#my thoughts are mostly negative but there Is some good in this movie. whatever | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

a-small-batch-of-dragons · 5 days

Text

You're Special to Me

Can you write a fic where Remus keeps on comparing himself to roman (negatively) and the other sides also doing it, albeit unknowingly. It’s alright if you can’t, no pressure! – anon

Read on Ao3

Warnings: self-esteem issues, self-doubt, remus has some abandonment issues

Pairings: platonic creativitwins

Word Count: 3761

The others have a nasty habit of comparing Roman and Remus. It starts to get grating after a while. Good thing Roman's always thought his brother was the best.

“Remus?”

Remus pokes his head out from under the whale carcass, adjusting the brim of his rain jacket to see Logan wading dubiously through the trail of viscera from here to the door. “Oh, hey, Pocket Protector, whattya need?”

“We had a brainstorm scheduled to start five minutes ago.”

“Oh, yeah, I was wondering when you were gonna show up.”

“Yes, so if you wouldn’t mind—wait, ‘show up?’”

He tosses a chunk into the piranha tank and the water froths up. “Yeah. You asked to have a brainstorm with me, so I was waiting for you.”

“Ah, I see. Typically brainstorms are held in the study or the living room.”

“Yeah, Ro’s are.”

Logan blinks. “Hm?”

“ Roman’s brainstorms with you are in the living room or the study or whatever. That’s ‘cause he can do the whole write-stuff-down-talk-it-out thing. I gotta be doing something.”

Logan dodges a spray of…something Remus isn’t going to name but rhymes with a really frizzy hairstyle, clutching his notebook to his chest. “Would you opposed to having a brainstorm in one of those locations if you bring something to do?”

“Peachy keen, Lolo, but there’re rules about me bringing my projects to places.”

“That is true,” he mutters under his breath, “is—so I take it you would prefer to have the brainstorm here as you…work?”

“Yep.” When Logan doesn’t say anything for a moment, Remus lowers his bone saw and glances over at him. “Is…is that okay?”

“Well, I’m going to have to change my state of dress, and take audio recordings that I’ll have to transcribe later, but yes, I believe that is acceptable. You’ll have to give me a moment to change.”

“Yeah, sure, go ahead.”

Logan nods and weaves his way carefully around the mounds of blubber starting to grow around Remus’s work station. Remus watches him go, a chunk falling slowly off of his shoulder, before he looks back at the carcass. He still has a few hours of work to properly strip it to where it’s usable, and this kind of work is nice for brainstorming ‘cause it’s mostly rote at this point, but there’s a sudden greyness to everything. Like if he raised his tools and tried to keep going the whale might turn to paper in front of him.

He sits there amidst his carnage, the faint sound of the piranhas nibbling away in the sloshing water behind him. He looks down at his hands, at the calluses and old scars. The bone saw lies limply across his knee.

Logan didn’t seem angry that he’d misunderstood what he wanted, but he did seem disappointed. Like he really wanted Remus to not be doing this and come to the study to do the brainstorm. Like Roman. But Roman’s process wasn’t Remus’s process and Logan had asked specifically to brainstorm with Remus.

The familiar sound of rain boots squishing through viscera brings him back, glancing over to see Logan wading through toward him with a recorder in one hand and an umbrella in the other.

“Whoa, cool jacket.”

“Thank you, I had Virgil help me design it after the one you made for him.” Logan brandishes the recorder and eyes the whale corpse. “Well, shall we get to it?”

“I’ve already got a few ideas.”

Remus bounces up and down on the balls of his feet, barely resisting the urge to flap his hands. This is it! He’s finally been allowed to join in on the communal baking day where everyone gets to make their own dessert for movie night. He stayed up late last night thinking of all the delicious things they could make and finally, finally got his list down to just five options. He’s really leaning toward the strawberry fruit tart but the lemon squares look so good but the pumpkin spice cookies would be so much fun to decorate—

Something shoves him gently into the wall and he grins as Roman ruffles his hair a little too hard.

“Roro!”

“Hey, Re, you look excited.” Roman chuckles as Remus chews excitedly on his costume collar. “You ready?”

“I’ve been waiting all day for this!”

“Roman? Is Remus there?”

“He’s all yours, Padre.” Roman winks and ruffles his hair again. “Go get ‘em.”

Remus bounds into the kitchen, startling Patton a little as he sets something on the counter. He reaches into his pocket for the piece of paper—he even wrote it on paper this time to make it easier—and opens his mouth to explain his options, when—

“Good, I wondered where you were. Could you go ahead and measure the white sugar out for me?”

Remus pauses. Patton looks at him expectantly, holding out the cup. He takes it slowly, glancing at the containers and bowls already amassed on the counter. “Uh—what?”

“The white sugar. Granulated sugar, if you’d prefer. It’s in this one over here—“ he indicates a white paper bag— “and it just goes in that bowl there.”

A bit of grey flickers across his vision. “But we haven’t chosen what we’re making yet.”

“Oh, sorry, I didn’t tell you. We’re just gonna be making chocolate chip cookies.”

He frowns. “Ro said we get to choose what we make.”

Patton’s smile twitches a bit. “Oh, I just figured it would be—since we always have chocolate chip and it’s your first time—the others have already made their choices, they did it yesterday—“

Patton keeps talking as the list in his hand slowly greys out. They did it…yesterday? And didn’t tell Remus? But Ro said that he could pick…

“…so I figured this would be the easiest.” Patton’s still talking. “But if you really, really want to make something else, then—“

“No,” he grits out, shoving the list in his pocket and going over to the sugar, “I love chocolate chip cookies.”

“Oh, good. I’m glad, I love them too! Yeah, so that just goes in there.”

As they bake, or as Patton tells Remus what to do and watches him carefully as he does it, he can’t help thinking that this isn’t at all what Roman said it was like and how he doesn’t…really want to do it ever again. But at least he can eat as much of the cookie dough as he wants while Patton isn’t looking.

“…hey, Snakey?”

Janus looks up from his book with the patented what-did-you-do-how-much-of-your-mess-am-I-going-to-have-to-clean-up expression and Remus squirms under it. He raises an eyebrow.

“Would you teach me how to dance?”

The expression morphs into one of surprise in an instant. He sets down his book. “Certainly, I can teach you. What for?”

”There’s a, uh, thing in the Imagination next month that me and Ro are putting on and we, uh, part of it’s a ball thing.”

“Mm. Will the rest of us be invited?”

“…I think so? I dunno, I need to talk to Ro. We, uh, no one else knows about it yet.”

“Ooh, a secret, I do love those.”

“Are you gonna help me or not?”

Janus chuckles, getting to his feet and holding out a hand. Remus takes it and blinks as Janus takes them to a room in the Imagination he’s never seen before. Which in and of itself isn’t all that weird, because there are plenty of things that Ro makes that he never sees, but this one feels…familiar, almost. Like he’s seen it in a dream or something and only just now actually being able to picture it clearly.

At the very back of the theater, hidden in the shadows, some of the red seats look a little faded.

“Alright,” Janus says, “we’re going to learn a very simple waltz.”

“Okay. What do I do?”

“Well, you’re part of Thomas, and Thomas knows how to do a box step, which means most of it is already in there somewhere.” Janus taps the side of his head. “So, put your arms around me—no, no! Remus, put me down.”

“You said put my arms around you.”

“Not like that, like this.” Janus takes one of his hands and puts it on his waist, holding the other one out to the side. “Don’t—we’re not about to charge someone, Remus, relax.”

He goes all noodley and Janus sighs, making him stand back up with his arms not held out like he’s brandishing a weapon. Once they’re standing in a way that he approves of, he starts explaining how the steps work.

“Can you show me your box step?”

“While I’m holding you?”

“Good point.” Janus takes three very large steps backward and folds his arms. “Go ahead.”

Remus does his box step. Janus looks at him with his head tilted and sighs again. Every time he sighs a few more seats get a little greyer.

“I suppose it could be worse. Now, here’s what I’d like you to do: hold onto me, yes, like that, and do your box step. I am going to do an opposite box step and we are going to just try that, okay?”

Remus nods, looking down to make sure he doesn’t step on Janus, and starts his box. Janus moves back but he’s moving in a way that makes Remus have to let go.

“Hold onto me.”

“But you moved.”

“We’re dancing, Remus, we’re going to move.”

“But you—okay.”

Despite Janus’s patience—and fond exasperation that sometimes isn’t quite as fond—Remus can’t help but get hot behind the ears at how his body just doesn’t seem to want to do any of this. But every time they turn to face the back of the curtain, he sees memories of Roman dancing effortlessly in the big palace ballroom and he grits his teeth.

The curtains have gone grey by the time Janus calls an end to the misery of a lesson.

“C’mon, Emo, you can do it…” Virgil’s next inhale is almost a whine. “Shh, shh, it’s…it’s okay, just…just try and breathe.”

“It’s not working.”

“That’s ‘cause you’re panicking—“

“I know I’m panicking! Knowing I’m panicking doesn’t help!”

Remus winces as Virgil almost shoves him away, He goes, because when someone’s having a panic attack and they let you know you’re making it worse, then you leave. But he can’t pull away too much because Virgil is hurting himself and that’s why he got summoned in the first place.

“Little spider,” he tries again, and Virgil lets him shift a little closer, “I’m…I don’t know what to do.”

Not the thing to say when someone’s having a panic attack. Virgil sobs again, curling up even tighter, beginning to make small hitching noises whenever he can draw breath.

“Remus? Virgil? What’s—oh. Oh, no.”

”Ro?”

Roman hurries toward them, falling to his knees next to the shaking pile of Virgil, immediately pressing a kiss to his head and going to wrap his arms around him.

“Wait, he doesn’t want to be…” Remus trails off as Virgil immediately clings to Roman, latching on like a limpet and refusing to let go.

“Hey, shh, it’s okay, Stormcloud, I’m right here. Shh, shh, shh, you’re alright, you’re safe, nothing’s gonna hurt you right now.”

It’s not fair of him to be jealous when Roman gets Virgil to calm down almost right away. It’s not fair of him to be resentful that Roman’s who Virgil wants when he’s upset. It’s not fair to be upset or offended by what someone needs to come out of having a panic attack. That’s not cool, it’s not right, it’s not fair to Virgil or Roman or himself.

But Remus watches Roman cuddle Virgil and press gentle kisses to his forehead, and he looks down at his own hands that still have some Kraken slime on them from when he got summoned, and he sinks out before Virgil’s feeling all the way better.

He hates himself a little more for it, but not as much as he hates himself for not being the person that Virgil wanted.

It would be easier if Roman were shitty about it.

If he made a point to hold it over Remus’s head, or if he tried to help out of pity or pushed the others into including Remus when it was obvious that no one really wanted to, it would be better. But no, Ro doesn’t even seem to know it’s happening. Which is shitty in and of itself, but the others don’t even realize they’re doing it sometimes and it’s never where Roman is anywhere within earshot. It’s just glaringly fucking obvious that Remus is not Roman and everyone else fucking knows it.

It would be better if they weren’t both Creativity. It would be better if Roman and him weren’t constantly lumped together. It would be better if he was actually capable of truly hating Roman.

But he can’t. Because Roman’s his brother and he loves him more than he hates himself.

He doesn’t hate himself, not really. He loves his energy, loves his drive, loves his willingness to do whatever, explore whatever, be whatever, he wouldn’t want to be like anyone else because then who would be him? But he hates the way that the version of himself he wants to be is the exact fucking opposite of everything he has to be in order to not be always a little bit worse than Roman.

Even his fucking Kraken prefers Roman.

He’d shown up to Ollie’s pond with his favorite chum and the ball with the holes big enough for his arms so they could play catch, but Ollie had sniffed around and seen that there was only one of them—and it wasn’t Roman, and he’d drifted off into the corner of the pond to sulk. No amount of coaxing or bribing had been able to make the Kraken do anything more than half-heartedly chuck the ball not even halfway across the pond.

Remus left before he started crying and went to the dark underwater sea cave deep underneath the black tower’s subbasement. He shifted enough so he could breathe underwater and curled up in the thick kelp forest where no one would be able to find him unless they poked around with a flashlight. The kelp dissipated the sound waves of his sobs, a tentacle in his mouth to muffle them even further. Along the bottom of the cave, tiny tetra fish nibbled at his scales.

He’d stayed there for at least an hour before he realized that no one would come to look for him, so he’s been drifting ever since. Every so often the tears return, the kelp absorbing them as readily as ever, at least until they taper off again and he just floats there, in the water while the fish nibble the dead skin away from his scales. There was something comforting about the greyness of the water, how smooth and quiet it was, how easy it was to just look at the shape of the kelp and the movement of the fish and just drift…alone.

Yeah, it’d be much easier if Roman was shitty about it. But he isn’t, and that’s just another way that he’s better than Remus.

+1.

Remus doesn’t even have time to lie down and close his eyes before someone’s grabbing him around the waist and sinking him into the Imagination. They crash into a pile of pillows and he gets a mouthful of one, spluttering.

” Ro!”

”Hey, you always do it to me! Payback time!” He barely gets himself free before Roman’s throwing a pillow at him. “Now arm yourself!”

“What—“ he dodges Roman’s swing— “hey!”

“No talking, only pillow fighting!”

Remus manages to get the big green pillow up in front of his face just as Roman launches himself off another pile and come barreling down at him. He rolls onto his side and swats Roman across the face. Roman yelps and laughs and swats him back.

“You’re not winning this time!”

“I didn’t win last time! I— ack!”

“C’mon, Re, I know you can do better than that!”

“Oh, it’s on.”

The two of them turn the pillow piles into a war zone, launching projectiles and themselves from various places until Roman gets Remus’s arms pinned and he can bap him lightly in the face over and over and over.

“ Ack—ppth—Ro!”

“Do you yield?”

“Yeah, yeah, you— pffthp— I fucking yield.”

Roman chuckles and presses a big smacking kiss to Remus’s cheek, rolling off of him and sprawling out across the pillow carnage with a contented sigh. Remus winces, pulling himself into a sitting position, grabbing one of the plushier pillows to hold.

They’re in one of the higher tree canopy tents, he realizes as he takes in their surroundings without the distraction of plush warfare. Overlooking the massive waterfalls with the help of the full moon and the soft glow of the amber lanterns overhead, he can spot a few of the others in trees surrounding the falls as the rush and roar of the water fades soothingly into the background. The soft sweet smell of fresh water wafts upwards, mixing with the cool night air. He curls up a little more, hugging the pillow, watching the water rush by.

“So,” Roman grunts as he sits up a few moments later, “are you gonna tell me what’s wrong?”

“What? Nothing’s wrong.”

“Mhm.” Something pokes his side and Remus yelps. “You sure?”

“Yes! Yes, I’m sure, I— eep!”

”You really sure?” Fingers keep poking and kneading his sides and trying to get under the pillow. “You really, really sure nothing’s wrong?”

“I said no!”

He moves without thinking. One second Roman’s sitting next to him and the next he’s sprawled near the other side of the tent. A horrible itchy guilty mess starts building in the back of Remus’s throat and he looks away before he can watch the shutter fall over Roman’s face.

Because that’s why Roman did all this, isn’t it? He noticed Remus was upset and because he’s a good brother, he took him to their favorite sleeping spot and had a pillow fight with him and asked him if he was okay. Because Remus isn’t like Roman and he didn’t appreciate any of it and then he just shoved Roman away when all he was doing was trying to help and he really is just the worst brother ever, isn’t he?

”I could’ve done that better,” he hears softly before the gentlest arms wrap around his shoulders and there’s a warm chin on his left one, “I knew better, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to make it worse.”

“You’re fine.”

“You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to, Re, I just—I’m worried about you.”

“…you are?”

“Yeah. You’ve been—you’ve been kinda grey lately, you know? I’ve tried asking the others if they know what’s been going on, but they don’t—whoa, hey, hey,” Roman whispers when Remus starts to sniffle, “hey, c’mere, let me cuddle you, hey, talk to me, what’s going on?”

“‘M sorry, it’s not your fault, promise—“

“Hey, hey, uh-uh, none of that, you’re okay.” Roman pulls him into a weird pretzel ball of limbs and hooks his chin over his shoulder. “Does it have something to do with the others?”

“…it’s not their fault either.”

“Now I think we both know that might not be entirely true.”

“‘S stupid.”

“It’s making you upset, Re, it’s not stupid.”

“But it’s true!”

“What’s true?”

“You’re—you’re better than m-me.”

Roman goes very still for a second, then he pulls back and cups Remus’s face in his hands. “What the hell do you mean, ‘I’m better than you?’”

And just like that, the whole sorry story comes driveling out of him. About how Logan didn’t really want to do the brainstorm, about how Patton didn’t let him pick what he wanted to bake, about how he couldn’t comfort Virgil properly, about how hard trying to learn how to dance was, even how Ollie didn’t want to play with him. And Roman looks at him and his face falls and then he’s shaking his head and squishing Remus’s cheeks a little.

“You’re not worse than I am and I’m not better than you. We’re different, and that’s fine and good. Who gives a shit if Logan got a bit messy, you’re the one who can multitask way better than anyone else here. You have the discipline to actually train with all of your weapons and you can fight with all of them. And who the hell does Patton think he is that he can regiment who can bake what? I’ll bake with you next time and we can make whatever the hell you want. And as for Virgil—you know he only started coming to me because he missed you, right? I’m serious,” he continues when Remus’s eyes almost bug out of his head, “he said that your energy was really comforting when he was growing up and I have a similar one so he started coming to me. Don’t tell him I told you that, though.”

“I won’t,” he mumbles, but he’s still too caught up on everything else.

“I don’t give a shit what they all think, you hear me? I think you’re incredible and you’re my brother. I’m the only one allowed to start our stupid sibling rivalry shit.”

”What about me?”

“Fine, you can start it too. But only us, okay?”

Remus sniffles. “But then why didn’t Ollie want to play with me?”

“Because you don’t sneak him treats when you play Toss.”

”Wait, you what?”

“Uh, I mean—“

Remus grabs a pillow and thwacks Roman over the head with it. Roman bursts out laughing and half hugs, half tackles Remus to the ground.

“You’re fucking great all on your own, Re, you don’t need anyone else’s approval.” He leans up a bit. “But you always have mine, okay? I’m always gonna think you’re the greatest.”

“Even when I put slime in your bed?”

“I’ll get you back by putting dragon splines in yours.”

“You better not.”

“Don’t put slime in my bed, then.”

Remus gives another sniffly little laugh and Roman ruffles his hair. They both lie down to look at the waterfall, arms wrapped around each other.

“…hey Ro?”

“Mhm?”

“You’re the best brother ever.”

“No,” Roman says, booping Remus’s nose, “ you are.”

General Taglist: @frxgprince@potereregina@gattonero17@iamhereforthegayshit@thefingergunsgirl@awkwardandanxiousfander@creative-lampd-liberties@djpurple3@winterswrandomness@sanders-sides-uncorrect-quotes@iminyourfandom@bullet-tothefeels@full-of-roman-angst-trash @ask-elsalvador @ramdomthingsfrommymind@demoniccheese83@pattonsandershugs @el-does-photography @princeanxious@firefinch-ember@fandomssaremysoul@im-an-anxious-wreck@crazy-multifandomfangirl @punk-academian-witch@enby-ralsei@unicornssunflowersandstuff@wildhorsewolf @thetruthaboutthesun @stubbornness-and-spite @princedarkandstormv @your-local-fookin-deadmeme @angels-and-dreams@averykedavra @a-ghostlight-for-roman @treasurechestininterweb @cricketanne @queerly-fluid-fan @compactdiscdraws@cecil-but-gayer@i-am-overly-complicated@annytheseal@alias290@tranquil-space-ninja @arxticandy @mychemically-imbalanced-romance@whyiask@crows-ace @emilythezeldafan@frida0043 @ieatspinalcords @snowyfires@cyanide-violence@oonagh2@xxpanic-at-the-everywherexx@rabbitsartcorner @percy-07734@triflingassailantofmyemotions @virgil-sanders-the-gay-emo@cerulean-watermelon@puffed-up-bees@meltheromanstan@joyrose-fandomer@insanitori@mavenmush@justablah65@10paradox10@uhhh-hi-there-i-am-nervous@cutebisexualmess@bella-bugatti-frogetti-baguetti@ultrageekygirl

#sanders sides #dragonbabbles #fic #roman sanders #remus sanders #sympathetic remus #deceit sanders #sympathetic deceit #janus sanders #patton sanders #logan sanders #virgil sanders

37 notes · View notes

randomblack-girl · 2 years

Text

Astro notes 🧜🏾‍♀️

I noticed Saturn in the 9th house might show signs of religious issues like maybe religious beliefs were pushed onto them when they were young and this made them dislike religion or feel uncomfortable with it. I have this placement and I hate when people start talking to me about religion. Especially to fix my problems like girl God isn't gonna fix my crippling depression...enough

This could also show signs of going to college late or not wanting to. Maybe being conservative? But I haven't seen that, quite the opposite surprisingly.

Jupiter in the first house come off as nerdy or like they know a lot or very ditzy maybe both.

I've noticed sag risings, degrees, or jupiter rising have eye problems.

Saturn in the 6th house like to go on diets or they just do for some reason. And they stick to it they take their health seriously probably work out often too.

Pisces venus/5th house love anything with romance, fantasy, magic and spiritual stuff like Crystals. Here's some recommendations for yall 😍

Caraval by Stephanie Garber I love this book SO MUCH just read all 3 books and her other series once upon a broken heart eats too

Idc imma put it here...The Selection series and I don't wanna hear no slander 🙅🏾‍♀️

Now you see me- the movie I just watched it and omg why is it so good !?

I think the 5th house talks about music taste along with venus. My sister has a sag venus and listens to music in Spanish she also has Uranus in her 5th house and listens to pop. And I'd say music that isn't mainstream she loves Rina Sawayama and Rosalia.

I have pisces venus in my 5th house and I listen to mostly pop-indie music. I'm a pop and rnb girlie. I don't listen to mainstream music really and I kinda write mainstream artists off sometimes. My favorite artists are probably tyler the creator and willow. I also don't really "stan" anyone I really just listen to whatever is good. I rarely stick to an artist or have a favorite. I listen to one or two songs by one artist usually then move on its rare for me to like most of their music. I noticed something similar with my sister.

I have lilith in the 11th house and tell me why damn near my whole grade hated me 😻🤭. It was mostly guys too and I also experienced cyber bullying.

Lilith in the 6th house might show issues with their health or body. I knew someone who has this placement and they have diabetes. But it could just mean being insecure about their body.

Lilith in the 11th house are the ones sending and getting n*des too like unsolicited pictures or sexual comments. Maybe they do s*x work online or thought of it. Anything negative or sexual that includes the internet. Omg this placement reminds me of Kat from Euphoria!! Damn no wonder I related to her 💀

Chiron in the 9th house might show religious trauma. This is the placement for people who grew up in the black church...iykyk.

Venus in the 2nd house have nice lips like plump and little with a prominent cupids bow. My sister has this placement and she has such cute lips!

Capricorn rising and Saturn aspects to the asc tend to be skinny the type to eat whatever and never gain weight. It could be an insecurity I have Saturn square my asc and I've always been insecure about being skinny. I've also noticed they can be tall or look tall. Basically the tall and lanky type.

8th house neptune/pisces idk but something with drugs. May become addicted to substances, die from them, die in mysterious ways.

I knew someone with their sun in the 12th house and they talked about not knowing themself and being a different person to fit in.

Gemini moons love to read but they might struggle to actually read because of their other interests.

Moon in the 8th house might be like their mom. They might look like their mom or just be similar. Just a theory but maybe it would be like that with other planets like sun in the 8th house might be like the father, venus might be like their partner, mercury like their sibling. But I'm not sure.

Leo, 5th house placements, or sun dominant might love yellow, gold, and stuff with the sun. I'm sun dominant and love gold and sun jewelry I kinda refuse to wear silver unless I have to 🤭.

Moon people might love silver I know a guy who had moon in his first house who loved silver.

Capricorn rising/Saturn rising might have something with their bones. I know a guy who is cancer rising with Saturn in his first house who talked about getting silver grills. He also had pointy knees 😭 and his teeth were sharp, fang like? And he talked about hating them. He was also tall (he was so fine chile 😩) but we must stay focused!

Gemini men will tell you anything chile...I was dating (this was middle school so I don't really claim him but anyway) this guy with a gemini venus. He told me he was into black girls (whole time he's racist) and ended up cheating on me with a white girl 😭. Now again this was middle school so take it with a grain of salt ig.

Idc what planets but having a lot of planets in the 4th house is usually not a good thing 😬. Most people with this I've noticed had a traumatic childhood.

#astro observations #zodiac signs #saturn placements #jupiter in the first house #4th house #astrology #Capricorn #leo #5th house #chiron #Lilith

1K notes · View notes

tocomplainfriend · 3 months

Note

Responding to your post about fiction affecting reality: very well-written post and that’s something I agree with wholeheartedly!

Full disclosure: I am a Vivz supporter and don’t really interact with the critique community because of negative past experience (hence the anon), but I really liked your post as it was well-researched and brought up a lot of points that I did agree on. Mostly that, as you evidenced, “it’s just fiction” isn’t a great argument for poorly portraying a serious concept when there can be tangible consequences for that portrayal. And you gave some really striking examples.

In terms of Hazbin, it is not that I believe that Val’s portrayal as an abuser (and consequently Angel’s as a victim) lacks any impact, but instead that it adds a positive one. This isn’t something I’ve researched so the evidence I have of this is personal experience, but as you said in your post that media can affect real life I felt inspired to add to that conversation with how it personally affected me.

So I was aware rationally that a common result of abuse/SA is hypersexuality, like I’d seen that on psychology blogs and such but never really understood it. I’m ashamed to say I thought it was a little weird and very rare. Hazbin was what finally challenged that notion with me. Being able to see how abuse looks and attribute those events to Angel’s actions step-by-step made something click in my head. I even remember that shortly after seeing that episode, I apologized to one of my friends (a survivor themselves) over some judgmental comments I’d recently made over hypersexuality. Said friend also watched Hazbin with me and it’s the reason they talk more openly to me now and we’re a lot closer. Val’s “stupid” behavior in the show and mentioned in Vivz’s comments did not lessen the impact that episode had on me, or make it unbelievable to me that Val could be manipulative. If anything I understand more now that abusers don’t always appear as psychopathic masterminds. And I know my friend finds comments like the Mean Girls one funny and they tell me it’s empowering to make fun of Val’s incompetence.

That’s not the only positive influence Hazbin’s had on me, but the most relevant to your post, I believe. It’s the reason I’m often a skeptic on most criticisms, because my lived experience tends to go against them. You said the negative impact of Val was that people are drawing fetish art of him, but the only time I ever see that art is within critic’s posts. It never shows up in my regular feed, so it looks to me like he’s equally as fetishized as every other character; the unfortunate inevitability of the internet. I can’t say I’ve seen anyone post about stories like mine about learning to understand survivors, but I have heard positive stories from survivors themselves in person and online which lead me to believe that the positive impact outweighs the negative.

Fiction has real impact, very true. But consider that might be a good thing in this case.

Thanks for being respectful!

TW: Rape, SA

I'm a victim of SA myself and that's why I wrote all of this post. If you got something positive out of this piece of media, that's great. Same with victims that saw potion and were okay with it- that valid as much as the people that didn't like it at all. I recommend watching many others shows yourself (or movies, books, whatever) will help you out with sorts of topics in bigger ways. I understand you feel like you got something good out if (and I'm glad) but I do need to say, this is minimal in comparison to other media you could consume regarding the topic!

I personally suffer with Hypersexuality, and the treatment in the show (and merch and otherwise) I found completely wrong. Even if you got to a good understatement of the topic, please put research into it (also outside Tumblr for that matter! There are better places to find stuff about!). Thank you also for admitting your faults over your treatment of hypersexuality and apologizing for it. Many people will never let themselves grasp this concept, so thank you.

If you took Valentino's comparison to Mean Girls or Powerpuff Girl as a way of making fun of him, that's you. I found it, personally, terrible. Specially cause many comments regarding that (that I put on the post) were people actively disregarding the topic at hand. Saying that Valentino is just a karen, or He is Bubbles coded, feels so out of the realm of everything (the last one didn't feel like making fun of him). I don't like the comparison of an active sexual predator to a mean high school girl or a kinder garden girl that's regarded as bubblely or dumb. Feel like you should reach into his actions over It feels diminishing to me and other people (who also complained about this themselves).

People should be extremely careful of what they portray about this topic in media. Other stuff written in Hazbin or Helluva Boss regarding R-pe jokes also is extremely disgusting to me. Never forget that if you think this portrayal is ok, one episode apart it's a gang r-pe jokes towards Sir Pen... and an r-pe joke towards Moxxie in Spring Brakers. Which I find extremely disrespectful to do and adds to r-pe culture as much as any other r-pe jokes (general or towards men) in media. Especially when they want to portray it in a serious way with Angel, where was that energy then? (Don't say Viv didn't write that, she liked a tweet about the Sir pen joke, and the spring braker is written by Viv and Brandon.)

Also, about manipulation:

The tweet right below says that "He isn't manipulating them" because he is too stupid to do so. Responding "The Vees are just meangirls" it's crazy to me.

About "You said the negative impact of Val was that people are drawing fetish art of him, but the only time I ever see that art is within critic’s posts. It never shows up in my regular feed"

Val has being fetishized by the crew itself! The person (who is not an SA/r-pe victim said by themselves, who has being open of shipping ValxAngel and being into r-pe porn) is the one that produce the whole poison part of the episode (also based on his previously non canon ValxAngel comic). You could also go throught the people Viv's responds and likes and it's mutuals with, and they also do the same thing as this crew-member (Raph). Congrats that it doesn't appear in your timeline, tho. If this art appears in a critic post, it is because it's being criticized or brought up to make a point.

[It's not on my blog yet, but I don't like receiving double ask in the inbox, specially of anons! Sorry. I don't know if it's the same person or not, and I don't want to end up receiving 5 asks in my inbox again.]

#vivziepop critical #hazbin hotel critical #vivziepop critique #helluva boss critical #helluva boss criticism #vivziepop criticism #hazbin hotel criticism #helluva boss critique

45 notes · View notes

dominustempori · 7 months

Text

SPOILER ALERT FOR THE GHOSTBUSTERS: FROZEN EMPIRE TRAILER!! (long post, fyi)

youtube

Alright Ghostheads, I'm writing all this down now, so I won't forget all these thoughts and observations I'm having JUST a few hours after this awesome teaser for the "Afterlife sequel" has dropped.

I'm sure I'm missing some bits here, so comments are duly welcome, just don't go all negative energy on me =)

Definitely felt a similar vibe to when the first trailer for "Afterlife" came out like 2 years ago now. Normal summer day, good background music, then...sh*t happens. Even worse than that burst of PK energy from the mine shaft. And yeah, I saw bits of "Day After Tomorrow," I'd be lying if I didn't get JUST a little hint of that, but only because, you know, massive storm system overwhelming the south shore of Manhattan. But anyway.

2. I SWEAR that one building shot from the side is 55 Central Park West, aka Spook Central. Probably not significant plot wise this time, just a nod to the original movie. And considering I toured some of the filming sites on my trip to NYC this past summer, SURE looks like it!

3. Deadly icicles ripping up the streets? Like the earthquake tearing up the asphalt in the original movie only BETTER!

4. The discourse is already happening about details...I know some people like Ecto 1-A from GB2, and some fans are still angry about "they ignored it in Afterlife! It's so canon! WTF Jason Reitman?" Yeah...missing the point? [They're not DELIBERATELY ignoring GB2! I LIKED GB2! A lot! Not perfect but still I LIKE IT! Probably a lot more than other fans! The film only had so much time to focus on the past to keep the story moving, so only put in so much of the lore to help a new audience along. That's my theory I'm sticking to it.]

ANYWAY...yes the car IS the original Ecto 1, NOT the 1-A (which was WAY too busy for its own good, just sayin'). I saw the plate on a freeze frame, it's Ecto 1, the original.

5. Enter the exposition cut scenes. or whatever you want to call them. Swear to God that Patton Oswalt, Kumail Nanjiani, Dan, McKenna, and Logan are NOT at Ray's Occult Books...I mean come on look at those glass cases! It's GOTTA be the NY Public Library (throwback!) Patton's character is most likely a staff member, probably a librarian (related to Alice? God I hope so!) [GBs do their research yo! If that's one thing I love about the IDW comics, is how Ray and Egon and Kylie RESEARCH.]

That one bit with the frozen dude with the eyepatch? Looks like a flashback. Like, maybe Manhattan in the...late 1800s? Recurring hauntings is def a thing in the GB universe. Another secret society? Which, yeah, they did to death (sorry) with the Gozer thing, especially in the video game.

6. Liking all the concerned closeups. Paul Rudd still looking good, and I REALLY hope Carrie Coon as Callie has full on dropped the baggage about not having her Dad in her life. Well, mostly. Turned me off from her QUITE a bit in Afterlife, but that's just me. Finn's hair lookin' good short, love how McKenna still rocks the OshKosh look, and Logan with the retro vibe.

7. James Acaster HAS TO BE an adult Oscar. I WILL fight people on this =) Not Louis' kid, not Janine's... (well, maybe?) Peter and Dana are OFFICIALLY still a couple, what's to stop Peter from adopting the boy he saved in GB2? Or at least, maybe they have their own kid later on...? Damn I hope he's Oscar. I mean come on, this is still "Ghostbusters: the Next Generation" in my mind.

8. HAUNTED LION STATUE!!! (Yeah, that's right from Real Ghostbusters...kinda) It's the Library! And on another freeze frame...it's going after Ray (GASP!) That little elevator? Maybe they're going to...Special Collections? Remember the video game? Maybe? Squee?

9. DUDE, it's attacking GBHQ! Blew the freakin' doors off! It's gonna...NO NOT LUCKY! Dude she (they?) is getting the short end of the stick again...first she gets possessed by Zuul and now...please don't kill off Lucky, Gil! Also OGBs FTW!!! yeah Winston! bad ass mf as always! And man does Pete look proper scared. Go Bill Murray!

10. I'm presuming that the big bad/entity was originally trapped and stored in the ECU, hence the blinking red light in the post credits scene from Afterlife. And it's whatever's pushing out the cinder blocks this time around...and freezing Lucky in the basement of HQ? And it's the...thing pushing its demon horns in...(so far others are calling it a minotaur - totally NOT. this guy is so reaching, i mean an old obscure RGB comic reference from a wiki page? dude, just...no. a cross between a White Walker and Slenderman? yeah THOSE I get. I'm personally thinking some ancient demon from a summoning gone wrong...or maybe right in this case.) any case, DUDE with those icy blue staring eyes and 20 feet tall...f*ck yeah.

11. Also F*CK yeah Paul and Carrie in the jumpsuits! YES!!!

12. Alright, I can sort of buy a hidden room in Kumail's character's (presumably?) apartment, secret door at the back of a kitchen pantry with some pretty lead/silver tiling...but, what's with the horn? (SUMMONING HORN! Read the Bartimaeus Trilogy people!) and the shackles? the bells? well, yeah noise to drive away evil spirits...or not? again... SECRET SOCIETY! Or maybe Lucky and Trevor have their own place now? Nah, maybe not...wait and see I guess.

13. Dude...Paul Rudd is TALL, boy! Would like to see if they've actually gone and married...or, too soon? Nah, romantic/life partners is good.

14. I WANT THAT RED WINTER JACKET WITH THE PATCH! SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY!

15. Also, Paul's reaction...SO my own after watching this. He is still fanboy-ing out and I LOVE IT.

Holy hell that was a long post. First genuine reactions on the day. Online journaling. All good.

OK peeps, let me have it. What are y'all thinking?

Until March 29!

#ghostbusters #ghostbusters frozen empire #frozen empire #ghostbusters afterlife #carrie coon #paul rudd #mckenna grace #logan kim #kumail nanjiani #patton oswalt #james acaster #original ghostbusters #Youtube #fin wolfhard

50 notes · View notes

operafantomet · 11 months

Text

Now I've finally caught up on all the content from the Italian non-replica productions, and I have so many thoughts. Now let's play the very unfair but also kinda fun game of "reviewing a production solely based on photos"! I'll put it behind the cut to not kill your feed...

Is it really a non-replica production if the Eiffel Tower is not included in some way?

This set design is rather clever. Making the false boxes at the side a part of a rotating set, complete with a "frescoed" ceiling, makes it a lot easier to remove the auditorium look. And also a brilliant anchor for the chandelier instead of relying on the theatre's own ceiling. I guess the only issue is that the scenes where the boxes are partly turned (like the Mirror scene) seems somewhat cramped, but all in all: an original take on the "false boxes dilemma", and more spacious looking than the Restaged Tour's drum set. Other than that... a rather beige Hannibal?

The Elissa costumes... It's like the Estonian Elissa costume had a love child with the Sydney Harbour dance costumes...! But I don't say that in a negative way. I think the Italian Elissa costumes looks regal and rich and fun.

Earl Carpenter also admires that costume:

Is it really a non-replica production if Christine does not feature a red rose in some way? Also, an example of how the stage feels a bit cramped with the false boxes-set rotated. On the other hand, I guess this brings the audience closer to the action. I like what I see overall.

Not gonna lie, I thought this was from the Restaged Tour first time I saw the photo. Both look almost identical to the original staging and costumes, just mildly tweaked:

I have not seen any good photos of the set design of the Phantom's lair. But the glimpses I've seen gives me vibes of the Restaged Tour and the Polish production. Mostly because of the curved gondola and the candle-lit realistic organ:

The Restaged Tour vibes are STRONG here, with the cast singing the final part of Prima Donna in front of a Garnier-esque curtain. If Carlotta had worn her Il Muto costume it would be downright identical.

But hey! Bonus point for not including the Eiffel Tower in the Rooftop set. The set designer clearly knew what she was doing by including it in the Auction scene (set later) and not in the Rooftop scene. The Notre Dame, on the other hand, would "always" had been there. Bonus point for a hint of Garnier sculptures and roof structure.

...whatever can it mean that the Phantom swings across the stage in a red cape, Tarzan style?

Whaddayaknow, a foreshadoing for dead Buquet, swinging across the stage in the same manner just some seconds later. Frankly? This is one of the ideas I suspect maybe looked better on paper than in real life. Camp flies higher than the Phantom, at least...

Eeeer. Forget what I wrote. The Phantom flies higher than camp after all, riding that chandelier to the ground in an olympic level of explosions and flashing light. I want to dig it, but my brain refuses to.

Is it really a non-replica production if there aren't some sort of confetti? Nice turned perspective on the Garnier auditorium and chandelier. Very, very similar to the chandelier crash in Hungary. Looks pretty. Also liking Christine's quite serious bustle dress, even if it doesn't quite scream Masquerade. But I believe they all cloak up for the main scene?

The graveyard, complete with graves, a glum sky, a cloaked Christine carrying a red rose (what else?), and... the Phantom flying away on his black wings... This production is a lot, but boring isn't part of that...!

Don Juan AKA Mad Hatter. First time I saw part of Christine's costume I thought they had replicated the Marguerite dress from the Lon Chaney movie and it made me so happy. But then I saw the corset. Ah, no. Close, but no cigar. But I dig Amelia Milo's wig. It's hard to make out the colour, quite dark ash blonde or super light brown. It looks very good on her.

Beautiful set, though! The painted "fresco" ceiling above the chandelier is such a neat touch.

OK, Ramin... throat grabbing Christine was not OK in the Royal Albert Hall, and it's still not OK. No. Just no.

...and here you lost me completely... Is this The Phantom of the Opera or The Met: Notes on Camp? I can't tell.

But not to end this absolutely nonsense non-review on a negative note, I will comment on the main background set seen in the Phantom's lair and Don Juan. CLEVER. Because... At first glance it reminds of Maria Bjørnson's set design for Don Juan. She appears to have been inspired by the Italian artist Piranesi (1720-1778), and especially his fantasy architecture of nightmareish labyrinths. A series is called "Imaginary Prisons". It looks like the Italian production also picks up a clue or five from Piranesi. And frankly, "Imaginary Prisons"... the most fitting home for the Phantom, no?

#poto italy #yes i'd love to see it live #but life is not such at the moment #phantom of the opera #il fantasma dell'opera #ramin karimloo #amelia milo #bradley jaden #earl carpenter #clara abbruzzese #chiara donato #federico bellone

76 notes · View notes

fictionadventurer · 11 months

Text

I happened to see a good chunk of the Netflix Persuasion. I can't give a complete review or analysis or whatever, but I have thoughts.

This movie has some very pretty colors. I like cool color palettes, what can I say?

There was one shot of a purple sunset where I was like, "Oh, I could live in this picture."

The aesthetic was so trendy I couldn't take it seriously. The clothes were that 2019 Little Women cottagecore vibe with lots of poorly-fitted textures and layers and colors. I laughed out loud at the Big White Text announcing LYME or BATH, because it's such a specific vibe.

I tried to detach from any notion of it as an Austen adaptation, and just enjoy it as its own movie that just happens to take place in a history-flavored fantasy world where everyone uses modern speech. Because sometimes those stories can be fun. It still didn't work.

Because it mostly just confused me. It was this weird mish-mash of genres and tones that didn't really blend together. Oil and water. It was Pinterest and Hallmark and Austen and College Humor and Instagram and Feminism and it's all felt like it came from completely different movies.

It was trying to be a sincere period drama love story and a goofy parody at the same time and it just didn't work.

Like, there were some sweet moments in it. Anne talking about poetry to Captain Benwick was rather nice.

But then you've got things like the weird octopus-sucking-my-face story Anne tells at Lady Dalrymple's. Even that could have worked okay in context, because Mr. Eliot jumps in and turns it into a metaphor about identity, which helps to cover for Anne's awkwardness and shows that he's willing to help her out. But then they keep bringing up the octopus as a sort of pet name and it's just so weird and doesn't fit with the rest of the story.

I've gotten ahead of myself so I'm going to backtrack to some specifics.

Mary Musgrove was excellent. Spot-on. I love how she's visibly younger than Anne. First adaptation I've seen that emphasizes that.

It was interesting how they emphasized the Mrs. Clay storyline. It actually sparked some interesting thoughts about the differences between the male social climbing of the sailors (shown in a positive light in Austen) and the female social climbing of the marriage-seeking ladies (shown in a more negative light).

I've never had a clearer picture of why Mrs. Clay matters so much to Mr. Elliot. Even in the book, it's a bit muddy, but it's crystal clear here. Mr. Elliot telling us his schemes straight-out did have the benefit of making the story very easy to follow.

I've got to back up again.

They completely altered the Anne/Wentworth storyline by mixing around all the plot points.

After they go to Bath, Wentworth seeks out Anne, says that they haven't had a chance to talk, and tells her how he always admired how good she was in an emergency. And this was before the staircase scene. I was extremely confused, until it hit me--this is a dream sequence! This is how Anne wants it to play out, but then she'll wake up!

But no! This actually happened! Wentworth says all this very sincerely and passionately, leading up to him declaring...that he wants to be friends. (At least there's context for "We're worse than exes--we're friends.")

It completely alters the trajectory of their relationship. Instead of jumping from the passion of hatred to the passion of love, Wentworth has gone to the other end of the pole--friendly indifference. He likes Anne and is totally okay with her marrying someone else.

I think they changed it so Mr. Elliot could be a serious contender in the love triangle. Wentworth has let her go--can she find happiness with someone else? I'll admit it's an interesting change, even if it's not Persuasion.

But it also seems like they're trying to make Wentworth a Suitable Love Interest for the Twitter Generation. Wentworth gets weirdly bristly with Mr. Elliot. Then Wentworth apologizes because Anne is a strong woman who doesn't need his protection. He tells her she should have been able to be an admiral. He's being mature and letting go of his resentment and wishing her well and showing that he doesn't like Regency Gender Roles. It's like they're shaving away his character growth in favor of a bland Nontoxic Relationship (TM).

But then Anne likes Mr. Elliot because he's bad? He openly talks about how he's trying to wreck her father's relationship to get the title. He insults her family. And she likes it.

This version of Anne holds her family in contempt. She doesn't like them or how they treat her and she openly disdains it. So she connects with Mr. Elliot. But the book Anne seems sad for her family--she doesn't like their behavior because she wishes they could be better people. She has compassion while movie Anne is resentful.

Persuasion is all about restraint. This movie is all about lack of restraint. People speak bluntly and say what they think and openly insult people. It's a completely different culture from the usual Austen movie, because it's modern culture. Which emphasizes how little we value good manners and restraint.

It's also weird how in changing the story, they also turn it into a generic rom-com. There's a more blatant love triangle between the good boy and the bad boy. Wentworth is starting to fall in love with Anne, but he's got an opportunity to advance his career, and he has to decide within a few days, oh no! It's textbook romcom plot points.

There was another point that I'll probably think of later.

EDIT: Oh, I just remembered! I think it was that the movie was so interested in the vibes and emotions of each individual scene that it didn't bother to try to stitch them together in a coherent whole.

The ending kiss looked 1000% like the cover of a cheap romance novel.

And the final moral of "don't let anyone tell you how to live your life" feels so simplistic and selfish and weird.

Overall, I'm not angry. I'm just confused. It's not the type of movie to arouse any kind of emotion other than "Huh???" And maybe a bit of regret that they couldn't have done better things with the interesting bits.

#persuasion #netflix persuasion #jane austen #this is really bad and rambly but i can't put it into any better order #probably because of how disjointed the movie (and my watching experience) was #i wouldn't have sought out this movie in a million years but since it happened to be on in the background i took the opportunity #it was the best way to do it because i didn't feel like i was losing any of my life to actively choosing to watch this #i was just casually analyzing

83 notes · View notes

amethystspaceprince · 2 months

Text

Finally was able to see Wish. I was expecting it to be bad because of people’s opinions but I did watch it to find my own opinion and it was so bad. These are my thoughts on it I just wanted to get out there. If you really liked the movie well don’t read this then because it’s mostly negative. I just wanted to rant about it.

1 Asha is the most unlikeable character I have ever seen. I don’t think I’ve ever really disliked the main character in a Disney movie and probably in few movies in general. But I could not stand her. I get that she’s young but she was so entitled. Not selfless like they tried to make her out to be. She wanted her grandfather’s wish made and that was the backbone of her stand against Magnifico. Selfish.

2. Magnifico was not a good villain. Sure he was selfish and bad for thinking he could choose what people deserve but he actually did care for his kingdom and it did seem he was trying to protect it. Not every wish can get granted. Bad luck. You wish for something dangerous it can’t be granted. Perhaps rules on how to wish when the person wishes could fix the concept of a wish being too vague to grant. He clearly had trauma from whatever happened in his past so he does get panic quickly when the star lands and o think that was rushed villain arc to try and find an excuse for him to start acting bad. But none of his villainy would’ve happened if Asha never acted selfish.

3. Asha was getting so upset over Magnifico having the wishes for nothing. Magnifico didn’t steal the wishes even though she acted like he did. The wishes were willingly given to Magnifico. If Asha gives someone a birthday gift does she then go and claim that person stole her gift? No. I get that everyone should be able to work towards their wish themselves but they can just do that instead of giving that wish away. They know they’ll forget about it. Asha tells the newcomers about how they forget so she knows that too.

4. The music was Awful! Just awful. I hope I never have to hear it again especially that stupid what I know now song. That was the worst of all of them. And that line “what I are” what a stupid line. I don’t know how to write a song but when I know it’s bad. There were some parts of songs that weren’t too bad but yeah I hated them. I have heard the songwriter had little time to write them and didn’t know the story. Idk if that’s true though.

5. The only thing I liked is what everyone else hated and that’s the art style. I never saw any problems or I saw very few anyway. The art style was a nice change. Not saying I want it permanently done that way but it was nice for one movie at least.

6. The star was cute. But of course the original concept of Wish was a whole lot better than what happened. Perhaps they wanted a fail idk. Why couldn’t we have the original concept :(

#wish #I like Disney movies so I’m not just a Disney hater btw #and I do try and be honest I admit the positive stuff even if it’s only one thing #and this is just my opinion after all

11 notes · View notes

artist-issues · 6 months

Note

i know you are in your Wish Criticism and Analysis Era (love to see it, very interesting takes!!), but i was wondering if you could spare some thought as to why you thought that the moral/lesson of Encanto was not great? in my eyes, it was always mostly about forgiving and moving past generational trauma... even if the movie didn't fully execute on that hah

I can try! I haven't gone over it in my brain in a while. Sometimes answering questions helps me verbally do it, though.

I guess I should clarify. The message in Encanto isn't outright evil...it's just a little tricky to try and teach in the story that they used, without also saying a bunch of stuff that is problematic. I'll try to explain.

The main point in Encanto seems to be something like: "You don't have to be perfect: just being yourself is special enough."

Easy enough. When anyone in the Madrigal family tries to meet Abuela's super-high standards, it turns out to be hurtful. The more Pepita holds her emotions in, the more tense and stressed she gets. The more Luisa tries to carry, the more tense and stressed she gets.

But the problem is, the movie so often gets TOO CLOSE to portraying the opposite of "just being yourself is special enough" as "give your life for others." It tiptoes too close toward the "self-focus is beneficial" line.

The Madrigal family occupation, the thing Abuela is pushing them all too hard to do, is not something bad. She wants them to use their gifts to help others. But Abuela is a (sympathetic) antagonist in the movie.

And it's explained. You feel for her. She apologizes and there's forgiveness, like you said--I'm just saying, it's tiptoeing up to a line that isn't always the most responsible line to show to kids, in a kids' movie. Kids do not generally need help questioning whether or not their parents are being too controlling, or too pushy, or wanting too much--kids usually already lean too far in that direction on their own.

But like. The problem is, there's an equal-opposite lesson each of the character could learn that I think is better for kids, when they're kids.

Pepita should be free to feel, genuinely --> yeah, but Pepita also shouldn't let her emotions get so out of control that they hurt others.

Luisa shouldn't be expected to carry every family burden --> No, but in general it's a good thing to "bear one another's burdens in love" and do whatever you can to help, even if it's heavy.

Isabella shouldn't have to act happy & pretty constantly, and marry for the good of others --> Of course not, but it is good to be able to find joy and act genuinely joyful in all circumstances.

Mirabel shouldn't have to have the same level of accomplishments and abilities as everyone else in order to feel loved --> No, she shouldn't at all, but also, it is never a good idea to say to yourself "there's no room for improvement in me because I'm already enough and perfect; no flaws that need apologizing for or changing."

Abuela shouldn't focus so much on controlling what her family does even if it's for their own good --> No, absolutely not, but in general, an older woman who guides and teaches her family on how to selflessly serve others is considered wise, not controlling.

Bruno shouldn't have to only tell people what they want to hear to be accepted --> no, obviously not, but he shouldn't be so constantly negative that he's causing everyone around him to be anxious (I know that simplifying it because he had a literal power to explain the future and they asked him to, but I'm talking about the lessons kids could glean.)

And that's my main beef (it's not even that big a beef; I thought Encanto was so well-done.) My main beef is that it's a movie kids will be influenced by, but the themes and lessons are really more helpful for an audience of college or even high-school-aged people. People who are old enough to have that level of discernment to say:

"Yeah, it's good that Abuela is trying to teach her family to be selfless and safe, but she goes too far by being fearful and controlling; yeah, it's good to control your emotions, but not if you go so far that you're not allowed to be vulnerable at all; yeah, it's good to want to help others by lending your strength to share their loads, but not if you go so far that you get your sense of worth from your success; yeah, it's good to stay positive and be a light to others, but not if you go too far and become a faker; yeah, it's good to be able to recognize your flaws, but not if you get your sense of worth from making up for them."

Those are the sort of sub-lessons Encanto teaches: "don't make decisions based out of fear (fear that you're losing your worth, your identity, your loved ones, your future, the love of others.)"

I'm just saying, kids aren't going to be able to pick those sub-lessons out as easily. What will probably stick with them is the idea of grandmother = wrong; spending your life helping others = stressed and losing your superpowers etc.

But ultimately, it's a movie with a lot of heart, and this idea of grace and unconditional love, so it is not a big mistake or a loss or anywhere near what I'd rank Turning Red and Wish. It's just a little...reckless for a kid's movie. 🤷‍♀️

#Hope that helps #I could be wrong #there's definitely something to be said for parents explaining these things to kids thanks to Encanto #but that assumes that every parent is teaching their kids how to think critically instead of simplistically while they're being entertained #anywho #Encanto #storytelling #asked #answered #Encanto meta

24 notes · View notes

torchickentacos · 8 months

Text

Discuss. Pokeani traveling companion nightmare blunt rotation options. Long post under cut, I put way too much thought into this.

Detailed thoughts under cut.

Faba. Look, I never watched all of SM so I can't speak for his anime counterpart, but going off of gameverse Faba, there is zero way that adding him to ANYTHING will improve it. I feel like I don't need to explain this one.

Nicholai. He's a furry (not a negative) who dresses as pokemon while trying to catch them (that's the negative). He also refuses to call shorts anything but knickerbockers. Traveling with him means you'll be hearing about knickerbockers and scaring off pokemon with giant zigzagoon costumes before you can even catch pokemon.

Baron Alberto. You get to decide if he's a lickilicky or not. I feel like I don't need to explain this one much, either. Just watch the darkrai movie.

Brandon. Okay, look. On one hand, you can travel with him and just fly places in the Battle Pyramid (which flies, by the way). On the other hand, he might yell at you ("NOOOOOOO") and you might have to make occasional pit stops to haunted ruins where kids get posessed by the king of pokelantis. You also might get crushed by a Regirock in his presence. But hey, you'll have an uber.

Butler. Diane will not be there to travel with you guys, which I think turns Butler from a powerful companion to a cringefail magician without his wife to keep him in check. Diane needs a raise. You might get absorbed by Meta Groudon if you choose to travel with him. However, if you have beef with Team Magma, he'll be ready to prove himself to them. This could be either a pro or a con depending on how he goes about this. Historically it has been a... decently large con.

Brianna. Look. I could make her worse. I could fix her. I could make her an actual character, but it's honestly funnier to just keep her the exact same. She's probably a largely normal, nice girl outside of her Brianna-ness, but if you choose to travel with her then Drew will be there too so you have to watch her Brianna all over the place. Also, this means traveling with Drew, which could go very many different ways. He himself barely escaped this list, if only due to personal bias. This one's a real coin flip. On one hand, she (probably) won't get you killed like Butler or Brandon might. On the other hand, Brianna. (/affectionate. I love Brianna. Something's wrong with her <3.) Safer bet but also has potential to be an incredibly annoying, cringeworthy bet that gets you stuck watching and subsequently dealing with tween relationship drama.

Charon. Another self-explanatory one I think.

Seymour (clefairy guy). Look, this guy's just annoying to me. I don't have any concrete reasons to have him here, other than the fact that he annoys me personally.

Anime Bill. He just creeps me out. That's all.

Kenny. So, look. I won't be too harsh on Kenny here, most of my Kenny hate is a joke (I don't actually hate him but hating on him is something of a meme with my friends), but I'm also not sure he'd be my first choice of a travelling companion. He's kind of whiny and likes to get a rise out of people. He's a petty and largely joking addition but also, he could be pretty annoying. I could fix him though.

Morrison. Loud. Likes sandwiches. Largely forgotten by the fandom because nobody watches Hoenn/AG for anything but the coordinators or battle frontier brains. He's mostly on this list for being loud.

Tommy. Yeah.

Hunter J. Also... yeah. Have fun getting arrested for associating with a criminal. I'm sure some of y'all would risk it all for her, though 👏

Harley. Even if you're on his good side, whatever that side may be, you're still going to have to be around his Harley-ness, and there's no guarantee that you won't be called upon to help him ruin the life of a ten year old. He gets a gif instead of a plain image. 80/20 chance you end up in his burn book (a canonical thing that he owns).

Roderick. Again, nothing WRONG with him per se, but he's an old guy who lived on an island with wynaut for 40something years, and his only confirmed pokemon is a bellsprout iirc. Roderick also just kind of watched a couple ten year olds presumably die and he seemed disproportionately chill about it, so there's no guarantee he'll be much help in an emergency. If not for May, Drew would have drowned because Roderick was not much help. Go watch Who What When Where Wynaut. Also, he's Paul's grandfather. Not canonically, but... trust me. He does have a boat, though. So that's cool.

Sid. Actually, there's nothing wrong with Sid other than not respecting personal space much and not being able to tell when someone's not interested. Go watch Destiny Deoxys, by the way. Fun movie THAT I COULD FIX DEAR GOD LET ME FIX IT. If you don't know my issues here then send me an anon and I swear to god I'll get into it, I always have this rant locked and loaded. EDIT: Sid is also now on this list because his google images was a weird adventure I don't wish to go on again. I got this image and no others. RIP anyone who tries to look up images for any pokemon anime character ever.

Zero. Weird emo with professor/father figure issues (???) or just issues in general, honestly. Really wants Giratina's power. Invented Siri. Wears a onesie. Failed star wars villain.

Dr. Yung. Did anyone even watch the mirage island special? I did. I still don't know what happened in it. Those 30 minutes of my life are a nonexistent blur. Something about Mew and Mewtwo, idfk. Traveling with him will get you into some shit, but it'll be incredibly forgettable shit that the fandom largely is unaware of. He's also evil, by the way, but kind of looks like a sad wet cat when he's not in evil mode.

Kevin. He's just kind of boring. His sister's way cooler. He's just Kevin. When I looked him up for images, the fourth image was a really buff, bipedal bidoof, which tells you about Kevin, I think.

Greta. Fire. Explosions. G r e t a .

#ok to rb. look at my posts‚ boy.#taylor's tag #taylor talks #pokeani #pokemon #taylor's trashcan #this one's going in like half my tags khfsdkjhfgdkj #i am NOT tagging all of these characters. sorry sdhdfsdkjfhskjghk

11 notes · View notes

crow-caller · 7 months

Note

Hello! I hope you're doing well. I've enjoyed your book reviews on YouTube for the past six or so months (finished The Blessed/Precious Blood a couple hours ago), and they've gotten me a little curious. To my understanding, you do or at least did post book reviews on your blog, some or all of which you went on to turn into videos. As someone who wishes to try his hand at writing book reviews, I was wondering if you had any advice, insights, or sage wisdom into the craft based on your experience. I understand if you'd prefer not to answer, and my apologies if this is something you've already been asked.

Thank you very much for reading, and I hope life treats you well!

I've talked about it a bit before, but only briefly when drunk. It's very annoying on tumblr to search archives anyway. This was the breadth of my advice:

"When I first started, my strategy was a very solid one: divide and conquer. It can be hard to understand your thoughts on a book until you understand it in parts. I usually did it as : premise, plot, characters, writing, other details. Dividing into sections can help put words to feelings you may struggle with. Earlier reviews usually fell into this format, ish. Nowadays I usually put it mostly into a plot summary, discussing issues as they come u— I find this smoother. But really, making sections is incredibly helpful and can really assist in finding your “voice”."

I've been writing reviews for several years now. Like since 2016 actually, I did it first formally as an assignment for uni and was previously writing shorter reviews on goodreads because with my memory issues, I would find I totally forgot half the details of what I read a few months later. This was especially annoying for series!

Reading reviews is a first good step. You don't have to take notes- it's just helpful to read how other people review things, in general. You'll naturally notice stuff you wish they talked about more or where your opinions might differ- it's good to read reviews of stuff you have experience with and don't.

I'd definitely suggest reading say, a negative review of a movie you love and a positive review of a movie you hate. Or book, or whatever. See how the argument is made and where you think the reviewer is being an idiot. See where you wish they went into more detail or where they were caught up on something pointless. I think it can be way more helpful than just reading opinions you agree with!

But also do that. And try different formats and people- I used to read a LOT of AVclub reviews for tv shows and movies I never watched, and reading different styles of review helps.

Honestly, it might be good to even look at my early reviews versus recent and see how I've grown! Even though I normally don't really advocate my oldest stuff as it's just. not as good. But check out Relic and then The Commandment and you might notice some stuff in how I've improved.

It's not just studying though. The best method is really just getting started. When you read/watch/play/whatever something, review it. Start with a skeleton (Plot, characters, world) and get better at linking each subject fluidly. Finding an easy transition is hard but great practice for thinking about something as a whole. Reread your reviews, not just before posting but a few months after the fact.

A lot of my own style is based purely on what I'd most value in a review and I'd suggest you center your work on a similar concept. I wanted long, very detailed reviews that spoiled all the ridiculous twists of books I was never going to read. Not enough people provided that, so I did it myself.

Anyway hope it helps!

#sometimes theres asks #going through askbox #writing advice #yewchube

9 notes · View notes

pixies-and-poets · 9 months

Note

If people thought Rayman’s hiatus was bad wait till they see Prince of Persia. The last major game was in 2008 and it only received another in 2010 which was a tie-in for that live action movie adaptation that everyone forgot.

It’s been almost 16 years for that series cause Ubisoft Montreal has only focused on Assassin’s Creed (can’t blame them that series is their most popular).

Finally in 2024 the series is getting a new game albeit it’s a 2D game with some 3D elements. Funny concept.

Yeah, one of my favorite game franchises is Banjo-Kazooie....when people talk to me about a ten year hiatus or whatever, I'm like HA! HAHAHAHAHA

We haven't even gotten a remake or anything, and the last game to come out in 2008 was badly received, at that! (But Nuts & Bolts is good actually. .....Mostly)

The new PoP is actually one of the things I had in mind when talking about people having an instant negative reaction to 2D games. But I kinda get it, it's not the grand comeback people were hoping for, even if the series did start out in 2D... that was a long time ago. And it's like a spinoff not featuring the actual Prince, too? (The only PoP I've played is Sands of Time on the gamecube and that game fuckin slaps)

When a big company has too many franchises, stuff always gets left by the wayside, even if that stuff was good and beloved. For B-K, it's part of the Microsoft Blob now and I guess Rare themselves doesn't want to do it because pirate game takes all their time and Microsoft is happy with that too, while they concentrate on acquiring ever more studios so... here we are

#alter answers #prince of persia #banjo kazooie

7 notes · View notes

wormholxtreme · 5 months

Note

2, 4, 7, 16, 19, & 23

Mun Meme | Accepting

2. what is your blog or graphic aesthetic or motif? why? It's mostly whatever @ppctts makes me because I CANNOT DO ANYTHING aesthetic XD but honestly she's made me so many pretty things and it's mostly around Kaylee being a sunshine, sunflower, star child and I am so grateful to Gin that she spends any amount of time making me these pretty things. I love her so much.

4. what genre do you primarily favor answered here

7. what universe have you never considered writing in? why? uuuuh well I'm sure there are some universes/fandoms that I'm not familiar with/even realize exist so those because of my ignorance LOL but I'm gonna say for the same reason DC stuff?? It's intimidating and like yeah I'm here for comics but I just don't know DC that well and I don't wanna try to manipulate DC story lines to the already complicated Marvel shit XD

16. how have your faceclaim choices changed over time? So Happy once upon a time was Michael Weatherly in an oooooold thing I wrote, back before I really had an idea of his character beyond the little bits we get in comics. But when I decided to bring him on for the sole purpose of simping after @ppctts the queen of fcs @dr-foster suggested Jay Ryan because of IT Chapter 2 and honestly I have not looked back.

For Kay, admittedly I had a very different FC for her adult verses but that person has since been what's the nice way of saying triggering and just not a good person. I don't always change my FCs over cancel culture stuff because I believe people are allowed to make mistakes but this was beyond even my comfort level. But I'm so glad I changed Kay's adult fc to be Joanna Garcia Swisher. She's precious and adorable and it really gave me an avenue to explore this kind of character further than what I had originally thought of, plus Joanna was originally my @cheeseburgersandwarbirds FC for Carol before we stumbled upon the amazing Yvonne and I thought it was a nice call back to our gaia days XD

19. who was the first faceclaim you remember using, who? for what canon? So throw back to gaia days in 2009 I was in fact using RDJ for my Tony. It wasn't too long after the first Iron Man movie came out when my lovely Noon invited me to come write with her. But it was before I knew much about the comics. So I decided to go back and throw myself into the comics reading from the very beginning when I realized Tony was a little different in the comics than the movie. He was younger, blue-eyed, had a sort of classic rat pack charm that didn't exactly translate into the movie because they were going more for his sarcastic vibe which was fine but I realized I really enjoyed comic book Tony more and around the same time there was this show called White Collar and just Neal Caffrey had all the charm, vibe, good nature, snark, intelligence, and suave that comic Tony had and so it wasn't very long that I started using Matt Bomer as my Tony FC also back in 2009 and honestly I've never looked back.

23. What skills have you gained by roleplaying? uuuuh typing rather quickly without looking at the computer???? XDD I don't know. Maybe some patience? I've learned a lot about myself, and I've learned that not everyone is going to like you. It stings sometimes but when I get focused on the people who love and care for me it outweighs a lot of the negative that comes with RPing.

#tellemidied #[out of muse; ooc]#((Awww thank you for sending these love))#((I adore you))

4 notes · View notes

hopeymchope · 27 days

Text

This doesn't really belong here, but oh well: Planet of the Apes time

The recent release of Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes looked weirdly good to me in its trailer? Maybe 2024 is just sort of light on movies to feel hyped about, idk.

It's strange because the whole "Planet of the Apes" thing never really appealed to me. I know the jist, of course. Everybody has absorbed information about the 1968 original via cultural osmosis, even if I've never actually watched it. And I've lived through the entire reboot trilogy from the 2010s, so I'm vaguely aware of the basics of what they were doing from their promotional campaigns. But like... apes. I never cared before now.

Yet somehow, something about Kingdom's ad campaign convinced me to go back and stream the recent Planet of the Apes 2010s-era reboot trilogy, casually watching them for the first time.

Well, I MEANT it to be a "casual" watch, anyway. By the second movie, I couldn't tear myself away. And now I can't stop thinking about them??? I'm partly obsessed with the motion capture tech and performances, which are just gobsmacking. Andy Serkis, y'know? The MOCAP GOAT.

But I'm also pretty obsessed with some of the these characters. Casesar is such a deep and compelling character that he carries the entire series despite being a CGI chimp. Koba is impossible to tear my eyes away from, with a heel-turn that I both totally understood yet hated to see happen. I adore an orangutan named Maurice now. Absolute fave.

Quick rundown of thoughts on the trilogy:

Rise of the Planet of the Apes — This was... fine. It is a movie that exists, but I don't feel particularly positive OR negative towards it. There are some great moments in here, but the greater package is kind of "whatever." This just feels like it's mostly just prologue/setup to something bigger, and... well, that proves to be true. But it does introduce us to important characters and give us background on them.

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes — This was so fucking great. ABSOLUTELY my jam. Suspenseful throughout, fantastic human and ape characters, performances are stellar on both sides. Gary Oldman is barely in it and still makes me want to curl up and cry in a scene he has with NO DIALOGUE, that guy is so peak. Hell, this MOVIE is so peak. I don't even want to say too much. The journey was worth it for 'Dawn' ALONE.

War for the Planet of the Apes — Is this as good as 'Dawn'? No. Is it a good conclusion to the story arc of lead character Caesar the chimpanzee? Eh... not really imo. Is it obvious by now that this series utterly failed ALL its female characters? HELL fucking yes; big problem. Is it still a really, really good movie somehow in spite of all that? Actually, YEAH. Director Matt Reeves really knows how to handle some intense emotional storytelling and some really suspenseful scenes that make it a still-powerful experience overall. I was still riveted by this thing.

....guess now I'll have to see Kingdom.

#planet of the apes #movies

2 notes · View notes

inevitably-johnlocked · 11 months

Note

Hi dear librarian! 1/? I was wondering if there's a term to describe a phenomenon that plagues so many films nowadays and partially responsible for the downfall of BBC Sherlock and MCU: it appears that the creators/screenwriters are afraid of or uncomfortable dealing with strong negative emotions. It's very obvious in Sherlock S3,S4, and MCU after Infinity War. They immediately interrupt an emotional scene with a quip, joke, or a solution. It really disturbs the plot flow, emotional buildup,

2/? and the tension of the show. E.g., in Sherlock S3E1 the reunion scene and the underground scene, in S4 the ghost Mary non-stop quips before the emotional hug. In S2, they really shouldn't have revealed Irene or Sherlock survived immediately after the event. I don't know what the writers were afraid of. Without a proper buildup, the resolution doesn't feel satisfactory. I'm very happy that in GOTG 3 they avoided this problem and it's probably the only MCU film worth seeing recently. 3/3 Another example is the Thor series. I know Thor 1 has many plot flaws, but they got the aesthetics right and with a Prometheus type of self-sacrifice, it feels like a proper fusion of technology and mythology. But later they wrote Thor as a laughing stock for his depression and in his own 3rd and 4th film, every remotely serious emotional scene was undermined by something. Just why?! That's part of the reason people say MCU doesn't feel relatable anymore. Thx for reading and stay cool!

Hey Nonny *HUGS*

Thank you for this insightful ask, and my answer is essentially this: shareholders and studio meddling, and probably bad writing by people who think they know better. A lot of the MCU, for instance, is SO boring and repetitive right now because they're too afraid, it seems, to stray from "what is safe", stuff that won't have people bitching at them, or they're trying too hard to recapture what made the Infinity Saga so amazing. They spent TOO long being praised and in turn stopped trying so hard, and under Chapek, dude was a greedy bastard who worked Feige to stress. I'm glad that they pulled back, it seems, and I hope it stays that way, hopefully so they can make new movies up to the quality of GOTG 3 again. Studios like Dreamworks and Indie studios are taking risks, and it's paying off, because people are bored with the sanitization of Disney and Marvel. Everything has to have no true villain in Disney.

That's not to say I don't still enjoy Disney, I do, but Marvel as-of-late has put out more flops than fantastics. And I suspect some of it is studio and shareholder meddling. It's a miracle Gunn got to do what he wanted for GOTG3, and I'm glad he did. With Thor 3 I feel like Taika got raked over the coals because he had to follow whatever plan they wanted for his vision. I dunno. Marvel for me is so hit-and-miss these days.

As for Sherlock... I think part of it was BBC meddling and another was ego-tripping, because Mofftiss continually put out winner after winner of seasons, so they thought, because just the TWO of them got an Emmy for TAB, well, they're good enough to get it for a WHOLE SEASON! (which, for the record on my opinion, I think Mofftiss are better at ONE SHOT episodes, not an entire series on their own... they run out of ideas and then throw whatever their weird fanboy fantasies want, and without a third writer to reign them in, we get S4). So yeah, that's what I mean by bad writing as well. I BELIEVE Moffat or his wife owns Pinewood Studios that they film in, so like... it's literal studio meddling, LOL. But yeah sometimes a writer or director can also be too big in their britches, and whatever they say, goes.

So yeah, I dunno. It's honestly a mix of everything and fatigue with the unoriginality of content these days. I think that's why I don't really watch anything anymore unless a trailer REALLY grips me, or it's recommended to me by a Lovely. I stick mostly to old-faves because I know I won't be disappointed, or fandom-related content.

What do y'all think?

#steph replies #chatting with nonnies #my thoughts #film fatigue #marvel fatigue #shitposting #shitposting steph

17 notes · View notes

alexalily · 5 months

Text

Alexa's Favorite Games of 2023

If you've paid attention to my activity online then you've probably noticed that I really didn't play many games this year! I spent much more time reading books and watching movies than I did playing games. Despite that, I will still make this list because I did still manage to play Some Bangers! But also some trash!

2023 has been a year of change for me: mostly in minor and bad ways but with a couple of bigger, better ways. I'm hoping 2024 will be a year of further change in some major ways. Without getting into too much detail, my life feels like some things are in a do-or-die/now-or-never sort of situation and that is scary but also it'll make changes that are better than what I've got going on right now.

In 2024 I am hoping to get back to gaming a bit more. I want to return to checking out small Itchio projects that no one else has heard of but that I will scream about until other people play them too. I want to play more visual novels, too!! And I want 2024 to finally be the year that I really give a fighting game a solid chance because it is a genre I have always wanted to get into but have never found the right time or place or game or whatever for it work out.

If you would like to see a similar list about the books I read in 2023, you can see it here on Tumblr. If you would like to see a similar list about the movies I watched in 2023, you can see it here on Tumblr or over on Letterboxd.

Mémoire 0079

The "It's Not Nepotism If It's Genuinely Great" Award

I don't do ranked awards like everyone else but if I did this would be a strong contender for #1 and it's not just because I know some of the people that worked on it! I really really like the shape of this thing, with how it has you navigating pages like you're falling down a Wikipedia rabbit hole! It's such a fun concept and while I doubt it's the first or only to do it, it's done very well here! I love seeing how both sides frame the conflict and how they choose to write history their own way and how that leaves you to piece together What Happened. It's a game that has been stuck in my mind and kept me Thinking all throughout the year since I played it back in July and that is more than I can say about almost anything else on this list or that I even played this year!

Assassin's Creed Valhalla

The "Why The Fuck Am I Still Playing This" Award

I am occasionally an Open World Sicko who likes big maps with lots of Meaningless Things to collect/do. Every so often I just need One Of These. I have played many and they are all terrible. The genre has had a largely negative effect on AAA games specifically and the video games community as a whole. And this has got to be one of the worst ones I've ever played. I will probably end up writing a "review" where I dump all my thoughts after I've finished it but here's some quick highlights: -it plays worse than AC Odyssey did -it looks worse than AC Odyssey did -England sucks ass -the main plot is so tedious and none of the writing is good and there is SO MUCH of it -Eivor is so fucking boring!! my gay ass should be fawning over her but I simply Do Not Care about because she has all the charisma and charm of a pile of rocks The Isle of Sky DLC(?) questline was the best bit so far but that might just be my Kassandra Bias coming in to play because it was nice to see her again and also for them to be willing to actually play with one of the things set up at the end of Odyssey! I have played for over 80 hours so far and feel like I am maybe halfway through. I fear I may be playing this game until the end of time.

Charm Studies

Best Game That Is Laser Targetted At Me, Specifically

Narrative Picross! Cute girls! Witches!! What's not to love. I adore this lil game. I feel like this is going onto the list of games that I will take any chance I can to yell about because I want more people to play it because it's just such a charming lil adorable thing. It's cute!! I love it!! Play it!!!

Fortnite

The "I Participated in Capitalism and it felt Gross" Award

I started playing like a week and a half ago so I am still an absolute little baby. The first thing that happened when I launched the game for the first time was that it notified me that I had unlocked Radiohead lobby music. And then when I went into my first match it was utterly overwhelming with all the sound effects and shooting and dancing and constant quest progress updates and meters filling and things happening, meanwhile I was just trying to figure out what the buttons do because there's not really any tutorials and it was one of the most stressful 10 minutes of gaming of the entire year. I think the actual movement and shooting feels Fine and is just Good Enough because the actual good thing is playing this with other people. The shop is egregiously bad. The battlepass system is also horrific. We all know this. I spent eight dollars on the battlepass because the punk catgirl skin is cute. I hated how I felt when I did it. I will continue playing because fuckin whatever who gives a shit. I hope Epic Games crashes and burns but for the foreseeable future I will continue to have fun playing this with people. If you are a person who think it might be fun to play with me and see first-hand just how bad I am at video games, hit me up because that sounds like a fun time to me.

Bloodborne

Lady Maria Presents: The Lady Maria of the Astral Clocktower Award for Best Lady Maria of the Astral Clocktower

YES I played Bloodborne again this year, YES I will probably do it again in 2024. I finally beat Orphan of Kos!! The last time I played BB I smashed my head against Orphan for something like 10 or 12 hours and eventually gave up but this time I did it! I spent time grinding out as many blood vials as I could and making sure my weapon was as upgraded as was reasonable and then I beat Orphan of Kos in like 30 minutes of attempts!! What the fuck!! Easily one of the best feelings of triumph I've ever gotten in a Soulsborne game.

The Exit 8

The "What The Fuck Am I Doing Here" Award

I feel like I need to preface this by saying that I believe everyone; I take all y'alls word that this thing is incredible and amazing and everyone needs to play it ASAP without knowing anything about it because it is just incredible. I completely believe you all. But when I played this, I ran down a hallway for ten or fifteen minutes and nothing happen. I don't get it. I read every sign (as best I could, since it's mostly in Japanese anyway). I pressed every button on my keyboard. I tried to interact with the doors. I tried to interact with that guy that walks by. I found a sign that said to turn around if I see an anomaly. I don't know what an anomaly looks like and I can't tell if I've seen one. I ran down the hallway in one direction. Then I thought maybe I need to walk. Then I turned around and went the other way for a while. I don't get it. I can't get the game to work. I am too stupid to figure out the first puzzle(?) of the game. If I had a brain and could figure that out I bet this would be sick.

Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin

Best Game to Fistbump Your Homies To

What a cool fuckin video game!! Proof that Final Fantasy can still be good in the year 2023. I kind of hate how much this game gets memed on with all the "here to kill CHAOS!!!" stuff and people laughing at the Sinatra needle drops and fistbumps and whatever because while, yes, that stuff is objectively funny when you see it in the game, I think the game then does a lot of work to make you take that shit seriously and attaches emotional weight to it all that works in a truly sincere and honest way that I think the memes make people completely ignore. Jokin' around on twitter or whatever is all fun and good but please remember to engage with games on their own and actually think about the thing you are playing! It feels like this game is going to go down in history as some big meme when it's probably one of the best Final Fantasies in quite a while and I think that is absolutely fucking tragic.

Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous

Most Videogame

I never did write out a full review of this game and maybe I'll go back and do that at some point but basically it comes down to this: All the parts of this that are Pathfinder are atrocious tedious garbage and all the parts that are Wrath of the Righteous are wildly inconsistent in quality but the absolute best parts of it are barely better than mediocre. Pathfinder, as a system, is really only for the sickos who enjoy planning out their character and everything they will do at every level-up because the actual act of playing it and engagin with the combat is miserable. God bless the difficulty menu for letting me turn it down to the point of not having to give a shit about any of that. Also shoutouts to whoever at Owlbear said "hey maybe we shouldn't have the final dungeon suddenly bombard the player with negative levels and attribute damage" because that was a truly awful part of Kingmaker. Oh and the Crusade mode sure does suck ass, huh? I hope someday Owlbear makes a good video game. The thing in CRPGs that I love the most is meeting all the cool companions and hanging out with them and helping them solve their problems (or sometimes making them worse). And this game barely has that. There's like a dozen companions and I think I could name three or four of them and could only really tell you much about two of them Daeran and Arueshalae save this game from being completely devoid of anything good. Arueshalae is my sweet babygirl and Daeran is a twink in need of obliteration.

Celeste: Strawberry Jam

Best Game I Didn't Actually Play

I am not a Celeste Enjoyer because I am not a Platformer Enjoyer but I did watch my friend Carrie play through this and it's a genuinely incredible thing to see!! I really strongly suggest people check this out (either first-hand or watching videos) because it's wild to see how much work the Celeste community put into this thing. Custom art, new music, wholly new mechanics, and it's all arranged by difficulty so you can start at the beginning and work your way up! And they even added in tutorials so you don't have to know what a Ceiling Pop or whatever is because they'll just teach it to you! And, anyway, Celeste's assist mode is robust and people should be willing to turn that stuff on just to content tourism their way through what I think is one of the most impressive community endeavors I've seen in quite a long time.

Final Fantasy VII

The "I Swear To God I'm Going To Finish It If It Kills Me" Award

I have started this game like eight different times in the past and it never clicked for me so I never got more than an hour or two into it but finally FINALLY this year it is working for me in terms of my brain but no in terms of my fucking computer!! I built a new computer very recently and when I reinstalled the game, the cloud save was empty! Every time I saved it told me it was syncing the save file but it was lying to me!! Luckily, I had my old computer around still and was able to find the save there, so my meagre amount of progress was not wiped out. But then! My DS4 was absolutely haunted! Everything was configured the same as the old computer, everything is set up the same, but all the button mapping was wrong and nothing I did fixed it! I had the controller unplugged for a couple days for unrelated reasons and then worked up the energy to troubleshoot this and when I plugged it in it Simply Worked! So now I am determined. I WILL play this game and I WILL finish it in 2024.

Tabletop Simulator

The "I'm Tired Of Writing This List But Want To Add This One Too" Award

I played quite a bit of Tabletop Sim this year and had a lot of fun doing it! I've never been able to really get into board games or tabletop games because of a lack of friends to play with but this year I got to check some stuff out and have had a lot of fun with it! Even just loading into one of those big board games with a trillion pieces is fun just to look around at all the lil 3d models and flip through the cards. A lovely game that has given me a lot of lovely memories.

#video games #year end 2023 #alexa writes things

4 notes · View notes