#mook conversation

[artbyblastweave]

I think about Star Wars a lot more than I post about Star Wars, and I've had some free time recently to type up some thoughts on Episode 7 that've been swirling around in my head for a couple of years. There were a few ideas and plot beats, and moments of apparent self-examination in Episode 7 which I thought were fairly compelling, even though they ultimately paid no dividends:

First was Finn’s character concept. “Star Wars as experienced from the perspective of a Stormtrooper undergoing a crisis of faith” is a rich hook; humanizing and giving a face to what's basically the platonic implementation of the faceless mook. Unfortunately, the potency of the arc was undercut by the pre-existing textual ambiguity as to what stormtroopers actually are. Star Wars extended canon has settled on the idea that each trilogy features an entirely novel cohort of white-clad mooks, each with a fundamentally different underlying dynamic. The clones and the First-Order forces are different flavors of slave army; in contrast, the stormtroopers are more frequently portrayed in the expanded universe as military careerists, stormtrooper being a thing you work up to rather than a gig for a fresh conscript. A slave-soldier who defects is a very different character from a military careerist who defects, and they invite different analysis. There's a bait-and-switch going on here, in that Finn gestures in the direction of the familiar OT stormtroopers but can't comment on or examine them because he's actually part of a novel dynamic invented for the new movies. And there's one final nail in the coffin here, signaled by the number of times I've had to invoke the expanded universe so far. When Finn debuted, the racists were of course, legion, but I also ran into a number of people who were sincerely confused as to why they'd recast Temuera Morrison. Going off the seven films that existed at the time, it wasn't unreasonable to read the prequel trilogy as an origin story for where the OT stormtroopers came from. Going only off the nine films that exist now, it still isn't unreasonable! It's muddied from so many different directions by their failure to establish the ground rules in the mainline films before they tried to put on subversive airs about it. I am still irritated by this.

Next up is how Han Solo was written. I actually liked the tack they took with him quite a bit. Because initially, right, his role in the movie is just to be Han Solo. He's back, and he hasn't changed! He's still kicking ass and taking names, he's still the lovable scoundrel you knew and loved from your childhood- and the principle cast members react to his presence with the same reverence the film's trying to invoke in the audience, they've grown up hearing the same stories about him. Except that episode 7, at least, is also very aware of the fact that if Han Solo is still recognizably the same guy thirty years on, it indicates that things have gone totally off the rails for him. We find out that the lovable rogue routine is the result of him backsliding, his happy ending blown up by massive personal tragedy rooted in communicative failures and (implicitly) his parental shortcomings. It feels deliberately in conversation with the nostalgic impulse driving the entire film- here's your childhood hero back just as you remember, here's what that stagnation costs. And it also feels like it's in conversation with what was a fairly common strain of Han Solo Take- the idea that Ep. 6 cuts off at a very convenient point, and that Han and Leia's fly-by-night wartime relationship wouldn't survive the rigors of domesticity. Obviously, that's not the only direction you can take with the character; the old EU basically threaded the needle of keeping Han recognizable without rolling back his character development gains. But it felt like they were actually committing to a direction, a direction that was aware of the space, and not a reflexively deferential and flattering one, which at the time I appreciated! The problem, of course, is that for it to really land, you need to have a really, really strong idea of what actually went down-of what Han's specific shortcomings and failures were. And given the game of ping-pong they proceeded to play with Kylo Ren's characterization, this turned out to be. Less than doable.

Kylo Ren is the third thing about Episode 7 that I liked. His character concept is basically an extended admission by the filmmakers that there's no way to top Vader as an antagonist. Instead, they lean into the opposite direction- they make him underwhelming on purpose. Someone who's chasing Vader's legacy in the same way any post-OT Star Wars villain is going to, pursuing Vader's aesthetic and the associated power without really understanding or undergoing the convoluted web of suffering and dysfunction that produced Vader. It's framed as a genuine twist that there's nothing particularly wrong with his face under that helmet. Whatever it takes to be Vader, he doesn't have it, and he knows that he doesn't have it, and the pursuit of it drives him to greater and greater acts of cartoonish villainy. The failure to one-up Vader is offloaded to the character instead of the writers, and it was genuinely interesting to watch. For one movie. The problem, of course, is that if the entire character archetype is "Vader, but less compelling," you can't try to give the bastard Vader's exact character arc. You can't retroactively bolt on a Vader-tier tragic backstory when you spent a whole movie signaling that whatever happened to him wasn't as compelling as what happened to Vader. You can't milk his angst for two more movies when it's the kind of angst on display in "Rocking the Suburbs" by Ben Folds!

There's a level on which I feel like Moff Gideon was a semi-successful implementation of Vader-Wannabe concept; he's the same kind of middling operator courting the Vader Aesthetic for clout, but he's doing it in the context of the imperial warlord era, where there's a lot of practical power available to anyone who can paint themselves to the Imperial Remnants as a plausible successor to Vader. Hand in Hand with this obvious politicking, Gideon is loathsome, which relieves the writers of the burden of having to plausibly redeem the guy; he's doing exactly what he needs to do and there'll never be a mandate to expand him beyond what his characterization can support. Unfortunately, the calculated and cynical nature of how he's emulating Vader precludes the immaturity and hero-worship elements on display with Kylo, which is unfortunate; the sincerity on display in Kylo's pursuit of authenticity is an important part of why he worked, to the extent that he worked at all, and it'd be worth unpacking in a better trilogy. As he stands Kylo is a clever idea, and that's all he is- he lacks the scaffolding to go from merely clever to actively good.

#and these are my unsolicited star wars thoughts #thoughts #meta #star wars #star wars sequel trilogy #kylo ren #moff gideon #han solo #star wars finn #star wars meta #sw sequels #the force awakens #analysis

[gentrychild]

I wonder, how would the Forgers dynamic with the people in their social circle change once their secrets become known to one another?

Your thoughts?

*misreads your question on purpose*

Hello, do you want my opinion about how the Forgers would react if their secrets became exposed to one another? Of course, of course, if you insist, I guess I could share some thoughts that I have that I do not hold to the ranks of beloved headcanons that canon will have to tear from my cold dead hands.

How would Yor react after learning that Loid is a spy that has been lying to her this whole time: she would admire him even more. She was already in awe of what a good father he was and how skilled he is at everything but it turns out that he is even more extraordinary than expected. Always go beyond when it comes to what he needs to do. He lied to her about the marriage? She lied to him about not murdering people daily in bloody and creative ways, it's a stone she can't cast. He lied to her about Anya being his blood daughter and how she needed to get into Eden Academy because that's what her mom wanted? All she hears is that this man was given a mission and to do that, he happened to rescue Anya from an orphanage, to give her a home where she misses nothing and to be the Best Dad ever. Talk about multitasking.

How would Loid react after learning that Yor is an assassin who has been lying to her this whole time: pure lust for her skills. Unquenchable yearning for the way she can sever someone's spine with one kick. All of Wise and Franky would be freaking out about Yor going through mooks and he would be the "That's my wife!" guy. So proud. Turns out he is somehow even better at choosing spouse than previously assumed. Would he freak out at first? Yes. That's the same guy who freak out about the secret police arresting him for spy crimes if he doesn't buy his daughter a silly keychain. He wouldn't mind the killing, though, as he can hardly cast the stone for that one either. The problem is: is Yor a danger for Anya and Loid? Was he so compromised that he didn't see the threat? And from the moment he remembers that Yor would kill and die for Anya, just like him, there is no problem anymore, rationalization aplenty, cue to him telling the Handler that it's great to have an assassin at home because extra security, good of the mission, blah blah blah, peace of the world.

How would Loid and Yor react after learning that Anya can read minds and got her powers from scientists experimenting on her: Complete and absolute mortification as they are going through every silly thoughts they ever had in her presence. Almost spontaneously combust out of sheer embarrassment. Then, they are "Guess my daughter is even more exceptional than previously assumed but it checks out." No one says a word about her powers to anyone else, though, as they do not want her to be used. And during the entire conversation, they are reaaaaaaaaaaaaaally calm, reaaaaaaaaaaally poised, and as soon as Anya falls asleep, it's MURDER THOUGHTS FOR THE SCIENTISTS that make the entire building hallucinate visions of their own deaths.

How would Loid and Yor react after learning that Bond can see the future: Straight up disbelief. You gotta draw the line somewhere. Then, epic case of freak out when they realize that the first time Anya ran off with the dog was because their kid tried to disarm a bomb.

#spy x family

[fuckyeahbaldursgate]

Bhaal's errant progeny and BG3.

Hey all, just some witterings from me that I really wanted to post about a particular encounter because it just super irked me. This post contains spoilers for Act 3 and specifically the serial murders quest.

My overall view is that most of the returning cast from the original BGs have been treated fairly respectfully and consistent with their character arcs in BG1/2 however, there is one unfortunately that I just don't like and that's Sarevok. Yep he's back for a brief encounter where he's revealed to Orin's granddaddy and he's going to smack your butt for funsies. Now while I enjoyed the fight itself the overall conversation / plot points were kind of disappointing for the following reasons:

1.) No Kevin Michael Richardson. Given the guy recently starred in Baldur's Gate: Siege of Dragonspear and is a fairly prolific voice actor I have no idea why they didn't ask him to do this role and given his distinctive voice, it's really noticeable. I appreciate with the other returning characters haven't got their original VAs either but I think Jaheria and Minsc's VAs do a good impression of originals and in some ways can hide behind the accents of the characters.

2.) Ignores the impact of Imoen's soul. It's referenced in the conversation that the fairest Bhaalspawn resurrected him so that implies that BG3 assumes it was Imoen who gave a bit of their soul to revive him in Throne of Bhaal. Now there were a few conversations that touched upon the fact that Sarevok was actually mildly influenced by this (he has cravings for sweet things and other strange things etc.). I'm not saying that this would have completely turned him overnight into a good guy but his re-embracing of Bhaal seems contrary to this.

3.) Inconsistent with conversations with Sarevok in BG1/Throne of Bhaal. In my view, the game is fairly clear that Sarevok's goal was never to serve the Lord of Murder but to become him. Furthermore, in TOB he actually seems pretty accepting of the fact that he failed to achieve that and is almost regretful in places, particularly in relation to Tamoko's fate. Why has he gone back to serve the Lord of Murder no less in BG3 when he wasn't really a true believer in the first place.

4.) Inconsistent with Sarevok's epilogue at the end of Throne of Bhaal. Sarevok's arc in TOB revolved around the nature versus nurture argument. One of the big challenges the Bhaalspawn faces is the revelation that Gorion had the opportunity to take either you or Sarevok and it was pure luck that you were chosen instead of him. The question for the Bhaalspawn is: would you have turned out exactly the same as Sarevok had you not lived in the relative safety of Candlekeep? Sarevok is given an opportunity to do things differently at the end of TOB. His epilogue notes that he never settled in one place for too long, routing an army of orcs before he conquered an entire city by himself only to then mysteriously vanish. The epilogue concludes that he actually returned to Kara-Tur to bury Tamoko and never returned, which ultimately suggests that Sarevok is a changed man at the end of TOB.

So yeah it seemed really lazy to me that he's just back as another mook of Bhaal for you to mow down. Now I've been playing a fairly neutral drow wizard who turned down the offer of becoming an assassin of Bhaal so maybe this comes across better if you have more time to talk to him but yeah was left feeling a bit sad by how he ended up in BG3.

#baldur's gate #sarevok #baldur's gate spoilers #spoilers #sarevok anchev

[tvlandofficiall]

had to remember what the hell i meant by papyton (doomed) (what the hell i meant was yet another overanalysis of a character relationship that is way more bizarre than it seems at first glance). such is my brand 😭 and please do forgive the scattershot explanation! i have been in a real bad mire of writer's block lately.

in undertale, the core cast are all pretty tightly interwoven. unlike deltarune, which presents a pretty sprawling web of interconnected characters across the dark world, the underground is a pretty compact place. everyone seems to know everyone in the underground – and most of our main cast have some sort of significant on-screen interaction with one another. sans and papyrus are brothers with goofy antics akin to tall-and-short-guy mooks of the 90s, alphys and undyne are the core romantic relationship of the game, toriel and asgore are former paramours, alphys is mettaton's pal and made his robot body for him – you name it. the core six even get to banter with one another in the true pacifist ending, letting characters interact who normally don't get the chance to and establishing a sense of closure to the game.

a lot of these personal connections are established off-screen, too. flowey's done everything we've done offscreen and has some pretty personal connections to alphys, papyrus, and – of course – his family. mettaton visits undyne's house to lie on her piano. sans and toriel's conversations at the ruins door have a ripple effect that echoes throughout the game. and all of these are personal connections, the sort that characterize the world of the underground itself – that is, except for papyrus and mettaton's relationship.

papyrus and mettaton don't interact onscreen at all during any given route. they're both very similar – oozing with genuine confidence, unabashedly "themselves" – but we hardly even see them in the same room together. papyrus gets a moment in true pacifist to look at mettaton's hot leg, and the alarm clock dialogue mentions them both being at the same holiday party (ft. another leg), but strangely, that's about it. there's a certain level of distance placed between papyrus and mettaton – which wouldn't exactly strike me as so interesting if it weren't for the fact that papyrus just does not shut up about mettaton. i mean, just listen to him;

(see also; the "would you smooch a ghost?" from the papyrus qna. that's probably the most blatant you could get if you're doing a romantic reading.)

but the way papyrus talks about mettaton is also quite interesting – reminiscent of a celebrity crush. it adds an air of near-parasociality to the dynamic that stands out next to such a tight-knit cast.

all this to say, there is one instance in the game where they interact in a more personal way. it's one most players won't see – the ending where mettaton becomes king of the underground and turns it into his own personal playground, making sure no dissenters can ruin his 100% approval rating. only papyrus and sans remain in his orbit – as his personal agents. they're the only two who get to be on the level.

all in all, i find this conspicuous setup super interesting. i can't say with certainty if it was on purpose – but considering what it could mean regardless has really begun to drive my thoughts about these two. what could it say about their dynamic that the only time we see them together is when they're at their worst?

#ooc #papyrus #mettaton #papyton #undertale #is this papyton? sort of. it's definitely about their relationship in a romantic sense... #i don't think i'd call it outright parasocial because the underground's society isn't much like our own. like many mtt things it's just an #approximation. but that said. What Are You Two #(shakes them until all the coins fall out) #also all this said i don't think you have to read it as romantic! i just like to :0

[ontologicalsynaesthesia]

I can't stop thinking about the narrative use of guns and violence in Disco Elysium, and how the lack of violence as a gameplay mechanic leads to a emotionally richer story and more fully realized world.

You go through a lot to get your gun back - on my playthrough it was the last thing I did before I confronted Ruby - and then there's only one point in the game where you can actually fire it. In my playthrough, the Necktie Molotov Cocktail missed and Harry never had the opportunity to fire his own gun at all - the only time it was used in the whole game was by Kim.

Other uses of guns include:

When you learn that Roy bought Harry's gun only because Harry was going around threatening to shoot himself with it.

Trying to shoot the body down; Kim doesn't make the shot, and when Harry tries, you fear he might shoot a passerby by accident (I was terrified he would accidentally shoot Kim or Cuno).

The discovery of the weapons cache, and bitter knowledge that with more caches all over Revachol, there's no way any can prevent widespread violence.

The Pigs threatening Harry and Kim with Harry's gun: it's tense, and terrifying, and incredibly sad, as your fear for your own wellbeing slowly shifts into a fear for hers.

Ruby threatening to kill herself; in my playthrough, I failed to talk her out of it, and I think it was the most horrifying moment of the game.

The Deserter spent decades spying on the world through his rifle scope, fantasizing about killing people from afar. When he actually pulled the trigger, it kicked off the series of events that led to open violence on the streets of Martinaise (and might still lead to more.)

Every time guns are used, either onscreen or off (and there are very, very few instances of gun use onscreen), it's shocking and brutal. Bringing a gun into any situation ratchets up the tension and scares everyone, including Kim and Harry, who have decades of experience as cops and have both killed people.

This isn't a game where violence is normalized. It especially isn't a game where deadly violence is normalized. It's such a contrast from games where combat is a part of gameplay, and the use of violence is ordered and expected and strategic. It's such a contrast from the game ZA/UM originally planned to make:

(images from the Disco Elysium Artbook)

And that's so interesting to me because it's incredibly effective, and it feels more real this way, but it's absolutely not what I would have expected from this genre of story in a setting like Martinaise. You're playing as a cop in a poor, war-scarred neighborhood where the biggest power is basically a mob boss. If I didn't know anything about DE and someone described it to me I would have expected something more like, well, Torson & McLaine: shoot-outs in the streets, life is cheap, you know. Combat is still the primary gameplay mechanic of many (most?) games out there, and by necessity that turns most of the people in any combat-based game into mindless mooks who are there to be slaughtered en masse.

But Disco Elysium doesn't do that. In DE, every single interactable character is a fully realized person. Most of them have surprisingly deep conversational trees, and those conversations change as you proceed through the game and have new experiences and learn new things. Even characters you can't talk to much feel like real people; you're just seeing the tip of the iceberg. No one is disposable cannon-fodder. And it makes the world feel so much more real than any other CRPG I've ever played, and when anyone actually gets killed or seriously wounded, it's a shock; it's awful. You grow to know and love this little district and the people in it. The looming spectre of violence in the streets of Martinaise as you race against the mercenaries to solve the case feels like a real threat.

It's just. Really good, y'know?

#disco elysium #disco elysium spoilers #de meta #de os #suicide cw

[reashot]

Sorry it take this long, but Anon requested to see Christmas themed Lancaster and by God they're going to get one:

Under the Mistletoe 💏

To celebrate Christmas. Both team RWBY and JNPR decide to have a get-together and for the venue they decides to have it in JNPR dorm room.

Yang: Let's start this party with a Yang!

Everyone: Yang!

Pyrrha: Wow Yang! How do you get all this stuffs for the Christmas party?

Yang: Well. Let's just say it's a donation from an anonymous donor...

Cuts into Junior's club.

A gruesome scene unfolds inside of a nightclub. Bodies of suit wearing mooks littered the dance floor and their Boss, Junior can be seen sitting in the counter nursing his wounds by pouring himself a stiff one.

Goon: Boss... Why the heck do that blonde beast came here and stole our stuffs?

Junior: Shut up...

Back in JNPR dorm room.

Yang: Anyway... How about a drink? Non alcoholic of course.

Pyrrha: I'll take two. Thank you.

While bringing two drinks across the room Pyrrha passes many of the friends she made in Beacon.

Nora: Ren-ren let's dance!

Ren: Sure Nora.

Weiss: So, Blake... How is it like being a Faunus?

Blake: How is it like being me?

Weiss: Look! I'm trying to strike a conversation, okay? And it's hard when you know I said something to you that can't be taken back.

Blake: I know that Weiss. Baby step, okay.

Weiss: Baby step.

Ruby: Jaune did you watch _syberSamurai last stream? 😁

Jaune: I did, Ruby. Man she almost lost the match 4-1 but in the last minutes she turned it around and ended up winning against impossible odd.

Ruby: Ikr. She's so awesome. 😆

Pyrrha: Hmm. What are you two talking about?

Jaune: Oh. Pyrrha. We're just talking about video games. That's all.

Pyrrha: ... I see. Oh and Jaune I brought a drink for you.

Jaune: Oh thank you Pyrrha... *Walked just few centi away to be perfectly below the mistletoe*

Yang: Ah! Both Vomit Boy and P-Money are under the mistletoe so according to the rule they must kiss.

Pyrrha: Wow. Do you want to kiss me Jaune?

Jaune: Is that even a question? Of course.

Both Jaune and Pyrrha kiss to the cheers and approval of everyone watching. Everyone except for Ruby who sees it differently.

Ruby:

Yang: Woohoo! 30 second kiss. That's your longest one to date. And don't think I didn't see you slipping your tongue there Pyrrha. You horny fox. You.

Ruby: Give me a drink Yang!!! 😫

Yang: Eh, sure. *pours one out for her little sister*

Ruby: Another! 😠

Yang: K. *pours another*

Ruby: More! 😡

Yang: Ruby this is Non-Alcoholic. You can't get drunk from this.

Ruby: Maybe I just like to drink! You ever think about that? 🤬

Yang: Rubs... If you are upset about something you can tell me all about it. I'm your big sister after all.

Ruby: I don't want to talk about it... 😢

Yang: It's about Jaune kissing Pyrrha isn't it?

Ruby: Why don't he like me? I also want to kiss him using my tongue too. 😭

Yang: Oh Ruby... Tell you what go up to him right now and I'll help you out.

Ruby: How? 😞

Yang: Look just trust your sister, okay.

Ruby: He-hey Jaune... How's it hanging. 😟

Jaune: What is it Ruby. Do you want to talk more about other stuffs?

Ruby: Uh... Uhm... Eh... I mean. I want to... 😵

Unbeknownst to the two of them. A mistletoe silently glides above them and landing perfectly above the two dorks's head. The mistletoe is being guided by Yang by using a long stick. No doubt she prepares them beforehand for some sort of prank.

Yang: Oh no, a mistletoe somehow got above Jaune and Ruby. How did that happened? Tee-hee. Anyway you know the rules and so do I.

Ruby: C-can I kiss you too Jaune?

Jaune: R-Ruby I...

Pyrrha: Go for it Jaune.

Nora: Yeah! Go for it!

Blake: (Oh Brothers they're going to do it. Finally.)

Jaune: Okay here goes...

Ruby: 😚

Jaune : There Ruby, how do you like it?

Ruby: 😶

Jaune: Ruby?

Ruby suddenly tackles Jaune to his bed. And proceeds to mount him. The suddennes took everyone by surprise.

Jaune: Ruby what's gotten into you?

Ruby: 🥵🥵🥵 Everyone! Please evacuate to a safe six miles radius. Or else will I not be responsible for what will happen next 🥵🥵🥵

Jaune: Eep!

Yang: Ah hell nah! I'm still way too hot and sexy to be an aunt.

#jaune arc #ruby rose #lancaster #lancaster rwby #rwby #jaune x ruby #ruby x jaune #team jnpr #team rwby #pyrrha nikos #lie ren #nora valkyrie #blake belladonna #yang xiao long #weiss schnee #christmas episode #christmas request

[muthaz-rapapa]

Hirogaru Sky Final Impressions (5/5)

Honestly, what were they going to do with those two weeks after 48 episodes? Have us wait until WonPre's broadcast? Yea right, lol

So the 20th installment of Precure is now officially finished and it feels both great and a little bit sad to say that since the bar has been readjusted quite high, we will probably need the 25th anniversary to get another season as awesome and well-written as HiroPre. [/harsh]

But that will be for something to worry about in the next five years.

So first, that finale!

Pretty much 5(ish) of the 6 last episodes was a whole arc dedicated to the most engaging lore Precure has ever given us to date.

Cure Noble is definitely entering the league of legacy Cures and perhaps as the one with the best story as well. How she went from princess-sovereign to becoming the very first Precure (in this universe, anyways) to helping pave a way for peace with her nemesis to laying out the foundation for the Cures who will succeed her in the future.

Yeap, Ellee-chan may have gotten a nice age-up bonus so that we can see her embrace her destiny and actually converse in something other than baby talk.

But it's more accurate to say that Ellee-chan/Cure Majesty's character arc is really Princess Elleelain/Cure Noble's instead.

Which is totally fine with me. Not only was Elleelain super interesting as a hero/protagonist in her own era but Kaiserin was...dear god.

Dear god, when have we gotten a twist that was this good and this dark by the series' standards? I felt we haven't touched this level of grim writing since Heartcatch and that was my first Precure season ever.

But seriously, it's impossible not to sympathize with Kaiserin and appreciate how much she contributed to the plot as well as this season's message that power is not what makes a hero, but the strength of one's heart that does.

Even her traitorous tutor, Skearhead, said she had what it took to become a hero (and maybe even Precure? oooh~), which just makes her fall into darkness more tragic.

But thankfully, she never lost her kindness and compassion, which was what ultimately allowed her to not only be saved but her wounds to finally heal after hundreds of years of suffering from the pain of betrayal Skearhead had inflicted on her.

And that her generals, who all turned over a new leaf, came back to the Undergu Empire to loyally serve her and make sure she isn't alone...

Good! This is so satisfying, I couldn't have asked for anything better! Kaiserin deserves her happiness after all she's been through!

But of course, that's not all because no Precure finale is complete without the last episodes dishing out the best combat scenes of the entire season and did it deliver, alright.

Uh-huh, uh-huh, uh-HUH!

The animation was absolutely stellar and not so overdone that it'd look more gaudy than cool. coughDeliPaPrecough

Moreover, the teamwork is what really sold the animation. As it should because Precure is all about that team effort brought on by personal growth, not a one-man show.

I loved how Wing, representing wisdom, was the one everyone trusted to get that barrier back up because it is a mechanism that he researched and developed to help everyone. It proves that boys don't need to fit into a specific mold of masculinity or genius to be a hero because in the end, those things don't matter. It's being true to yourself, your beliefs and your dreams and what you choose to do with those abilities that counts.

I loved how Butterfly, who is physically the strongest in the group, always takes on the tougher tasks such as facing the army of tedious mooks to let those younger than her forge a path ahead. She never forgets her responsibility as an adult to protect the kids but she also encourages them to move forward because she fully believes in them like a good adult would.

I loved how Majesty comes to understand that though she's meant to inherit Cure Noble's will and power and position as Skyland's princess, it's not her destiny to inherit Elleelain's loneliness. And the whole reason that she started out as a baby but was able to grow and become Precure was because she was surrounded by the right people who brought out that potential in her. For Ellee-chan, being with her friends and fighting alongside them was the bigger, more important destiny than her duty was.

Finally, the star duo of the show.

Sky was given stronger MC vibes than the other cast members but you can't deny that she wouldn't have gotten this far without Prism by her side.

Sora's idea of what it means to be hero expanded a lot because she became friends with Mashiro.

She has come to treasure Mashiro so much that when she was on the brink of losing her best friend, she let Skearhead corrupt her in order to have enough power to save that best friend. She was willing to sacrifice herself for someone important to her, which in a way, can be seen as an act of heroism (but only as a last resort, plz do not attempt).

And even then, Sky kept resisting from being taken over. Prism didn't even flinch when Sky aimed a punch at her. That's how much Mashiro believes in Sora, in the hero that Sora is. That even if Sora accepted darkness into herself to do the right thing, she won't ever let that darkness consume her into doing the wrong thing.

And the fact that it was Prism who had the ability to not only purify Sky but also heal Kaiserin's centuries-old wound. She's come a long way herself from the girl who used to think she was talentless, who didn't believe she had anything special going for her.

"You are good as you are now, Mashiro-san."

What Sora said was true until the very end. Mashiro didn't ever need to change. She was already good enough and she was always going to become even better than how she started out because she was always being inspired and supported by those around her and challenging herself to do things she initially hesitated on doing.

Now she's continually drawing new stories, even winning an award for one. Even her Prism Shot evolved and multiplied as an attack and it's all because she learned to believe in herself because all her friends believed in her.

This is essentially what sets Precure apart from the others, what makes it the major name it is in modern day mahou shoujo.

I cannot begin to describe how glad I am that the staff at Toei reinforced those aspects of friendship as well as the celebration of individualism in a milestone year. But I can definitely say with confidence that we can expect to see more well into the franchise's 30th anniversary as long they don't forget these two very crucial things.

As for me, I think this will be the last time I blog Precure on a "regular" basis.

I'll still continue to watch cuz hey, there's no reason for me to stop yet.

(and all the more reason to not stop if Satoru and Daifuku become the next two male Cures in WonPre OMGI'MSOGONNAJINXTHISAREN'TIBWUAHAHAHAHA!!!)

But my priorities have shifted so I gotta tend to those foremost. And as much as I enjoy the show, I feel like I'm always saying the same stuff over and over again anyway, just in different variations of it.

(also, something about WonPre tells me the next four years will be filled with hit-or-miss seasons so meh, I'd rather just follow it leisurely than get too invested and then disappointed)

On another note, I do have some personal rankings that I'd like to post some day. I was going to do it for the 20th anniversary but didn't have time to cuz life got way too hectic and busy but yea, eventually I'll have them up.

Just for fun, y'know.

Ok, that is all.

Thank you, my hero girls and boy! You made this season so wonderful hahahaha, good luck, WonPre for me and I can't be grateful enough for it.

Thank you for a beautiful anniversary! Let's aim for the next!

25th year with 100+ Precure!

Let's gooooooooooooo!!!

#hirogaru sky precure #cure sky #cure prism #cure wing #cure butterfly #cure majesty

[always-andromeda]

You ever seen pics of paul playing in his band? Like not to be a stereotype but it makes me want to act foolish 😳😩🔥🔥🔥

yES, when Paul was in Mook…it gave pretentious artist boyfriend who will work the fact that he’s in a band into any and every conversation, has the sweetest mom ever and is a little bit passive aggressive to her, and lives off of cigarettes, Dr. Pepper, and frozen taquitos. And if I was eighteen…I’d let him ruin my life. 🥰👍🏻✨

#˚ʚ ask meda ɞ˚ #˚ʚ anonymous ask ɞ˚ #…i know that description is so specific #but it’s my truth

[mizldrizl]

"그럴 분 아니잖아" and "It can't be him."

In Ep. 10, when Dong Sik asks Jae Yi who is it that killed Kang Jin Mook, she says:

Here, "분" is something you use when referring to a person in the formal tone. (It does not tell if that person is male or female though.) Meaning, it is a man or a woman who is quite older than Jae Yi and is close to and respected by her. Plus, how she ends the sentence with "-잖아" equals to using "you know (that)" or "right?" in a sentence. Which implies that it is someone Dong Sik knows as well.

Meanwhile, the English subtitle for the line is "It can't be him." The only information it gives is that it is a man; nothing about his age, social status or relationship with Jae Yi.

Of course, what happened before the conversation between Dong Sik and Jae Yi shows enough that it is clear Nam Sang Bae is the guy, but still, I find this difference between the original Korean line and the English subtitle pretty interesting.

#Beyond Evil #괴물

[earlgraytay]

Back when Undertale was big, someone in my circle of acquaintance made a post about how it felt like the "fandomized" version of a story with deeper, more complicated characters, that turned everyone into a cute bundle of quirks and awkward-but-sweet relationships.

I never liked that post, for a plethora of reasons, but lately I've been watching my partner play through Dragon Quest Builders 2.

And like, DQB2 came out after Undertale. It's definitely in conversation with it, in ways that older DQ games may not be. But like, the Dragon Quest games were clearly an inspiration for large parts of Undertale's Deep Lore (TM), and...

This is the generic Skeleton enemy in Dragon Quest. It's a mook. You kill a bunch of them. They all have the exact same personality: fighty, a bit uptight, prone to making bone puns.

Do they, perhaps, look a bit familiar?

Papyrus definitely takes some... shall we say, inspiration from the Dragon Quest skeletons. But where they're interchangeable mooks, he's a good bit more fleshed out. (Pun fully intended.) We get to see how much he wants to become Captain of the Royal Guard, how much of a earnest little weirdo he is, how much he loves his brother, how gentle he is and how unwilling he is to hurt you. You get to see a whole bunch of interiority from a character who, in another game, would be a bundle of bone puns.

If Undertale is the fandomized version of a different game, it's the "fandomized" version of a Dragon Quest game. And that says good things about fandom.

#undertale #general malarkey #dragon quest #idk

[five-rivers]

Life's Great Lie 19

Getting closer to the end!

AO3

.

Tony gave Romanov a boost to get out past the stuck blast shutter.  The room had tipped sideways – the fight below them had taken out at least one important support pillar, and although several of the builders had complained that Tony and Pepper had overengineered the building, everything had limits.  Hopefully some of that ‘overengineering’ would keep the floor from falling out of the building entirely, but Tony didn’t feel like risking it, and neither did Romanov. 

The problem was, that not all of the safety features had been installed or tested yet.  Normally, there would have been an emergency release switch for the shutters, but as it was, it hadn’t been wired in.  Tony would be complaining about that to the contractors, by the way.  The wiring on this floor was supposed to be done. 

Tony, in turn, activated the repulsors on his boots – one of the few armor pieces he had after Danny had more or less disassembled him – and grabbed the top of the shutter before swinging himself over.  He did it with a lot less grace than Natasha and clipped his knee on the way over. 

“Ow!”  He stabilized himself.  “Well.  Let’s get going!  Can’t get the scepter, might as well do the shields!”

Of course, Romanov was already way ahead of him.  They jogged out into the corridor, and immediately ran into half a dozen men with guns. 

So.  This is where Loki’s mooks wound up.  He’d been wondering. 

Romanov threw the back of shield generators back at him.  Which – first off, he could hold his own in a fight without armor, so, rude, secondly—

Romanov had already taken out three of the six men.  The fifth gasped and passed out apropos of nothing.  Tony punched the sixth and final one in the face, hard, with his still-gauntleted hand. 

“Stark, Gray, you hearing me?”

“Bit busy!” screamed Valerie Gray in his ear.

“Uh, yeah, what’s up?  Thought you were staying out of this fight, Fury.”

“We have a missile headed straight for the city.”

“I’m sorry, it sounded like you just said we had a missile headed for the city, but I know, I know you couldn’t have—”

“It’s nuclear and Phase Two, no more than ten minutes out, taking the storm into account.”

“A nuke?  A nuke?”

“I don’t—JARVIS--?”

“Sorry, sir, the Mark VI is still not operational.”

“I don’t have a useable suit.  Valerie, can your suit push a missile off course?”

“Wh—No!  I can’t even carry three extra people on my board.  I--  Holy crap!”

“I’m sorry,” said Danny Fenton, “did you say nuke?”

.

“It’s nuclear and Phase Two, no more than ten minutes out, taking the storm into account.”

“He did say nuke, didn’t he?” asked Sam as the conversation continued. 

“Yep,” said Jazz.  “Maybe if we take off, we could--  Could we ram it?”

“What would that do?  Set it off early?  Maybe my jetpack—”

“Wh—No!  I can’t even carry three extra people on my board.  I--  Holy crap!”

“I’m sorry,” said Danny, “did you say nuke?”

.

In the middle of evacuating the subway, Steve froze.  This fight had been going on for less than half an hour.  Who the hell had decided to use nukes?

He thumbed the control on his comm, intending to demand a repeat, but someone else beat him to it. 

“I’m sorry,” said Danny Fenton, “did you say nuke?”

.

“A bit busy!” shouted Valerie, apropos of apparently nothing in the middle of the tag-team between them and Tucker. 

She must have some form of communicator.  A Fenton Phone, maybe?  Or something built into her suit?  It didn’t matter to Danny, honestly, he was busy, too.  Tucker kept trying to use the mind control aspect of his staff on him, and although Danny was handily shrugging it off with his newfound passionate dislike of mind control and intense awareness of the magic mind control staff he was holding, it was still distracting. 

“A nuke?  A nuke?”

Not so distracting that he couldn’t hear that, though.  Surely, no one was aiming a nuke at the city now.  Right?  Because that would be crazy.  The portal was closed.  Heck, both of the portals were closed, even if the GIW had a nuke (which in itself would be nuts, those guys were incredibly incompetent). 

Crazy enough that even Tucker stopped what he was doing and turned to Valerie, slack-jawed.  

Which made a great opening for Danny to yank the staff out of his hands.  Tucker wobbled for a second, still wide-eyed, then his eyes rolled back in his head, and he crumpled.  Danny caught him before he could fall off the platform he’d been standing on.  Stark’s roof was a mess, and the sand sifting down out of the sky was only making it worse.

He put Tucker in the recovery position and made sure he was still breathing – he was – then turned his attention to Valerie.  In his experience, overshadowing-related fatigue rarely killed people, so hopefully past-life-takeover fatigue wouldn’t either.  Nukes were another story. 

“Wh—No!  I can’t even carry three extra people on my board.  I—” Valerie startled badly, having failed to notice Danny getting closer.  “Holy crap!”

“I’m sorry,” said Danny, trying to be polite, “did you say nuke?”  He looked up at Valerie.  “Can you turn that to speaker or something?”

Valerie retracted her helmet, and pulled a Fenton Phone from her ear, turning the volume all the way up. 

“Danny, is that you?” asked Jazz.

“I’m not under mind control anymore.  Is there really a nuke coming?”

“You and Thor are our only fliers, kid.”  Danny wasn’t sure if that was Tony Stark or Captain America.  “Can you move it?”

“I—Probably?”  He could bench a school bus, and a nuke would probably be launched from a sub or a plane, neither of which were going to be lugging around school-bus-sized armaments.  “But where would I put it?  How long do I have to move it?  Will it only go off with impact, or--?”

“Less than ten minutes.”

Oh. 

“Maybe Tucker—”

“Wha?” asked Tucker, sitting up.  He made an attempt to stand up, then sat right back down.

“Could you get rid of a nuke?” asked Danny, vaguely aware of a parallel conversation (“Has anyone spoken to Thor?” – “I think he burned out his comm.”) going on through the Fenton Phones.  “If I gave you back the staff.”  He even held it out to Tucker, as inadvisable as that was. 

Tucker reached out, touched it with the very tip of his finger, and pulled back, the motion violently sharp.  His nose started bleeding.

“No,” he said.  “Out of power.  I’m.”  He waved at himself.  “Notice how I wasn’t doing stuff like in Amity?  A sandstorm was all…  A nuke?  What if you made it intangible?”

“I don’t know.  That isn’t exactly something I’ve tested.”  He waved his hands.  “I’ve got to be touching the thing to make intangible.  Explosions, explosions aren’t all one thing.”  He knew that from experience. 

“Maybe you could make the city intangible,” suggested Valerie, “and the blast would just miss.”

“Val,” said Danny, strained, “I don’t think I could even make this building intangible all at once.”

“The shields,” said his mother, breathlessly.  “You could trap it in a shield.  One of the modified ones.”

“It’s one of their original uses!” added his father.  “Radiation barriers!  Of course, we were worried about spectral radiation, but it wouldn’t be a Fentonworks product if we didn’t go above and beyond!”

“Okay,” said Danny.  “Okay.”  He duplicated himself.  Once.  Twice.  Three times.  Eight wasn’t a stable number for him, but he wasn’t going to try to fight.  “I’m getting the ghosts.”  If all else failed, maybe their natural shields could contain the nuke.  “What do we need to set up the shields?”

“Romanov and I have the shields.  We’re trying to get up to where you are, but—” 

“Say no more.”  A duplicate angled downwards, back through the building.

“You’ll need to get the missile in the right location as well.  Right over Stark Tower, as close to where the portal was as possible,” said Mom.  “That’s what our calculations are for, and we don’t have time to rerun them.”

“Okay, and other setup?” 

“We need Selvig,” said Tucker, pointing back toward the penthouse.  “I think he shut himself in a closet—”

“I’ll get him,” said Valerie. 

“What else?” Danny asked Tucker. 

.

Thor and Skulker, flying just outside the tower, obviously looking for Loki, were the first ones he found. 

“Where is Lo—” started Thor. 

“Later.  For now, I need you to help me steer a nuke.”

“Pardon?” said Thor. 

“Why is there a nuke?” asked Skulker. 

“I’ll explain on the way.”  Well.  He’d try.  He was as clueless about why there was a nuke as they were. 

.

Black Widow and Tony Stark weren’t too far away from the lab they’d fought in. 

“Ready to go up?” he asked, not waiting for a response before grabbing their elbows and flying straight up through the floor. 

“Oh, that’s weird,” said Stark, stumbling a little when Danny set him down next to Tucker.  He got right to work, taking the bag from Black Widow and pulling out a set of shield generators. 

Danny’s duplicate was kneeling between Tucker and Selvig, helping him with splicing in cables, and Stark and Widow both did a very obvious double take when they noticed. 

“Nice trick,” muttered Tony. 

“Yeah,” said the other duplicate, as it fused with the other one to be more stable, but kept the extra arms.  “I can’t do it while I’m human, though.”

Black Widow leaned back on her left leg.  “Lucky us.”

.

“Great One!” exclaimed Frostbite, waving enthusiastically as he pulled a wicked spear out of the body of a space whale.  “You’ve thrown off your compulsion!”

“Yep!  But someone lobbed a superweapon at us and it’ll hit in five minutes!”  He gestured in the general direction the nuke was coming from.  “Help?”

Frostbite’s smile fell off his face entirely.  So did those of all the other nearby yetis.  “They what?”

.

Jazz felt useless.  She wasn’t fighting the aliens, or evacuating people, or working on the shields.  All she could do from here was direct communications.  She knew that was important, vitally important, but it sort of felt pale and weak knowing that a nuclear bomb was racing straight towards Stark Tower. 

Which was where her little brother was. 

And Tucker. 

And Valerie.  

And about half of the ‘Avengers.’

And none of that even mattered, really, because all of Manhattan, if not all of New York City could be flattened by this thing.  She was sure the Ops Center was in range, anyway. 

“Jazz,” said Sam.  “Look!”

She jerked her head up, looking away from the controls and out the main window.  The day had started out bright and sunny, but between the smoke, the sandstorm, and possibly whatever Thor had done, the city now looked quite dark.  Against that dark background moved dozens of motes of light, converging on Stark Tower, rising up from shadowy streets or corpses of defeated alien whales. 

And, like a burning arrow, the missile knifed across the sky. 

.

“We’re not going to get it done fast enough,” said Selvig.

“Don’t say that,” said Tucker.  “Don’t say that.”

Tony hated to admit it, but Selvig was probably right.  They’d only managed to complete the wiring and setting changes on one of the generators, and the missile was—

“Please,” said Loki. 

Black Widow aimed an incredibly vicious kick directly at his crotch, but it passed through him, like he was smoke. 

Another Loki leaned over Danny, reaching towards the unfinished portal generators.  The portal generators shimmered and changed, becoming identical to the one they’d modified.

“An illusion—” started Tucker. 

“The best lies are those you can make true.”  Loki’s grin was sharp.  “They will last only for a few minutes.  I have no intention of trying my might against this nuclear missile of yours.”  He raised his hand, showing off a Fenton Phone.  So.  That’s where Thor’s had gotten to.  “You can trust me on this, at least.”

.

Thor saw the tower, and dropped his hand, letting Mjolnir pull him away from the weapon.  He had done his part, pushing it up, to where the portal had once been.  Now it was the ghosts’ task to take it the rest of the way. 

.

Steve stopped and looked up, shading his eyes against the sky with one hand while the other snapped out to catch his shield.  The missile was clear and visible, leaving a distinct trail of exhaust. 

He closed his eyes and started reciting a prayer.

.

(It wasn’t as if the Hulk could be killed by something like a nuclear bomb, anyway.  Still, something made him look up.  Something made him hold the girl he’d just saved from a chitauri warrior just a little bit closer.)

.

“Now!” screamed Maddie. 

Tucker flipped the switch. 

.

Loki was at his limits, magically, but if he couldn’t push himself now, when could he?  He raised his hand, and a thin layer of ice grew over them.  A thin barrier, if he understood the nature of this weapon correctly, but a barrier nonetheless. 

.

Above and around Stark Tower, the ghosts raised their hands.  Shields formed, layers upon layers of them, intricate and interlocking; some ghosts floated outside them, others were wedged between layers, unable to be too far from the shields they were making without losing them.  The innermost ghosts were six of Danny’s duplicates, orbiting the missile, which, for a split second, hung suspended in the perfect center of the shield. 

Then it hit the other side. 

Everything went white. 

.

.

.

.

.

.

Danny pried his eyes open.  The sky was blurry and greenish, and, for a moment, he panicked, convinced that he’d died all the way and was now in the Ghost Zone.  But his vision cleared, and it soon became obvious he was looking at a sky that was blue, if very smoky and full of green… things.  Shiny little motes of ectoplasm.

He was also lying in a very uncomfortable position.  There was stuff on him.  And under him.  All around him, actually. 

He sat up, pushing the remains of a couple shield generators and what looked like a good half of Loki’s portal device off himself. 

This was… a good sign.  If the shields hadn’t worked, all this stuff would’ve been vaporized.  Probably.  Danny supposed that it could’ve just stopped the blast, but not the radiation. 

… Danny didn’t feel irradiated, but he was probably not the best judge for that kind of thing.  He wondered who would be a good judge.  The Hulk, maybe?

Dr. Selvig was on the ground next to him, unconscious and bruised but alive.  Danny picked some of the debris off him, but otherwise left him there.  He didn’t want to hurt him more if it turned out he had a broken neck or something like that.

There was a clatter, and Danny jumped, ready to fight again, but it was just Cujo in puppy form, carrying both stupid mind control staffs.  Staves?  He pinched the bridge of his nose and rubbed his eyes.  Why were there two of these things? 

“Good boy,” said Danny, taking the… scepters.  There.  That was one with an unambiguous plural.  “I’ll have to play a real game of fetch with you sometime soon, okay?” 

Cujo wagged his tail and Danny petted him. 

“Where’s everyone else, though?”  It was possible they’d gotten blasted over the edge, which Danny didn’t really want to think about, but there was also a lot of trash on the roof – remnants of Stark’s landing pad and armor system, the portal and shield equipment, random chitauri junk, things from the penthouse – so they could just be hidden. 

Cujo yipped and bounced over to where the warped panels of Stark’s landing platform jutted up from the roof and, yep, there was some red hair.  Black Widow was still alive.  Valerie wasn’t far off.  Still in her suit, she blended into Stark’s décor.  He couldn’t tell how hurt she was – he didn’t want to take off her suit or even her helmet for the same reason he didn’t want to move Dr. Selvig or Black Widow and couldn’t phase through it. 

Which left Tucker and Tony Stark. 

And Loki. 

“Danny.” 

Well, think of the devil…  “Loki,” said Danny, suddenly hyperaware of the scepters he was carrying. 

Loki, leaning against the side of the portal device casing, looked rather worse for wear.  His clothing was singed, and strange blue splotches marred his skin along with massive bags under his eyes. 

“Were you using an illusion to make yourself look better before?” he asked. 

Loki waved a lazy hand.  “Others do as much with paints and powders.  Why should I not use my natural gifts to do the same?  Stark and the boy are over there, by the by.” 

He pointed toward the penthouse with his chin, and Danny hurried over.  They were resting just inside where the big, full-length windows should have been.  It looked like Stark had thrown himself over Tucker to shield him… Or maybe that was just the blast.  Either way, he had a lot of painful-looking burns on his back, and the remaining parts of his armor looked scorched.  Maybe he’d been hit by whatever had singed Loki? 

After a few minutes of dithering, he did move Stark, because he was lying right on top of Tucker, who seemed to be having some trouble breathing.  He also pulled Tucker’s Fenton Phone out of his ear, but it was broken.  Whether that was because of something he did while he was Duulaman, or if escaping radiation – the electromagnetic pulse – from the nuke wiped it out, Danny couldn’t tell, but the inside was all burnt. 

But everyone was alive.  At least, everyone who was up here was alive.  Alive-ish, in his personal case.  He walked back out, and, oh, the green motes in the sky—All of those shields must have put enough ectoplasm into the air that it was condensing out as blob ghosts.  All the death today (enough that Danny could feel it on his skin) probably was helping with that, too.  New York was going to have a complicated ghost problem in the near future.

He should probably feel guilty about that, but he’d tried to keep this fight out of New York, tried to put it somewhere unpopulated, but…

“So,” he said, sitting down next to Loki.  The Tesseract cube sat unprotected on the ground only a meter or so from his feet.  It still reminded him of a blue raspberry ice pop, and he still had that weird impulse to lick it, but yeah.  No.  He wasn’t touching that at all.  “Looks like you and Barton were wrong about them not shooting a nuclear missile at a big city.”  He’d been wrong, too, but again, he’d been trying to put the portal somewhere else.

“I am not responsible for the foolish decisions of someone else’s government, only my own.”

“And how responsible for your own decisions have you been, lately?” asked Danny. 

Loki didn’t answer, instead choosing to look up at the sky.  Danny followed his gaze.  There were some ghosts there that weren’t blobs.  He thought he recognized Pandora coming closer, although she was a long way off. 

Danny sighed.  “How’d you get up here so fast, anyway?” 

“Well.  We did our very best to forget it, but this building does have more than one set of elevators.”

That was—Well, it was true, wasn’t it?  There was more than one elevator and—Danny tried to swallow his laughter.  It didn’t work.  Honestly, it wasn’t even that funny, but he couldn’t stop laughing.

“A nuclear bomb was about to drop on us,” he gasped, “and you took the elevator?”

“Would you have preferred that I took the stairs?”

Danny laughed harder. 

#danny phantom #dp/mcu #op!danny/marvel #dp/marvel #life's great lie

[talkingbl]

GMMTV's Gen 2 problem

I am not impressed that GMMTV just commenced representation of BounPrem. Why? Because their priorities recently have looked a lot like this:

Gen 2 (or maybe stylized Gen Z? still thinking of a name for them...)

Pillars & Pillar-adjacents

Personalities (think Godji, Nicky, Jennie)

LYKN

Girls & Basement dwellers

Rookies

And I hate it.

IMO, Gen 2 is far too overexposed for the sheer lack of talent in their group. I mean out of all of them they only have, who? Fourth? JimmySea on a good day? And honestly, Gen 3 is already starting to debut in roles but they don't seem to get content that'll be widely received. And a lot of the potentially interesting stories (that inevitably get ruined by poor direction/writing) are being funneled to Gen 2 instead of elsewhere, where they belong... I don't mind JimmySea (and to a lesser extent GemFourth) getting good stuff but stop just allowing PondPhuwin, ForceBook, and JoongDunk to do whatever tf they want and start giving Gen 3 & basement dwellers something to do!

Pillars and pillar-adjacents are doing everything I want them to do (OffGun never unemployed, TayNew remarried, KristSingto look to be on the horizon). I mean, we do need to have a serious conversation about letting OffGun take a very long break...but that's a conversation for another time. Plus, GMMTV has turned around and given EarthMix a Japanese remake when they know they've been having problems with Japanese distributors...seems dumb to me.

The personalities will always be employed and, honestly, I rarely watch their content unless my faves are guesting. I like Jennie in a lot of the stuff she's been in. Plus, I feel like their content doesn't require too many resources, so I don't think it's a huge concern to have the personalities continue to stay booked.

But where things get interesting to me is how GMMTV seems to be pouring a lot into making Project Alpha guys into actors... Like P'Tha if you don't let those boys be tpop idols and stop shoving every remotely soft looking boy into a ship!! Nothing is worse than an "actor" who really wants to be a singer istg!!

And this leads me to another issue I have and that is how only like 5 out of: Mook, View, June, Jan, Ciize, Tu, Neen, Namtan, Pod, Thor, AJ, JJ, Luke, Sing, Pluem, Joss, etc., can get work at a time. Like I know they do het and ensemble stuff at times but it really feels like they don't get the stuff with the juicy marketing budgets.

Then there's the poor rookies. And I'm not talking new to the company like Sky and Inn. I'm talking about the ones who've been signed for at least a year now and only have, at most, support roles under their belts. These are the Javas and Indys of the world. Sometimes I forget they're even represented by GMMTV the way they haven't had a chance to showcase any talent.

And then there's all the new male talent who rightfully got lead roles basically immediately. Sky's in a homoerotic het drama with Nani. Inn and Great are practically having sex onscreen by GMMTV standards. Perth was basically assigned to a ship before he even signed with GMMTV... I have a feeling these guys will continue to get more and more roles thrown at them based on the success of their previous dramas, their acting skills, and the hype for their current/future ones dramas.

All this makes me wonder where on earth former Wabi Sabi artists fit in? As for Santa, I don't think we'll have to worry about him because I have a feeling he'll either be a basement dweller, get mostly het roles, or be paired with a LYKN member so he can finally breathe the same air as a functioning idol. Same with Yacht--except he'll almost certainly be sent to the basement for not having the GMMTV vibe (I'll explain on another post). But if GMMTV wants to cast BounPrem together, I feel like they'd have to carve out a space for them that they'd usually give to FirstKhao and pillar-adjacents like EarthMix. Maybe GMMTV can do that but it just doesn't seem like their bandwidth his large enough, nor their story selection good enough to do right by BounPrem. I hope I'm wrong but that would require GMMTV to care more about all of their artists rather than just Gen 2.

For Reference, when I say Gen 2, Pillars, Gen 3, Rookies, Basement Dwellers, these are the folks I'm talking about -

Pillars & Pillar-Adjacents:

TayNew OffGun KristSingto EarthMix Win

Gen 2 is anyone with a lightstick that participated in LOL that's not a pillar:

PondPhuwin JoongDunk GeminiFourth ForceBook JimmySea PerthChimon FirstKhao Ohm Pawat Nanon

Gen 3 is still forming but I'm including everyone who has appeared in multiple BLs but not in an established ship and joined the company within the last 3 years; everyone who just got their first ship and lead role; and everyone who recently joined the company who looks as if they're being prepared to star in a bl. NOTE: I'm not including Inn because I feel like he's more pillar-adjacent due to his age, his talent, and the fact that I don't think GreatInn will go on beyond Wandee Goodday.

Mark Pakin Ohm Thipakorn AouBoom SeaKeen WinnySatang LYKN (particularly Lego & William) Java Ryu Chokun Fluke Aungpao

Basement Dwellers include folks who have been at the company for 3+ years who have either been apart of several BL ships or who have mentioned wanting to star in a BL or who get fancasted in lead roles but never get the work:

Pod Guy Gawin* Joss* Luke Drake AJ JJ

#gmmtv #studio wabi sabi #bounprem #taynew offgun kristsingto geminifourth jimmysea earthmix firstkhao seakeen winnysatang aouboom perthchimon pondphuwin joongdunk #markohm nanon korapat ohm pawat win metawin greatinn jossgawin forcebook

[myrfing]

also the very fact people are doting on gaius as a “morally gray” character is a part of the problem when his personal morality should not have been the focal point of the story. their efforts to make him well-intentioned and noble-hearted to increase tragic stake in his suffering makes him a poor and warped mirror for the supposed anti-imperialist themes of the story. they can never deeply incise on his character because they’re too focused on trying to write fair, good man that they just CAN’T do anything other than beat around the bush of what having an imperialist ideology and being a leader of an imperial power really means. tell me god for those who praise the “realism” and “complexity” of this writing if there is someone or any colonial situation in which the telling of werlyt seems to ring true for. or if it’s just, even on soley an emotional level, mopey self-aggrandizing fiction about feeling really bad about something and being whipped about it but not really understanding, on both a meta and story level, why or how beyond your random-ass personal tragedy. and then still not really giving a shit about what the “other”/colonized people think, feel, or experience beyond what they can do to Make Your Story Sadder. the idea that even the aftermath has to revolve around gaius. the fact the game hounds you to turn the other cheek constantly, to “think again” when it comes to imperial leaders and the worth of their lives and their thoughts, instead of ever just letting you point blank shoot them or even put them to trial despite letting you do it for their mooks and underlings. look at me will. & if you want to say “it is just a fantasy game it should have no bearing on/influence from real life things” 👍 exit the conversation and go watch marvel movie man.

and tangentially related but thinking that if someone wrote a ton of story/lore for the game, then they can’t be critiqued. well join me in complainer heaven you have no idea how much ive gone on about writing tendencies that streak throughout the entire game that i dont like and now you’re giving me someone to blame (<- half joke hand job)

#part of the reason why i like sb is because i think its issues are issues that are just universal throughout much of the game’s writing Lol

[whovianwatchingstartrek]

A Whovian Watches Star Trek for the First Time: Part 068 - Parental Instincts

Star Trek: Enterprise - Season 3 Episode 17 - Hatchery

Enterprise is still on it's journey to Azati Prime, but on their way, they've discovered a crashed Xindi Insectoid ship, so a crew is sent down to investigate. All information about the Xindi will help with the mission, of course. Some corpses are taken to Phlox to Autopsy and, more importantly to the episode, the ship is carrying Dozens of Xindi Insectoid eggs. As the title implied, this is a hatchery ship.

One of the eggs, as a defence mechanism, sprays some sort of toxin at archer. Mostly harmless though. Phlox's autopsy of the insectoids reveals that these insectoids sacrificed their own oxygen to save their eggs, but now that system is failing too. The main conflict of the episode is over how much Responsibility Enterprise should have over the eggs' safety. A really interesting conflict

Archer wants to save the eggs both for moral reasons and because it could be an opportunity to change the Xindi's minds about humans. Trip, Mayweather and Malcolm however are more adamant to not repair the eggs' oxygen systems. They see it as a delay to their mission to earth, from this same species, which admittedly it is. Either way, Phlox estimates that the eggs will hatch sooner than later.

Archer starts being very overprotective over the eggs however, to the point where he starts using Enterprise's limited energy reserves to repair the Xindi ship. At this point, I started theorising that the Spray did more than just sting him. It appeared to have activated some sort of parental instincts in him, and later in the episode I'm shown to be right.

T'Pol decides not to follow the order to divert enterprise's power to the Hatchery. Archer relieves her as First Officer, which is very out of character for him.

Meanwhile Malcom and Hayes also get some time together, and find a weak spot in the Insectoid ship's armour. Now that they're no longer actively fighting eachother, their vibe together feels different. Something about Malcom's delivery on his "Nice work. [Awkward Pause] I apologise, I over reacted." felt like a bit more than a compliment and an apology, and their whole conversation for the rest of that just felt like something was going unsaid. But then I remembered it's 2004, so I shouldn't get my hopes up for a gay romance subplot. Oh well.

A xindi ship shows up, and opens fire on Enterprise. Malcolm does what he needs to, destroying the ship, but that results in Archer relieving him of his post too. Then Archer makes an extremely eratic decision to put a Xindi distress call at the ship in all frequencies, essentially putting a beacon on Enterprise's location

T'Pol, Trip and the rest of the crew realise that Archer is endangering the mission, and decide to order him to Sickbay. Of course that doesn't work, but luckily Phlox subtly manages to get a scan on Archer. Trip and Phlox then decide to launch a mutiny

This episode and it's conflict were really interesting, and I loved the effect that the Insectoid toxin had on Archer. The episode also kind of reduced the MACOs to faceless mooks who just follow orders, maybe seeing one or two of their perspectives or having some of them take part in the mutiny would have been better too, but episodes have time limits, so I get why they didn't. I loved watching the breakdown in Enterprise's command structure, and Archer's slow descent into obsession over the insectoid eggs was beautifully performed. I enjoyed this one!

#whovian watching star trek #star trek #star trek enterprise #star trek ent #star trek: enterprise #enterprise #ent

[paperanddice]

Individual clockwork beetles are more fancy accessories than weapons, intended to be companions to the wealthy. There are many designs of beetle, from incandescent ladybugs to majestic stag beetles, usually all averaging about the size of a house cat. Despite not being designed as weapons of war, they usually still have some defensive capabilities, letting them function as emergency protectors of their purchasers with razor sharp mandibles (or occasionally horns), and to facilitate this function they have small reservoirs built into them to allow them to carry venom. Many are unaware of this option, but those who do know usually surreptitiously purchase some venom in the case of emergency.

Rarely however, large numbers of these clockworks can go rogue. Sometimes this is by design, a creator building in some form of override switch or failsafe to take control of any of their beetles as needed. Other times it happens with a more careless creator who leaves bugs in the clockwork beetle's programming, causing them to go wild and bond with each other instead of their intended owner. In either case, a swarm of clockwork beetles has no proper goal or plan, simply flying about erratically and getting into conflicts with those who try and intercept it. Ideally, in such a situation the clockwork mechanisms running the swarm would wind down, but in the case of purposefully designed swarms (and some accidental ones) the beetles are capable of winding each other, prolonging the swarm indefinitely until either dismissed or destroyed.

Inspired by the Tome of Beasts 1. This post came out a week ago on my Patreon. If you want to get access to all my monster conversions early, as well as access to my premade adventures and other material I’m working on, consider backing me there!

Pathfinder 2e

Clockwork Beetle Creature -1 Uncommon Tiny Clockwork Construct Mindless Perception +4; low-light vision Skills Acrobatics +6, Stealth +6 Str -1, Dex +3, Con +0, Int -5, Wis +1, Cha -5 Wind Up 24 hours, DC 14 AC 14; Fort +5, Ref +6, Will +2 HP 6; Immunities death effects, disease, doomed, drained, fatigued, healing, mental, necromancy, nonlethal attacks, paralyzed, poison, sickened, unconscious; Weaknesses electricity 2, orichalcum 2 Speed 25 feet, fly 45 feet Melee mandibles +6 (finesse), Damage 1d6-1 piercing Poison The clockwork beetle has an internal reservoir where it can store a single dose of poison. The beetle can fill the reservoir from an open container using 3 actions. When it hits with a mandibles Strike, it can choose to inject the target with the poison, draining the reservoir.

Clockwork Beetle Swarm Creature 3 Rare Large Clockwork Construct Mindless Swarm Perception +8; low-light vision Skills Acrobatics +10, Stealth +10 Str -1, Dex +3, Con +1, Int -5, Wis +1, Cha -5 AC 18; Fort +10, Ref +10, Will +6 HP 33; Immunities bleed, death effects, disease, doomed, drained, fatigued, healing, mental, necromancy, nonlethal attacks, paralyzed, poisoned, precision, sickened, swarm mind, unconscious; Resistances bludgeoning 2, piercing 6, slashing 6; Weaknesses area damage 5, splash damage 5 Speed 25 feet, fly 45 feet Swarming Mandibles [one action] Each enemy in the swarm's space takes 2d8 piercing damage (DC 17 basic Reflex save). Creatures that fail this save are exposed to Giant Centipede Venom. Giant Centipede Venom (poison); Saving Throw DC 17 Fortitude; Maximum Duration 6 rounds; Stage 1 1d6 poison damage (1 round); Stage 2 1d8 poison damage and flat-footed (1 round); Stage 3 1d12 poison damage, clumsy 1, and flat-footed (1 round)

13th Age

Clockwork Beetle  0th level mook troop [construct]  Initiative: +6 Vulnerability: Lightning Poisoned Mandibles +5 vs. AC - 1 damage. Natural Even Hit: The target also takes 3 poison damage. Flight. Inorganic Immunity: The clockwork beetle is immune to effects. It can’t be dazed, weakened, confused, made vulnerable, affected by ongoing damage, etc. AC 16 PD 14 MD 10 HP 5 (mook) Mook: Kill one clockwork beetle mook for every 5 damage dealt to the mob.

Clockwork Beetle Swarm  3rd level wrecker [construct]  Initiative: +9 Vulnerability: Lightning Swarming Bites +8 vs. PD (all engaged enemies) - 5 damage. Natural Even Hit: The target also takes 3 poison damage. Flight. Inorganic Immunity: The clockwork beetle swarm is immune to effects. It can’t be dazed, weakened, confused, made vulnerable, affected by ongoing damage, etc. No Opportunities: The clockwork beetle swarm can’t make opportunity attacks, and enemies can’t make opportunity attacks against it. Swarming Resistance 16+: Each turn, the clockwork beetle swarm gains resist damage 16+ to all damage from attacks by enemies the swarm didn’t attack that turn. AC 18 PD 17 MD 12 HP 48

#pathfinder 2e #13th age #homebrew #my homebrew #monster #construct #pathfinder level -1 #pathfinder level 3 #13th age level 0 #13th age level 3 #long post #tome of beasts

[dragonflight203]

Edit: Fixed a few word choices, added a few missing words.

Mass Effect 1 replay. Feros, part two. This is a long mission:

Refugee Camp

-The refugee camp is supposed to be hidden, but there's a lamp conveniently lighting up the ramp.

-When introducing Shepard to Jeong, the Alliance option is neutral and the words are the same the paragon choice.

-Jeong is very firm about not wanting his band to join the Zhu’s hope. Someone doesn’t want to join the Thorian thralls.

-Jeong is such a company man that’s it’s hilarious. Under attack by geth, and the priority is still to protect the company. Keep firing to a minimum! ExoGeni is not responsible if you sustain injuries on their priority! He gave me an ad read when I asked about the company.

-The security is very suspicious. They talk like evil mooks out of a kids show. What do they mean the colonists won’t remember the planet exists in a few weeks? Is that line left over from a scrapped plot point?

-These refugees are not as hard core as Zhu’s hope. They’re very willing to go back to Earth

-No red herrings about artifacts. They’re blunt that there aren’t any and are clueless about why the geth are here.

HQ

-What exactly is the chatter on the second skyway? Sounds like there were looters and the geth caught them. Presumably those are the two human corpses found under the bridge.

-Why is there a geth armature sleeping behind the door that needs to be decrypted? It doesn’t respond until it’s attacked.

-Lizbeth is the first to mention the Thorian, and even suggests the geth are after it. Nothing about why at this point, though – it’s just a plant

-Renegade Shepard is laser focused on the geth in every conversation. Very little interest in anything else.

-Ah, more varren. So they show up at least twice in ME1

-There are yellow tarps(?) all over this planet. What are they, exactly? Prothean ruins or ExoGeni rehabilitation?

-The bit between the Krogan Commander and the VI is very well done. Humorous, natural, and a good lead into learning more about the Thorian

-Shepard outright calls the colonists slaves. ExoGeni prefers the politer “thralls”

-Hmm. ExoGeni doesn’t know if the Thorian is intelligent or not. How did Saren learn about it?

-So the Thorian covers much of surface of lower Feros. It’s been around since before the Protheans. Is that why the surface is covered in debris, and the towers are so tall? To avoid the Thorian? But the colony is in a skyscraper… Well, plants will grow anywhere if the conditions are appropriate

-Do we actually kill the Thorian, or just a part of it? Or just one member of the species? It’s a diffused creature with multiple nerve bundles. It’s rare (unheard of?) for there to be just one of a species. Could that be related to why the colonists continue to experience side effects in ME2 and ME3?

-Interesting that enthralling is done as a defense measure, not aggression. If the geth hadn’t come after it, would the Thorian have left the colonists alone?

-ExoGeni let the infection spread for about a month. When did the merchant land? If he landed during that month, that feels like the potential for a diplomatic incident – you deliberately infected a member of the Salarian Union with a parasite(?)

-For once, Tali and Liara agree!

Tali: Geth are thorough. They’ll have killed everyone

Liara: This is a place of learning and knowledge. It shouldn’t be a slaughterhouse

-And here are the Reaper claws, with the orb and the geth worshiping it. Still want an explanation for this.

Is the orb related to the orbs the Leviathans use to brainwash people? If so, is it influencing the geth somehow?

-Tali: Geth blur the line between organic and synthetic life. It’s natural to assume they seek understanding from a higher power.

I don’t quite see how that’s a natural assumption, but it’s certainly thought provoking. Tali considers geth being religious natural… A common interpretation I see is that AI wouldn’t be religious, because it would know its creators. Geth do know their creators, and have a troubled relationship with them, but desire a better one. Someone could probably write a thesis on how that relates to religion.

-The standard corpse starts showing up here and will be scattered around the rest of hq.

-Zhu’s hope was infected for about a month, and Cerberus is already salivating at the chance to study Thorian creepers. How did they even find out about them so fast?

-In one of the entries about Cerberus, a doctor mentions that they’re working on an antidote. To what? The Thorian spores, I presume. Again, that seems fast.

-Sovereign has a claw cut off by a shuttle bay door. How embarrassing is that? An eon old creature that has genocided multiple species, and it loses a claw to a door that closes really fast. No wonder he’s so aloof on Virmire – must be struggling to regain a bit of pride.

-And that claw is just abandoned… You just know someone grabbed it to study it. And since that’s A REAPER, someone – likely multiple someones – got indoctrinated.

This is what makes Reapers so damn frustrating: Even when they’re dead, they’re still dangerous.

Edit: I've been corrected, the claw was from a regular geth ship. I maintain it's still embarrassing though.

-And Lizbeth tells us that the colonists covered the way to the Thorian with the freighter. Yep, that’s the “heart of the colony” they kept saying needed to be protected.

-How did Lizbeth get out of the one way drop your companions warn you about? Did she take the long way out and risk meeting geth or perform the climb that eluded Shepard?

Refugee Camp Part 2

-Jeong was hoping the geth would kill Shepard. Love you too, buddy.

-Even the basic paragon option is to kill Jeong. Someone on the dev team was working through a lot of frustration and using Jeong to vent.

-If you go blue paragon, you appeal to him as a corporate man. That will never not be funny. Appeal to his better nature? No! All hail to ExoGeni!

And he still wants to kill the colonists because they’ll make the company look bad. This man.

-If you pick an option on the right, you’re given the Thorian grenades. If you go blue paragon, you have to follow up with Juliana to get the grenades. Why is it like that?

-Renegade Shepard is funny. They are determined to kill the colonists. Even if you’re outright handed the Thorian grenades, you can still insist on killing them.

-On both Feros and Noveria, security are very willing to kill innocent civilians that they’re supposedly there to protect.

I’ve heard it said that ME2 takes a grittier look at the galaxy than ME1, but I think that ignores much of ME1’s implicit criticisms. ME1 isn’t as in your face as ME2, but it comes down harshly on various institutions and especially corporations. There’s corruption everywhere, no institution is composed solely of noble people, and a lot of innocent people get hurt for no good reason.

-The refugees are all very chill that Jeong wanted to kill them minutes ago. At least security acknowledges that shit almost went down.

Zhu’s Hope

-Why do thralls look human, but have only four fingers? Are they based on a species in one of the former cycles?

-Also: Yet another mini cutscene intro for a new enemy. Feros is full of them.

-Renegade Shepard is still hilarious. We’re killing the colonists. Doesn’t matter that we have options, we’re killing them.

And Liara is… totally chill. Shame, but if Shepard says they need to die then so be it

-Nice of the game to make knocked out colonists disappear so they can’t get caught in crossfire

-Fai Dan’s scene is very well done and moving. It also lays the ground work for Saren breaking free of indoctrination at the Citadel, if Shepard plays their card right.

Take note, ME3 – THIS is how you make the ending of a game feel natural, rather than like it comes out of nowhere. You have to build up to it!

-I will point out, however, that I have remaining grenades. Fai Dan’s death was not necessary

Thorian

-Tali’s commentary is if the Thorian is a plant or animal or in between them. This is very similar to what she said earlier about the geth blurring the line between organic and synthetic life

-What is with Asari and being mind controlled in ME1? Shiala on Feros by the Thorian, dying commando on Noveria by the Rachni queen, and of course Benezia is indoctrinated.

ME1 keeps telling us that Asari are wise and powerful, but then continually shows that everyone mind controls them. This is an issue with show vs. tell.

-If you go renegade, you lose all the background information and go straight to killing the Thorian

-So we learn later that the Thorian traded the cipher to Saren for Shiala. However, here it states that “cold ones” (geth) started to kill flesh “fairly given” – the colonists? - and that’s why it won’t trust Shepard.

It certainly sounds like part of the bargain (or one of the bargains – the Thorian said trades, plural, were made) was the colonists to the Thorians.

-Also, “the flesh” will tend the next cycle. Certainly seems to imply that the Thorian reproduces

-How long is the Thorian’s Long Cycle? Is it the same as the Reaper’s cycles?

-The structure around the Thorian is built, not natural. An old Prothean structure the Thorian was born into or moved into? A structure it had thralls build for it a long time ago?

Shiala

-Shiala doesn’t seem aware that Sovereign is alive. She knows that it’s the ship that indoctrinates people, but she blames Saren for the indoctrination. She seems to believe that Saren controls Sovereign

-Again, we hear about how matriarchs are some of the most intelligent and powerful beings in the galaxy, while discussing a matriarch that has been brainwashed.

The game really needed an established asari that wasn’t brainwashed to sell the asari better. Liara’s well loved, but she’s very young and impressionable in this game and that does not help counter how malleable asari are in ME1.

-Shiala says she’s free of Saren and the Thorian. Seems to believe she’s free of indoctrination… side effect of Thorian?

In ME3 she says she’s still indoctrinated, but can resist it. She credits it to her bond with the colony, but the cynist in me is more inclined to believe it’s a side effect of the Thorian spores. No one else can resist indoctrination for a prolonged period, no matter how emotionally attached they are to others.

-If you go renegade with Shiala, you outright execute her. ME1 renegade can be very dark.

-Sovereign’s defenses are virtually impenetrable… except to automatic doors, apparently. He must be so embarrassed.

Edit: Still not the victim of the door. I'd like to give it a shot, though.

-You’d think Liara would have something to say when Shiala discusses Benezia, but no.

-If you end the dialogue neutrally, Shepard just leaves and Shiala stays with the colonists. Paragon or Renegade, you choose to kill her or not.

Zhu’s Hope

-Hana wants to go back to Earth. Given the side effects of the Thorian, what happens with her in ME2 and ME3?

-Slavery is an odd theme in ME1. Standard slavery, the Thorian, indoctrination… The game keeps touching on it and the impact it has on people, but it doesn’t actually dig into it very deep. It’s odd that it keeps bringing it up in so many different contexts but only engages with it lightly.

#mass effect #mass effect 1 #mass effect 1 replay