

#me #about me

[sparx-png]

blog intro! let's be moots!

I've had this blog for a while, but I realized I've never made an introduction and I love doing that. So here we go.

name: sparx

gender & pronouns: bigender/nonbinary, they/[any]

ethnicity: mixed-race latino

languages: english, spanish

age: 22

blog type: multifandom

interests: video games, anime, movies, tv, webcomics/comics, etc.

video games

• genres: RPGs, JRPGs, visual novels, platformers

• favorites: kingdom hearts, the world ends with you, devil may cry, mortal kombat, our life, mystic messenger, rakuen, ori and the blind forest, final fantasy, persona

anime

• blue exorcist, erased, tokyo revengers, jojo's bizarre adventure, attack on titan, ouran high school host club, free!, hell girl, to your eternity, death note, tanaka-kun is always listless, afro samurai, devil may cry (2007), from me to you, etc.

movies

• genres: animation, comedy, romance, romcom, fantasy, action, adventure, horror, martial arts

• favorites: scott pilgrim vs. the world, inception, studio ghibli films, gkids films, lord of the rings, knives out, the mummy, fantastic beasts and where to find them, the matrix, encanto, old 2D disney movies, insidious, old dreamworks movies, fantastic beasts and where to find them, etc.

tv

• genres: animation, fantasy, sci-fi, action, adventure

• favorites: invincible, over the garden wall, the legend of vox machina, avatar: the last airbender, twin peaks, our flag means death, clone high, etc.

webcomics/webtoons/manhwa/manga

• omniscient reader, blue hearts, surviving romance, let's play, i'm the queen in this life, blue exorcist, death is the only ending for the villainess, i love yoo, my deepest secret, the guy upstairs, kiss him not me, age matters, batman: wayne family adventures, lost and found, comedown machine, etc.

other

• music, hello kitty, books, poetry/lyrics, liminal space, glowwave, backrooms, reality shifting (don't judge my escapism tactics aaa), language learning, stand-up comedy etc.

dni list

• homophobes, xenophobes/racists, transphobes, and any type of bigot I guess lmao

• i'd prefer to interact with 18+ users instead of minors, but I'm not super strict

And that's pretty much it! I'll likely be continuously updating the list of interests over time. By the way, this is my secondary blog. If we become moots, I'll follow you from my primary (@eightb-all) that I don't use much. Tumblr sucks at secondary blog capabilities :,)

Nice to meet you all!

#blog intro #blog info #blog introduction #let's be friends #let's be moots #moots #looking for moots #looking for mutuals #mutuals #video games #tv shows #movies #films #webcomic #webtoons #webcomics #manga #manhwa #rpgs #jrpgs #console games #pc games #visual novel #anime and manga #anime #animation #animated #intro post #introductory post #lgbtqia

[chaostheatre]

Nah, I totally get it. I'm not saying that Scott Pilgrim as a comic is irredeemable media™️ because of the story arc. I'm more saying that saying Gideon is responsible dampens the storyline for the comic. As for the glow, what kind of stuff do you got for picking at Gideon's brain?

-Connor

and you are right <3 gideon is bad but let the other characters have a turn damn.

glow intro:

okay so, bryan lee o'malley himself has stated that he didn't really know what he was doing with the glow when it started having narrative weight. I don't remember if it was him who said this or the fans, but at first the glow was regarded as a kind of meta joke, since comics often use little dashes around character's heads to indicate surprise, annoyance, etc.

so all of this I'm writing from a place of "I can put these pieces together since bryan didn't really know how to"

glow in theme/symbolism:

for me, it's always been a clear representation of depression. the descriptions of being trapped inside your own head, surrounded by your own thoughts and fears? feeling lost? yeah. it also gives a LOT of character depth to gideon when he talks about it, since that would imply he has severe depression and has always had severe depression.

glow in context:

gideon, at some point or another, figures out how to turn his own misery, self-loathing, etc into a physical, tangible force. something he could hold. something he could play with like clay.

the origins of the glow aren't known, even to him, but I'd guess it's similar to classic alchemic thought. it's a sort of quintessence! matter that binds reality to what we can't understand (think about how quintessence used to be considered the physical upholder of things like gravity!) it's a connection between the physical world and subspace, meaning it had some reality-bending properties. yes I'm treating it like an element shhh.

if anyone is interested in hearing more about my alchemy thoughts regarding glow LET ME KNOW. I understand how it works.

now:

the discovery was by accident. why would a music producer suddenly get super interested in hypothetical physics? he's a smart guy, but he's not a science nerd. he makes music. he stumbled across that power on accident, learning how to separate chunks of it from himself and hold it in his hands. it was a home experiment, he was no scientist overseeing a team and funding professional tests in a lab, he was playing with this weird glowy thing he'd found, but in his own home. he didn't know what it was yet, let alone what it meant or how it worked.

at this point in his life, gideon had been in and out of subspace multiple times. he uses it as an escape from reality, a kind of coping mechanism to get out of his own head and into other people's. the glow comes to him spontaneously after one of these trips.

this all happened far before ramona. years before. he said it himself, it's how he made his millions- that happened a long, long time before the canon events.

over time, he gets a little more bold with it. it wasn't harmful to him, but it wasn't exactly the most useful thing in the world, either- so he started his little test runs on his higher-ups (because yes, there was a point in time where gideon was just an employee in a system). he hated his bosses, anyway. so he intentionally passed it on to them, subtly enough to not get noticed, and... nothing happened.

he didn't dare try again, even though he was frustrated. he continued playing with the glow like a toy, mostly just closing and then opening his hands in dark rooms to make them light up. (yes he has little glowy powers too. he's like a firefly. very cute).

then, there was a shift. it started when his immediate boss quit. nothing official was released, but word around the studio was that he spontaneously drained his bank account, left his wife, and ran off to a tropical island with a prostitute. a bit sudden, but nothing weird- this is new york, after all.

then, the next. another higher-up breaks down in a meeting, stabs a peer in the neck with a ball-point pen. gets shipped off to a hospital, doesn't come back.

another. this one just stops showing up entirely. unmarried, no kids. after three weeks, his secretary calls in a wellness check and the police find him lying in bed in a pile of his own feces, no motivation to even get up. he voluntarily admits himself to a ward.

it goes on. it extends to coworkers, too. once-friendly competitors turn into fierce rivals. empathetic moderators become passive, docile crybabies. the effect isn't so severe to be noticed. report upon report from employees and musicians cite the same thing- it must be the stress from the higher-ups sudden tragedies. newspapers report on the intensely stressful working conditions in the music industry.

meanwhile, gideon sits back and watches. he has no idea what he's doing, but somehow, he can control other people's emotions (that's his conclusion, anyway- he doesn't research the properties of the glow beyond that moment).

since he's apparently immune, he rises in power. he becomes the rational, calm, likable, charming leader. and when he's ready, he takes a large amount of employees from this label, and moves them to a high-rise in manhattan to start his own. the original label files bankruptcy months later.

so, gideon forms this idea in his head that he has complete control over the glow, and it doesn't affect him. he can essentially turn the world into chaos if he feels like it, and then sit back and watch. the thought is intoxicating, but he doesn't go insane with power at all. he's a smart guy, he knows that if this got out, it could mean two things:

a) his reputation would be ruined, and thousands of people would sue for a menu of reasons

b) other people would come after him to figure out how to use the glow, too

so, he keeps things under wraps, and once he's running the most successful label in new york, he only uses it sparingly. mostly to put people back in their places. in fact, for years, he doesn't touch on it at all. the last incident was a young rising star on the production side who threatened gideon's fragile little ego and had to be taken down a few notches. more than a few notches.

the story gets blurry here on all accounts, due to gideon's later meddling. the person in question kills themselves. it comes out of nowhere from gideon's perspective. that hadn't happened before.

it's tragic. it makes papers. but it's not suspicious. the glow works slowly, and it can take months to cause a serious result. their friends and coworkers reported worsening depressive symptoms. so, there's no kind of investigation involved. it's a closed case, and in two months, everyone forgets about it. one of the labels publicity managers recommends some moves to save face, so they name a studio after the victim and donate a monthly pledge to a suicide prevention charity. the money doesn't affect gideon.

but oh, god.

does it fuck him up.

he didn't know this person very well, and if you'd ask he'd probably have to think for a few moments before remembering their name, or any of their personal details. so it wasn't like the normal grief one might experience over losing a relative or a friend. this was all but a complete stranger. but the sheer knowledge that he did that. that it was his fault. that his power had caused someone so much pain. that messes him up for a while. it makes him rethink a lot of things about himself. what he wants. who he is.

in the next few months, he takes care of it. he goes into people's minds and muddles the details, blurs the visions. not just 'because', but because he's wrecked with guilt and knows that if he sits in his own shame, he'll end up doing something he'll regret even more. so this is his solution. to put his mind at ease.

and in the end, he does the same to himself. it doesn't go well.

it's one thing to mess with other people's heads, but messing with your own is dangerous territory. it's like performing open-heart surgery on yourself- not only is it painful, the margin for error is insane. but, he didn't know at the time.

now, there are large chunks of his life he can't remember at all. from time-to-time he lags, forgets what he's doing, loses all the feeling in his body and has to stop whatever he's working on to wait for it to come back. he has weird twitches under his skin. he hallucinates sometimes.

and still, despite everything, he does it again. and again. it's addictive, the power to change your own reality. he doesn't do any more big things, just tweaks little instances in memories that make his stomach turn. he might replace a memory of a woman glancing at him with disdain, to the same woman smiling. just to make himself feel better. because, and even if he would never admit it, gideon is an incredibly sensitive person.

he tries not to think about that so much.

the timeline I have goes like this: he starts interning at places in college, around 19 years old. he stays at this label for about two years, during which he stumbles across the glow. he moves to his own label at age 21 (astonishingly young, which many people would say adds to his mystique- he's regarded by financial magazines to be one of the most brilliant young entrepreneurs). at age 28, the suicide incident takes place, and he begins messing with his own memories.

at age 30, he meets ramona. his birthday passes in february, and at age 31 he fights her in the chaos theatre.

he stops regarding the glow as a tool after age 28 and starts seeing it as a weapon of destruction. an agent of chaos. his idea of control starts slipping away from him and he hangs on to anything he can to keep it.

he does not knowingly infect ramona. that's what she gets wrong about him. he never saw her as an experiment. he had no reason to.

the glow is canonically contagious- it can transfer from person to person completely on its own. there's plenty of in-text evidence that supports the idea that gideon didn't even know ramona HAD the glow until the chaos theatre battle. there's actually a lot of angst potential in finding out he was wrong about how it works and that he gave it to her just by being around her but shhhhh.

ANYWAY.

yeah

#analysis

[yazzdonut]

I FORGOT TO SEND SOME BACK....ok ok looking at the list, I'm curious aboutttt...1, 8, 21, and for fun, 25 :3c

1. Art programs you have but don't use I only use clip studio when I need a very specific brush/effect jhf

8. What's an old project idea that you've lost interest in mmm right now I'm still interested in all my current projects! some time ago i was starting to get overwhelmed with my fan naruto comic about gaara and lee but thankfully i was able to finish it 🤗 (you can read it here if you want)

21. Art styles nothing like your own but you like anyways definitely kaneoya sachiko, she has the most art style ever

25. Something your art has been compared to that you were NOT inspired by scott pilgrim (the comic) 😂 but it was years ago

#replies

[linuxgamenews]

Vagrus - The Riven Realms: New Content & Deals Now Available

Vagrus - The Riven Realms update releases new content and deals for the game on Linux, Steam Deck, Mac, and Windows PC. Thanks to the skilled team at Lost Pilgrims Studio for their incredible work. Discounted now on Steam, regular price on GOG and Humble Store. Lost Pilgrims Studio, known for their epic creation, Vagrus - The Riven Realms, is riding a wave of success with a new update. Their latest expansion, Sunfire and Moonshadow, released in November, has been a hit. Steam just spotlighted it in their “Today’s Deal” on February 12th. This is huge fhttps://linuxgamenews.com/post/696306527259197440/vagrus-the-riven-realms-second-free-dlc-releases/">studio like Lost Pilgrims. It's not just a day-long thing, either – they're stretching this offer across two whole weeks. There's a deal with the new update: the main part of Vagrus - The Riven Realms is getting the biggest price cut. The latest game DLC and the Vagrus Season Pass are also on sale. This Season Pass is a great deal, bundling the current expansion with two more DLCs due to drop this year.

Vagrus - The Riven Realms from the Early Access Update

But hold on, Starting from February 12th, Lost Pilgrims is rolling out free updates. First up is “Clandestine Part One,” an addition to Sunfire and Moonshadow. It kicks off a multi-part questline that adds a new settlement, lots of unique characters, and new challenges to face. The storyline revolves around the followers of a mysterious entity, the Dreamwalker. No spoilers, but it's intense and takes you to some wild new places in the game's world. To dive into quest of this Vagrus - The Riven Realms update, you'll need to have had a few run-ins with these Dreamwalker fanatics and explored the Bronze Desert. These believers might look harmless, but there’s more than meets the eye. For those with the expansion, get ready to uncover secrets that could shake up the northern desert regions. You’ll be exploring uncharted territories and dealing with shadowy groups that might either help or hinder your journey. So, all you Linux and Steam Deck gamers out there, this is a chance you don't want to miss. Whether you're a seasoned player of Vagrus - The Riven Realms or new to this realm, these deals and updates are something to get excited about. Discounted now on Steam, dropping the price to $17.99 USD / £16.79 / 17,99€ with the 40% off. The regular price on GOG and Humble Store at $29.99 USD / £24.99 / 28,99€. Along with Linux, Steam Deck, Mac, and Windows PC support.

#vagrus the riven realms #update #clandestine part one #linux #gaming news #lost pilgrims studio #ubuntu #steam deck #mac #windows #pc #unity #Youtube

[mintibunny]

Writer's Game: First Sentences

Rules: post the first sentence of your last ten fics. If you haven't written ten fics, share as many first-sentences as you have.

Tagged by @autumnslance ♥️

Tagging: @circle-woman, @ranekvilmas, @trixcuomo, @darbiebot, and @bread-elf.

This is going to take some digging, but let me see what I got. And thank you for the tag! It's nice to see people reading my offerings.

I could've sworn there was another Suzaku writing in my blog, but I can't find it. I'll give you a cookie if you can dig it up for me!

Edit: FOUND IT! On Sabbac's blog. Unfortunately, it was posted in September, so it doesn't count for this meme. :\

"Lost Things," posted 3/8/23. A short about Suzaku and the WoL.

"There were no feathers on the windowsill today. Same as yesterday, and the day before, and the day before."

2. "Untitled," posted 2/24/23. A letter from the esteemed Lady Frangelica Treleaux to Lord Edmont Fortemps. I tend to make these things very formal.

"From the desk of Lady Frangelica Treleaux."

3. "And Now We Say Good-Night," posted 11/17/22. Zoissette gets time with her Scion.

"I don't know what to tell you, other than that she's been lying on the fainting couch for hours, not really moving."

4. "DWC, Day 7 - Endless," posted 11/26/22. Zeragosa the dragon takes to new skies, and Sabbac the troll gets her happily ever after.

"Excuse me, I'm looking for the portal to Dalaran."

5. "DWC, Day 6 - Unnatural," posted 11/25/22. Caramelle the Lightforged entertains at the Darkmoon Faire.

"Gather round, children of all ages! Come close. I promise I don't bite."

6. "DWC, Day 5 - Lush," posted 11/24/22. Dakora the Tauren writes about Pilgrim's Bounty in a haiku

"This day is for thanks"

7. "DWC, Day 4 - Children," posted 11/23/22. Belle "Anne" Fairweather continues a cycle of familial violence.

"Through heavy rains and lingering clouds of blight, Belle Anne flew, her raven form giving her the speed she needed tonight."

8. "DWC, Day 3 - Mortality," posted 11/22/22. Satoyo Ironpaw, an aging Pandaren, gives a tavern speech.

"Friends! Friends, family. How wonderful it is that we are gathered here at one of the finest eating establishments in all of Pandaria – no, the whole of Azeroth!"

9. "DWC, Day 2 - Orbit," posted 11/21/22. Goblin engineering at their finest. I don't have a good summary for this writing.

"Field Notes! Official! For Grunilda Torchlite (with an e, babe, that’s how I fucking roll)."

10. "DWC, Day 1 - Neglect," posted 11/20/22. This was the first writing where I was ending Sabbac's story.

"Sabbac, was, at this moment, surrounded by dark tan boxes in her Silvermoon studio apartment."

#final fantasy xiv #lyn prompts #final fantasy 14 #final fantasy oc #minti wol #final fantasy viera #minti chocolate #rava viera #self writings #sabbactroll #sabbac #world of warcraft

[count-twinkula]

name: onyx (they/star/he)

interests: my chemical romance, paramore, fall out boy, sanrio, hatsune miku/vocaloid, anime/manga, the owl house, my hero academia, studio ghibli, harajuku fashion, drawing, warrior cats, emo/scene, scream(1996), jennifers body, the lost boys, scott pilgrim vs the world, playing drums, minecraft, five nights at freddy's, the hunger games, too many more to list, etc.

dni: general biggotry, proshippers, loli/shotacons, ddlg, nsfw/18+ blogs, truscum/transmed, terfs, swerfs, anyone under 40 who calls themselves a queer elder, vent blogs, pro sh, pro ana, ed tumblr, discourse blogs, blogs w/ thinspo, dream/dsmp supporters, + p!atd/atl/msi supporters, anti-neopronouns, gender critical, etc.

#pinned post #introductory post #flash tw #my post

[digitalartmarketing]

The Alchemist of Brands: SEONSAENG by digitalartstrategist

The Alchemist of Brands: Weaving Keywords and Dreamscape

In the sun-drenched city of Pixelscape, where algorithms whispered secrets and digital landscapes shimmered, lived Elias, the fabled "Alchemist of Brands." He wasn't your average marketer, peddling pixels and platitudes. No, Elias wielded the art of SEO like a master craftsman, transforming keywords into shimmering threads, weaving intricate tapestries that lured customers into the heart of brands.

His alchemy wasn't smoky cauldrons and bubbling potions. It was a meticulously crafted blend of data, creativity, and intuition. He analyzed search trends like a seer, divining the desires hidden within whispered queries. He wrote prose that sang with keywords, each sentence a whispered invitation to discover. He sculpted websites with an artist's touch, building bridges between search engines and soulmates.

His clients, brands lost in the digital wilderness, sought his counsel. There was the budding chocolatier, her dreams swirling like molten cocoa, yet invisible to hungry searchers. Elias crafted her a website spun from rich descriptions and mouthwatering imagery, each keyword a sprinkle of chocolate magic, guiding taste buds straight to her doorstep.

And then there was the stoic watchmaker, his legacy ticking away in the shadows of online giants. Elias, with a whispered incantation of targeted keywords and captivating storytelling, etched a narrative of heritage and precision, drawing collectors to the symphony of gears and the whisper of history.

But Elias' greatest challenge awaited. An ancient bookstore, its shelves groaning with the weight of untold stories, threatened to fade into the digital oblivion. Its owner, a woman with eyes that held the glint of faded ink, clung to the fading whispers of forgotten authors.

Elias delved into the dusty tomes, extracting keywords like lost treasures, unearthing hidden gems of literature. He spun a website as intricate as a spiderweb, each hyperlink a thread connecting forgotten classics to curious minds. He whispered their stories through algorithms, painting the bookstore as a sanctuary for words, a haven for bibliophiles, a portal to forgotten worlds.

And the alchemy worked. Pixelated pilgrims flocked to the bookstore's online door, lured by the scent of parchment and the promise of adventure. The whispers of forgotten authors rose again, carried on the wings of search engines, whispering dreams into the hearts of new readers.

Elias, the "Alchemist of Brands," returned to his sun-drenched studio, another brand transformed, another dream spun into gold. He knew his work was never truly finished, for the art of SEO was a constant dance, a delicate balance between logic and magic, between whispered desires and search engine symphonies. But every success, every brand brought to life, was a testament to his power, a whispered secret in the city of Pixelscape: Elias, the weaver of dreams, the builder of bridges, the Alchemist of Brands.

APPARATCHIK BRAND IS ELECTRO PUNK BAND

SEO 2024

DIGITAL MARKETING STRATEGIST near me

#seo #brands #branding

[declanowo]

Random Weekly Horror - Week Four - Cellar Dweller

27/11/23

Several times, I have found myself attempting to create a comic. Firstly as a child, inspired by cartoons especially, I found it easiest to translate this desire to create my own through comics. Most of those are lost to my mind, however more recently, when I fancied myself an artist, I created a very short series of comics. Blending both my love for writing and drawing (the latter has faded somewhat) I created several characters, writing comics about them and their relation to the themes of death and found family. From that small experience, I found a sincere love for the medium, and while I rarely read comics or graphic novels now (my favourites are Beautiful Darkness and Scott Pilgrim) they are a medium I do want to get deeper into, one that gave me an outlet to merge my hobbies when I was younger, which will always make me smile. 

Cellar Dweller centres around a demonic creature, simply known as The Creature, who is conjured, and brought to life through drawings. Already, the premise is incredibly fun, it presents a blend between horror and fantasy that I adore; it echoes the somewhat loose idea of religion nestled in the film, the idea of conjuring and creating with words and images. Yet, the film’s low budget leads to some varied outcomes, which at times meant I struggled to be entertained, however, I still had a fun time with this one, mostly due to the premise and the way the story is built around that. 

Writer Don Mancini is best known for his work on the Chucky franchise, creating it, writing every film, and directing the three newest, not to mention that he showruns the tv series. All of the films in the franchise are amazing, it remains one of my favourite horror series to date. Therefore, when I came across Cellar Dweller, the only other movie he has written, I was drawn to it. However, this film doesn’t quite capture the same charm, nor the same quality of storytelling, as any of the Chucky movies, especially compared to Child’s Play, released the same year. Presumably, this came as a result of the limits given to Mancini, who stated he was handed a monster and a title, before being told to write the film. 

Another indicator of the style and tone of the film is the studio behind it, Empire Pictures. Created by Charles Band, the company was focused on low budget fantasy/horror movies, attempting to release two a month - one theatrically, and the other straight to video. This led to several cult classic b-movies being produced, such as Re-Animator, From Beyond and Ghoulies. 

The late director John Carl Buechler worked on several Empire Pictures movies, both as a special effects and makeup artist, as well as a director. Most notably, he directed Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood (which was not produced by the studio), Troll and Matthew Lillard starring Ghoulies III; conversely, he completed makeup on Re-Animator, Halloween 4 and Tammy and the T-Rex. In an interview, he attributed Cellar Dweller as a homage to his love for pre-code comics.

Moving onto the film itself, there are a few aspects that keep the film afloat. The first of which are the characters filling its panels. During the cold open, we are introduced to Jeffery Combs (best known for Re-Animator) character, Colin. Colin is the creator of the Cellar Dweller comics, he is the person who first summons the demon too, in a scene Mancini said was ‘a rip off’ of The Evil Dead. His character is not what makes this cold open, instead it is the creature, who I will discuss soon, and the effects; if anything, this character is bland and void of much character, possibly alluding to his obsessive state. Regardless, the scene ends in his death, the impact of which leads to the subsequent events of the film. 

Taking over for Colin thirty years after his death is protagonist Whitney, played by Debrah Farentino. Her place as an artist is central to her character and her desires - she believes in the authenticity and validity of her art, something which her landlord does not, creating an interesting dynamic and conflict. Plunging deep into the experience of creating the comics, she is willing to stay in the cellar, a crypt of sorts that Colin wrote his original comics in; the cellar is a stark contrast to the brightly decorated walls of the apartment, which flair with a creative energy. The shift from her room upstairs, to her desire to live and work in the cellar accompanies a symbolic shift in her mind, her loss of self as the comics write themselves. Although nothing particularly groundbreaking, the character is still fun to watch, and I enjoyed her interactions with the other artists living inside the house. Not to mention her acting is the most grounded, at times it works in her favour, but other times some of the more offbeat acting from the others contrasts her in a negative way, although I feel this comes from a place of a mix of people’s ideas, without one solid direction or tone for the film! That being said, I did find a fair few moments early on funny. 

However, the stand out character of the film is the creature - memorable in design, from the ogre like qualities, which remind me heavily of a monster a child would find under their bed with a demonic twist, the creature threads the film together, alleviating the feelings of boredom that would sometimes come from the downtime in the film. More of him would have benefited the film I think - I found the less than eighty minute run time to be both a blessing and a curse. On one hand, it didn’t overstay its welcome, but on the other hand, I wanted more of the kill sequences with the creature! Maybe it could have done with a few extra minutes, or simply, some of the downtime could have been cut in favour of more horror. Regardless, the creature is the best feature of the film, a fun creature that I wished was featured even more.

Moving from the characters to background, the films single

location allows for us to feel unsafe in this house. Luckily, the walls are colourful, with a mass of interesting props, which save us from any boredom that may arise. For me, single location horror can be some of the scariest - Hush for example makes the audience feel unsafe by confining us to a single location, making the killer feel inescapable. To a degree, the same can be said here, although that isn’t really capitalised on at all during the film! 

This setting alludes to a slight theme of working class character and their relation to art; it highlights the cramped living space for these people, and how their professions are smeared at by those with more stable jobs. As well as this, it creates a sense of community among artists, it’s comforting and warming to watch them band together, through weird and underbaked romances to small conversations of appreciation. 

Finally, the action, a pivotal feature of many comics. All of the kills in this film are fun in some way. Starting from the beginning, the creature burning ‘to death’ in the cold open is delightful, the fire stunt is incredibly fun and it builds a relationship between the demon’s deaths and the page, as well as the concept that these deaths may not be permanent. It is a shame that the next death comes more than halfway into the film, because they are the glue of the movie! What I love so much about the next kill is how it blends shots of Whitney drawing with the creature stalking and killing the reporter. These shots are dynamic, and look miles better than the still frames of the comics that emerge towards the end of the film. Similarly, I enjoy the close ups of the creature eating his victims, although, the reuse of the shot several times does desensitise the viewer to it, and eventually it grows into a far less interesting idea. 

The film's blending of comics and kills works so excellently, and it is certainly what I will think about most when I return to this film! All of them are beautifully illustrated, and never grew old! They help illustrate some of the more tame kills that were a result of budgetary issues! However, this is not the case for the decapitation, which is my favourite kill in the movie. Mancini said he loves killing characters through decapitations, which can also be seen in Cult of Chucky, he credits watching The Omen at thirteen to why they stick with him so much!

Putting it plainly, Cellar Dweller is a movie made for money. Created based off a title, a situation that reminds me of Truth or Dare or Friday the 13th, even things like the tagline (It’ll eat you out of house and home) feel like they were created before the movie was even written! Yet, that doesn’t mean a film can’t still have artistic merit! And I had a good time watching it, for the most part. Like many direct to video 80s horror movies, Cellar Dweller creates a thick atmosphere due to the grainy quality of the visuals and reliance on amazing practical effects! Researching this became intensely difficult because nobody behind the film appears to care for it much, Mancini and Combs specifically appeared to be completely indifferent towards it, although Buechler appeared to love all the films he created, and I totally understand why! It’s so fun, and the effects work done by him is seriously impressive. I would love to see a remake of this film, I feel like a lot of old direct to video 80s horror movies would be fun to remake and create something new from! 

Thirty years have passed since the film was released, so we can only hope soon someone may return to the cellar and create another Cellar Dweller. 

7/10

#horror #horror movies #creative writing #literature #reviews #review #horror film #horror movie #full moon #don man #cellar dweller #b movies #cult film #cult movies #cult classic #80s horror #80s

[m92-fpmp]

First person games Genres

There are many genres of games that play out in first person but since third person is the most common form for current games they are less known, here are some examples of first person games each of a different genre.

Dying Light 2 - TechLand

Dying Light 2 is an adventure that takes place in a post apocalyptic world due to a rogue virus turning people into zombie like creatures where a pilgrim seeks to find his long lost sister.

Cyberpunk 2077

Cyberpunk 2077 is and RPG set in the megalopolis of Night City, where you play as a cyberpunk mercenary wrapped up in a do-or-die fight for survival.

Portal - Valve

Portal is a puzzle game considered to be one of the most innovative games ever made in which you navigate the Aperture Science Enrichment Center with your handy portal gun.

DOOM 64 - Midway Studios San Diego

DOOM 64 is a shooter game where you go back to hell after receiving a signal from mars suggesting a singular demon with the abilities to bring the other ones back remains.

Nun Massacre - Puppet Combo

Nun massacre is a PS1 style stealth horror game where a mother must find her ill child in her boarding school whilst avoiding a psychopathic nun.

#Youtube