#s&b review

[stromuprisahat]

Shadow and Bone season 2 review*

When the good guys kill people, it's Cool™. When the baddies kill people, it's EVIL! You can tell who is who by what the creators say in interviews…

This is what it looks like when incompetent screenwriters get their hands on an average book. Eight hours of action and embarrassing speeches, which - according to many reactions - successfully diverts attention from the psychopathically one-dimensional characters and primitive plot, possessing the naiveté of the first grade of elementary school. (You can recognize the good guys by the fact that they all know each other and like each other terribly.)

While the worldbuilding was only touched upon in the previous season, now they simply don't give a fuck about any of that. You learn all the necessary information five minutes before use, usually by lucky chance. Which, of course, doesn't matter, because the viewer is not expected to remember any of it, or perhaps to draw their own conclusions, not pre-chewed by one of the "heroes".

The book!Grishaverse introduced a caste of wizards physically dependent on their abilities, hated worldwide and persecuted for their "unnaturalness". The creators of the series dropped practically everything that distinguishes Grisha from dime a dozen fantasy mages, including the socio-political situation. They are left with a few random mentions, usually by the villain, who seems to live in a completely different reality than the one presented to the viewer.

If in the book fandom I encountered the observation that the world of Grisha is presented in a surprisingly anti-Grisha way, the second season of the show seems like pure propaganda of the ruling regime.

Are you different? Then cease being so… or perish!

#aleksander was completely right #the darkling was a general and acting like one #the darkling for the main character movement

* Yes, it took me over half a year only to translate this, why do you ask?!

#Shadow and Bone #season 2 #grishanalyticritical #The Righteous Gang™ #The Darkling #aleksander was completely right #the darkling was a general and acting like one #the darkling for the main character movement #The Cult of the Starless Saint #Cult of the Starless Saint #anti S&B writers #Written for a personal review on Czech movie database.

[that-sweet-thief]

just finished binge-watching season 2 of shadow and bone. my thoughts are mostly in disarray but the cringe is real.

this was an off-paced, haphazard fanfiction. it'd be just fine if the writers weren't paid for it but they actually are, so it's just... wow. I'm at best mediocre when writing in english and i reckon even i would do a better job of writing dialogue.

anyway, here's a list of my thoughts on the show, though it's more of a word vomit than a comprehensive series review:

no ivan or fedyor. immediate downvote for that alone. ivan should've survived so we could have a heartbreaking moment between him and fedyor across the two sides of the battlefield. i guess they thought there were too many characters and couples to juggle already. or maybe the actors weren't available, who knows.

costume design took a surprising turn for the worse: for example, nina's and zoya's dresses were eyesores. how anyone could make these two very attractive women look that frumpy i've no idea but they've managed. i liked sankta neyar's costume, sturmhond's coat aaand that's about it.

the settings were more varied, so glad we've seen a little of bhez ju. the introductory map-to-location shots were very helpful for people who haven't read the books, namely my gf who fell asleep halfway through the show. also, if the music had any tracks that weren't already from the first season i'll be incredibly surprised, it's that repetitive.

they've messed up nikolai as a character mainly because the actor misunderstood his assignment, though i don't know what else he could've done with the mess he was given. while he's still sympathetic, lovely and witty, paddy's nikolai thinks of sturmhond as just another disguise, rather than who he really is, to the point of gifting said disguise to mal. that's irreconcilable with my understanding of nikolai, whose real mask is the bastard prince.

tamar & tolya were better realised than expected. along with the exclusion of the soldat sol cult, their zealotry's scrapped which is a big win for them. i enjoyed their scenes, great casting too. though, as an ardent kanej fan, i cannot in good conscience support the blink-and-you'll-miss-it tolya/inej moment. tamar/nadia had maybe a minute of screen time but better than nothing.

sankta neyar was a pleasant surprise, great idea to show how powerful durasts can also be. people often disregard materialki so this was refreshing. what i liked about her is how formal, collected, old-fashioned she both appeared and acted, as if her manners and speech style were leftover from a few centuries ago, kudos to her actor tuyen do.

the crows' arc was... lacking in some way. maybe it's because pekka rollins' attitude towards kaz and his group is very different than how it was established in the books, here he was way too proactive and less secure in his position in ketterdam for some reason; anyway rollins' framing of the crows felt off to me.

the crows' character dynamics are interesting and the saving grace of the show, all kanej and wesper scenes were great. seriously, the tension of kanej & cuteness of wesper nearly destroyed me.

they did helnik dirty, of course, but that was a given.

freddy carter outperformed everyone this season, i really think out of all of them he's given the best performance, sometimes even better than ben barnes and that's practically heresy coming from me, his devoted fan since ages ago when i first saw narnia.

i kinda dig that they brought in a tidemaker (fruszi) who's practically an early version of zoya for the darkling's side but her death felt cheap. i mean, the crows arriving to help out nikolai and his team at the very last second was already eye roll inducing, but then nikolai shoots her in the neck? cheap. also, if she and zoya came to face off that'd be interesting since they share so many similarities. i personally don't think it will but if the series continued along with the darkling's canon resurrection, i wish she'd lived and replaced elizaveta, she certainly seemed devoted enough.

david and genya made me cry. that's all i have to say on them.

baghra... where do i even start with her? baghra's nonchalance, her one-eighty about deciding to help alina find more amplifiers is stark raving bonkers imho. yet at least most of her scenes weren't as bad as they could've been, her proving to mal he was the firebird and her saving genya as well as alina actually came across better than the ultra passive, constantly berating version in the books. her death felt less dramatic but more spiteful, though aleksander's reaction to her death was appropriately heartbreaking. ben & zoe sold it so well, my eyes actually welled up.

speaking of sasha, his death is soooo badly executed, it's impossible not to be pissed off at the way they filmed it. even the books were more sympathetic to his demise and alina herself showed much more empathy for him at the end. it's genuinely disturbing how they framed it, makes alina seem more like a villain than the reluctant hero she used to be. i guess it fits with the surprise ending: how she kinda becomes what she sought to destroy, poetic irony and all, but still...

aleksander's whole arc this season makes him seem more desperate and pathetic and so, less of a tyrant: he doesn't even take control of the country or more than a small group of grisha let alone become tsar, instead the apparat rules over ravka on behalf of the lantsovs till nikolai is coronated. he and his people constantly lose to some clever last minute thwarting by alina's allies. the only thing scary about him is the nichevo'ya, the shadow monsters, which in the books are entirely under his control and that of course makes it all the more terrifying. here though, sick and tired and dying, he's merely desperate and fearful. the lack of wins on aleksandr's part really defeats the purpose of the writers' continuous attempts at making him simply the most terrible, horrifying and supreme villain of gregverse.

nope, can't get over it, aleksander practically died in her arms in the books, here she just looks down at him like she's the villain. i guess she now is. oh and mal's retort to sasha about dying in her arms was somehow a foreshadowing, see, but sasha doesn't get that because he's evil, see? gosh, so patronising.

since they've constantly emphasised this season how it was the fold's and thus sasha's fault that grisha were persecuted (not that this explains the ceaseless mistreatment, endangerment and more often death that grisha face everywhere they go, of course, nor does it explain his backstory) i gathered they'd go for a retcon but i didn't imagine they'd exonerate baghra, the apparat and tie the border wars with shu han and fjerda to the fold's existence entirely. the reason the war broke out in the first place was because those countries' fundamental approach to grisha was to kill them or worse. that is what grisha persecution meant. and now... what, the war is over, just like that? i have no words.

also, the exclusion of the "don't let me be alone" line. now that I think about it, those writers should be fed to nichevo'ya.

alina, alina, alina... sure, she's a self-insert, so her motivations don't make sense anyway, but as sweet as jessie is and how hard she tries, show!alina is now an equally awful mess as book!alina. the two things i liked about her this season were her manipulation attempt through the tether and the ending where she goes a bit darkling. the latter, i really like. i wrote a fragment of a power reversal fic before but never put it up, might just do that now.

i'll admit: it's rather funny how mal dumps alina after losing his amplification because he doesn't feel the same way anymore. he doesn't know if it was him being an amplifier that made them love one another. see how easily he turns away from alina? if i were aleksander, I'd be laughing at her from the grave.

#shadow and bone #shadow and bone spoilers #season 2 shadow and bone #season 2 spoilers #the grisha trilogy #book spoilers #siege and storm spoilers #ruin and rising spoilers #kind of a review #kind of a rant #mostly word vomit #grishaverse #pro darkling #anti baghra #make it make sense #at least the ending is better #aside from the way aleksander dies #anti s&b writers

[ghostampede]

no cause if it was anything else maybe i would be able to close my eyes and enjoy the absolute disrespect of the source material s&b did and maybe if they changed things that still respected the characters it would be fine but they didn’t. the depth of the characters have been utterly reduced to fan favourite moments lined up in a way that makes no sense. the depth of wylan and jesper’s relationship feels like it has been entirely removed in favour of them being just another side gay couple on tv. the quality and pining found in inej and kaz’s relationship is fucking nonexistent and has been replaced with tension that doesn’t make sense. the writers seem to have no real understanding of the characters or care of how they’re portrayed or else maybe this season would’ve felt less like a highlight reel of fans’ favourite parts of the duology and more like an actual coherent story that respects it’s source material. hot take apparently but an adaptation doesn’t have to be a word for word retelling of the story as long as it respects what the source material did and was trying to do along with respecting it’s characters and overall story and s&b just straight up did not do that with the crows. that’s all im saying about that, gorillaz and trigun posting will continue momentarily

#rant #rant post #shadow and bone #shadow and bone netflix #shadow and bone netflix review #six of crows #crooked kingdom #no adaptation is always better than a bad one!!!!! #adaptation #wylan van eck #jesper fahey #nina zenik #kaz brekker #matthias helvar #inej ghafa #anti-s&b #maybe im just a hater #but also i want my media to be good #and i love storytelling #so when i see a bad or disrespectful story/adaptation #i get pissed

[thebobbiebrown]

nobody told me a new quickstrike figure came out last month after 27 years. especially a MASTERPIECE figure ohg my god quickstrike nation we are winning

#b's txt #so much joy #sososmuch #looking at photos and reviews of him #he looks so good #oh my godddufgbhgjsdkmk;s !!!

[b-movie-mondays]

B Movie Mondays

Llamageddon (NR, 2015) Amazon - Tubi Run Time: 1h 9m Watches: 6 IMDB Rating: 3.8/10 My Rating: 🦈🦈🦈🦈🦈 Word Count: 725

A cinematic masterpiece. Perhaps one of the only movies I’ll ever review to get all five sharks. Unironically one of my favorite films of all time. Comedic genius. 

What’s good about Llamageddon isn’t that it’s good; no, this movie is awful, but it has charm. It’s funny. It’s endearing. It ever gets old. There isn’t a boring scene in this godforsaken film. Llamageddon knows what it is. It’s a self-aware, on-purpose, B-movie-with-no-budget. That’s why I love it! The 6 watches is an estimate, because I’ve probably watched this movie countless times. Enough about my praises, let's get into the meat and potatoes of the 2015 Sci-Fi horror comedy “Llamageddon”.

Llamageddon follows the story of 20-something siblings Floyd and Mel, along with Mel’s friends, who she invited to their deceased grandparents’ home. How did their grandparents die you may ask yourself? A killer llama from outer space, of course! That’s right; the villain of this movie is a space-llama with laser eyes. 

The film starts with a lovely animated sequence of the killer llama planet, in which we see our Killer Llama (played by animal actor Louie the Llama) crash landing on planet Earth. Killer Llama, who I’ll be calling “KL” for short, wanders onto the property of MeeMaw and Pep Pep, our protagonists' grandparents. MeeMaw and Pep Pep assume the llama belongs to one of their neighbors…which turns out to be a grave mistake. MeeMaw and Pep Pep are brutally murdered. Shenanigans ensue.

Mel is a popular party girl and Floyd is a nerd. They really make sure you know this man is a loser in this film. It is referenced constantly. Floyd is cringe-fail. Floyd is a little meow meow. He is sopping wet and pathetic. I want to throw him around like a football. I want to put him in the washing machine and watch him spin. He’s like a milk-soaked Webkinz cat to me. 

Our two protagonists are joined by Mel’s friends, and all of them are incredible. The characters in this movie are just so strange and lovely. They’re flat yet 3-dimensional at the same time. My personal favorite is Dan, who changes his shirt 23 times throughout the whole movie. Let it be very clear that I don’t mean he changes his shirt on camera, but rather every time he’s on screen he’s wearing a new one. The first time it happens you think “Hey, look at this little inconsistency thing that happened” but  once you get up to about 5 you start anticipating and looking forward to it. 

Now the cast doesn’t particularly matter because save for Mel and Floyd, everyone dies. I like to try to make sure my reviews are at least somewhat spoiler free, so if you decide to watch it for yourself there’s at least some surprise, but this is just something that needs to be said. They all die. There are so many very, very absurd and over the top deaths that it’s laughable. Remember the game Dumb Ways To Die? It’s like that. Sometimes it's in a car explosion, sometimes it’s getting electrocuted in the jacuzzi, sometimes it’s getting shot after turning into a semi-sentient llama-man and laying tons of fuzzy alien llama eggs (yes, that really happens). You never know. KL spares no one. 

Llamageddon’s soundtrack is something worth mentioning as well. There is an original song created specifically for the movie played at the end of the film and it’s…kind of a bop? It goes kind of hard? I don’t want to sing too many praises to Llamageddon but this movie really does have it all. There’s no trope that goes untouched. It’s truly a masterpiece of cinema. 

Honestly writing this was a tad hard because there’s just so much that happens and so much to talk about. I don’t like posting super long reviews because I feel like no one reads them, but holy shit. I could write about this movie for hours and hours and hours. There’s just too much to touch on. I really can’t recommend you watch it enough. Get some friends to do it with though. I assure you this movie is a million times funnier if you’re subjecting someone to it. Have fun making your loved ones turn to you in confusion and concern and ask, “What the fuck are you making me watch?” 

#llamageddon #b movie mondays #b movies #b movie #bad movies #horror #sci fi #comedy #movie review #movies #2010’s movies

[i-who-has-never-had-a-name]

Is this a safe space to talk about how I don't care and neither like the shadow and bone trilogy but think the six of crows duology is a masterpiece?

#and what if I said that soc was the one to deserve a trilogy and not s&b? #please please don't burn me at the stake #I watched the show and book reviews and summaries of s&b and I think it's borint af #too similar to other fantasy ya with a shit love triangle #i don't like alina I'm sorry #actually I'm not #WE DESERVE A THIRD SOC BOOKS #so different yet both in the same universe #books #six of crows

[literary-illuminati]

Books I Read in May

(Because I’m trying to get back on this wagon after missing April.)

18. The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer by Siddhartha Mukherjee

This is probably not my favourite piece of pop science writing, but it’s really got to be up there. The history of how cancer’s been understood and treated through the last century is just absolutely morbidly fascinating (my roommate has placed a moratorium on any unsolicited ‘fun facts’ since I started reading this book).

But beyond a) an incredibly visceral understanding of what Leukemia is and b) an appreciation for the public health advances of the early/mid-20th century, my main takeaway was that the book was actually just weirdly hopeful? Like, compared to, well, everything (except consumer electronics) the degree to which cancer treatment’s have actually just kept getting better over the last decades gives you back a bit of the old faith in Progress.

Also just both very readable and downright poetic at points (and just. Incredible title.)

19. Light From Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki

Hugo nominee novel number 2!

I was, honestly, not particularly impressed. Like it’s not bad – really extremely readable, really – but just, eh? 6/10.

It was above all just so very sentimental – believe in yourself! Love conquers all! Happy endings for absolutely everyone! Good bread tastes like home, even if you’re an alien! - which I suppose I’m just allergic to, and so will restrain myself about because it’s just a matter of taste.

Katrina was a good protagonist, entertaining internal monologue, well executed if incredibly predictable arc. But Shizuka and Lan...for the sheer amount of the book their romance took up, it still felt like the romance subplot thrown in as an afterthought in some blockbuster? They fell in love at first sight because the story tells us they do, and then they spend a bunch of scenes together,  so clearly they’re a love for the ages! Never mind the palpable lack of chemistry or real connection between them. (And the less said about the rest of Lan’s family the better, character-wise. Though I mean Shirley was just an embodied cliche but it’s a cliche I like so she gets half-credit).

And yeah I could bitch about this book for ages but that just seems meanspirited (also I already spent like two hours doing so with @toasthaste​) so. The evil violin repairwoman was fun?

20. She Who Became The Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan

Hugo nominee novel number 3!

Or, as the friend who lent me it described it, ‘the one with the lesbian fisting in it’. (This wasn’t an exaggeration. Despite the jokes I was not expecting to get a scene of, like, actual porn 300 pages in.)

Anyway, no, this was good! ‘Low fantasy/mythologized retelling of actual historical events’ is a conceit I really love when it’s pulled off well, and Parker-Chan absolutely pulls it off well. Even if ‘If Anyone Finds Out I’m A Girl I Won’t Be Able To Found The Ming Dynasty!” sounds like something an automatic light novel series generator would split out.

Though really at least half the book’s best scenes are the whole revenge melodrama going on with the Mongol prince and general whose names I’m blanking on and aren’t mentioned in the Wikipedia article or goodreads summary. Just gloriously operatically angst-filled self-loathing and obliviousness and killing the only man you love for the sake of vengeance.

Not that Zhang as a protagonist isn’t great, too. I mean partially I just love the whole trope of ‘scheming, manipulative bastard constantly working every angle they can, who hides it all under an act of humble piety/devotion/loyalty and pretending all their successes are just luck/providence/divine favour, and no one’s quite sure how full of shit they are”. But also, you know, got to love any hero dedicated enough to making their own destiny and carving their own place in the world that they just straight-up murder the ten-year-old messiah to make sure there’s no competition at the top.

21. Hero of Two Worlds May: The Marquis de Lafayette in the Age of Revolution by Mike Duncan

Possibly the most middle-class-American-dad-ish book I will ever read (unless I ever get really into WW2, I guess?). Before reading it I had essentially zero interest in the Marquis de Lafayette in particular, but I really like the Revolutions podcast, and I do love reading about the French Revolution, so.

Honestly after reading the book I’m still not particularly interested in the Marquis de Layfayette – beyond a grudging respect for not changing his political opinions one iota after losing control of the revolution and spending four years in an Austrian dungeon after fleeing the country ahead of the tribunal, I suppose – and on the whole I found the book a lot less interesting than The Storm Before The Storm. Though that’s probably mostly just because I went in already knowing a lot more about the Age of Revolution than I did about the Late Roman Republic. (I did learn a bunch of military minutia about the American Revolution that I assume Americans all get taught in elementary school).

Probably because of that, by far the best parts of the book (imo) were the ones describing life in the Ancien Regime and post-Restoration. The latter, especially – the whole early 19th century milieu of revolutionary secret societies forcibly suppressed by foreign arms is just worldbuilding inspiration catnip, really.

The whole thesis of the early French Revolution section (and it’s repeated often enough that I’m pretty comfortable calling it that) about how the ‘salon revolutionaries’ were only ever able to extract reforms and concessions from the King by using the energy and threat of the angry mobs on the streets and the direct, violent, insurrectionary actions does have a certain unsubtle subtext, also.

22. A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers

Hugo nominee novella number 2!

A book I would not have picked up on my own, honestly – three Wayfarers books have taught me quite clearly that Chambers is not for me, no matter how much normal people seem to love her – but she got nominated twice this year, and a friend already had this borrowed from the library.

I think the best way I can describe this is ‘a solarpunk art book, in prose form’. Like, there’s (exactly two) characters and (ostensibly) a plot, and there are themes (my god does the book want to make sure you know there are themes), but, like, in terms of wordcount and detail and enthusiasm, the animating passion is pretty clearly just detailing the society and physical infrastructure and general feel of day-to-day life in the post-post-apocalyptic solarpunk future. And that’s really very well done! It’s a good prose art book! Personally I don’t really care for the whole rural idyll pastoral aesthetic and the whole implicit ‘life being too easy is bad, actually’ thing, but, like, totally see the appeal.

23. Machinehood by S.B. Divya

And Hugo nominee novel number 3!

This was a slightly odd reading experience, honestly. Like, the best way I can put it is, like, some airport fiction technothriller (Robert Ludlum or whoever) except set a bit farther in the future and also woke? Not, like, didactically so or anything, but the genre and plot formula make it more surprising that the supportive CIA handler is a trans guy or one of the sympathetic showboating mercs/bodyguards is nonbinary or whatever. Or, like, the combat cyborg protagonist whose entire squad got killed in a black ops mission into ScaryMuslimLand when the President pulled the rug out from under them is an atheist latina woman and it’s her (male) partner that is constantly nagging her about staying safe and starting a peaceful life together somewhere new, and etc. Not a complaint about the book in any way, honestly, just really struck me reading it.

But weird politics aside, it was a fun read! The worldbuilding was actually pretty great – near future and familiar enough to seem plausible-ish, but still really alien, and still feeling, like, genuinely future-ish? Also it wove it’s weird supertech politics into a legacy/context of, like, actual modern politics, which I appreciated.

It helps that it’s my favourite sort of future – better than the present in a thousand different ways, but with horrifically dystopian touches here and there that everyone’s long since just shrugged and accepted, and also still just weighed down with the shittiness of life under exploitation and scarcity but, like, somewhat ameliorated. (But really, ‘everyone has access to biotech labs in their kitchens! Which is good, because you need to download the specifications the ministry of health puts up for your daily booster every morning to keep up with all the engineered superbugs” is just a great bit of worldbuilding imo).

Honestly my main actual complaint is that – for all the entire plot of the book is centred around paranoia about the emergence of strong/free-willed AI, and the bad guys treat the bots aboard their space station as persons, it’s just...never really clarified how those bots feel about it/if they feel anything or are too limited to care at all? Like, this is important!

Still, fun read.

#book review #analysis/review #Monthly Tally #the Emperor of All Maladies #siddhartha mukherjee #light from uncommon stars #ryka aoki #she who became the sun #Shelley Parker-Chan #a psalm for the wild built #becky chambers #Hero of Two Worlds #Mike Duncan #Machinehood #S. B. Divya

[kostektyw]

ok, so several hours later i finally finished watching movie 23, so thoughts on The Fist of Blue Sapphire:

Roch was so right, truly the least conan movie to ever conan movie

i did actually enjoy it, it was fun

the plot was nonsense, but thats fine, this is a detco movie after all

the fucking... Arthur thing... you know what im not even gonna comment on that, i have no words

are we gonna get a Doyle in the next movie then? wait, no, don't answer that, i dont wanna know

Kid just taking Ls one after another was great, i appreciated that

Sonoko and her opera glasses... 10/10, i love her

i dont care for Makoto as a character tbh but i do like good things for Sonoko so im happy for her

a lot of Kid carrying Cone like a teddy bear on his hang glider, so valid

overall a B tier movie, not so bad after all

#if anyones confused by my rating B tier is high for me #like id say the only S tier are the 3rd and 5th one #and theres a few more in the A tier #so B really ain't bad #i should make an actual tier list sometime #tho id have to rewatch some movies before that bc while i remember the better ones quite well idk abt the lower tiers #kostek original #detective conan #kostek reviews

[ljaesch]

Set Review: Prince and the New Power Generation - "Diamonds And Pearls" (2023 Reissue)

On October 27, 2023, Prince and the New Power Generation’s Diamonds And Pearls received a reissue in several formats: a Super Deluxe seven CD/Blu-ray box set, a Super Deluxe 12 LP/Blu-ray box set, Super Deluxe audio-only download and streaming, a two CD Deluxe Edition, a four LP 180g vinyl Deluxe Edition, a single CD remastered album, a two LP 180g vinyl reissue, and download and streaming…

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#1990&039;s #1990&039;s music #1990s #1990s music #90&039;s #90&039;s music #90s music #Diamonds And Pearls #music #music review #New Power Generation #pop music #Prince #R&B #aeschtunes

[sparxwrites]

i'm slowly circling around hermitcraft (i keep telling myself i'm not going to get into another minecraft smp thing, i did my days in the yogscast mines) and it's so compelling. i won't lie. what would you, personally, suggest as a starting point for someone who hasn't watched any of these people before? even without knowing these characters, your hermitcraft fic is so good that i want to learn more about them

yeah see, i told myself that too and then dsmp and 3rd life and hermitcraft happened and. here i am. back in the pits again!! having the time of my life about it ngl.

so, okay, my first caveat would be: fandom does a lot of heavy lifting re: it having a plot. like... i'd say they're less plotty than the yogs were, with season 8 being an honourable exception. so don't go in expecting that my fic has uhhhhh. really any relation to canon lmao. (though to be fair, it didn't really in yogs either, so...)

first option: watch an episode of Hermitcraft Recap (a channel that does a weekly "what happened on hermitcraft this week" highlights video), see if any of the things mentioned take your fancy, and then check out the channel of the hermit that did it. this is good if you're hunting for someone doing a specific Thing in minecraft, rather than streamer personality.

second option: see the rec list below, and check out one of those people's season 8. season 8 is now over, but it was very short compared to regular seasons - so a lot of the excitement gets compressed and amped up, and it's a good way to really get an idea of what people are about. it will give you an unrealistic idea of how plotty hermitcraft gets, especially the end, because they went absolutely off the shits with that one, but it's a great season.

third option: see the rec list below, and jump straight into season 9 - either at the beginning of someone's series, or at the current point, or skip around through various people's things. we're like 20-ish eps in, depending on the person, but honestly it's pretty easy to dip in and out; we just had a big Plot Development with rendog getting crowned king of the server, so it's a good time to start! rec list (biased to the people i watch, obvs! the others are great too, but these are my faves), to help you decide who to pick:

Literally unhinged impossible redstone, constantly on his villain arc, (and tomato plants?): DocM77

Very good redstone, also extremely funny: TangoTek (also makes excellent noises), MumboJumbo (on break atm. i miss him :( ), Zedaph (he's doing. weird shit this season, but i support him in his quest to be a lunatic)

Incredible building, but also chaos-gremlin energy: BdoubleO100 (excellent noises pt.2), Grian (main character energy, tumblr's fave), PearlescentMoon (i am kissing her s9 base directly on the mouth)

Incredible building, really nice voice: GoodTimesWithScar (tumblr's other fave)

Building but also like. weirdly chill-but-horny vibes: Keralis (deliberately), Rendog (on accident)

Literally no idea but you should watch him: Joe Hills (very odd, currently hyperfixated on pinball machines, i find him very soothing for reasons that escape me, writes haikus for his episodes????)

fourth option: some of what you've seen from me will be from 3rd / last / double life, a bunch of semi-hardcore "death games" series run by grian and involving a bunch of hermits (plus some other friends, including inthelittlewood from the yogscast!). these are great, and i watched these before hermitcraft, and then based who i was watching in hc on what i'd seen there. double life is happening rn and we're only 3 eps in, so it'd be easy to catch up! it's basically a soulmate au but in minecraft, because grian is insane; i'm really enjoying BdoubleO100, PearlescentMoon, Tango, Rendog, and Grian (Scar is on a weird zookeeping arc, godbless, so he's in my bad books until he starts killing again. otherwise, the go-to rec is Grian or Scar's pov of 3rd Life, which sent me fucking insane.

#anonymous #ask #sparx chats #hermits crafting #life smp tag #v i b r a t e s #anon if u watch any u gotta come back and gimme the Reviews #:DDD

[topoet]

B. B. Q. Band

B. B. Q. stands for Brooklyn, Bronx & Queens Band  that I opted to name this mp3 compilation cd of funky disco treats. Along with them are: Do You Feel Like A Party; Tia Kofi: Look What You’ve Done. Outside In; Serge Ponsar: Back To The Light; Search: 1; Robin S.: Show Me Love); Plush (Expanded Edition); Peggy Gou: Moment; Patchwork Party; Change: The Glow Of Love; The Brooklyn, Bronx & Queens…

View On WordPress

#am writing #B. B. Q. #Bronx & Queens Band #Brooklyn #change #disco #Do You Feel Like A Party #funky #music #Ontario #Patchwork Party #Peggy Gou #photographs #Plush #review #Robin S. #Search #Serge Ponsar #Tia Kofi #Toronto

[ghostampede]

okay so ive been ranting in twitter about it but im doing it here too: as someone who adores six of crows and thoroughly enjoyed shadow and bone season 1, i am so baffled by the writing decisions made for the crows this season. ESPECIALLY considering they’re planning a spinoff like wtf are they even gonna do there at this point. how did we get a rushed and misplaced half of crooked kingdom while matthias was still in prison. i had to stop at episode 4 because i couldn’t take it and apparently it just gets worse for them. s&b already had a problem with slight tonal inconsistency with the two book series’ plotlines and cast crowding but it wasn’t nearly as bad in s1 as it was here. jesper’s secret that is a late ck plot twist is revealed in episode 1. kanej is happening left and right. wylan and jesper’s friendship and slowburn were thrown out ghe window cause they fucked in the tannery off screen so we lost all that banter. the ck tension of raised stakes is already happening. the dialogue is abysmal but thank god the actors are actually the most perfect people for the roles because sometimes i didn’t even notice until i reran the dialogue in my head. apparently inej leaves at the end of the season. why did nina go visit matthias and make a deal with rollins where am i??? i could barely focus on the coherent plot of the s&b stuff because the pacing and rushed feeling of the six of crows plotline was eating away at my brain. i could barely focus on one over the other and jarring divide in plots were insane like it didn’t even feel like they were the same show. s&b deserved to have the spotlight and the crows absolutely deserved their own show from the start. if they were planning a spinoff they should’ve just teased the crows or let the entirety of their appearances be backstory for the fucking soc plotline instead of having crooked kingdom happen before the fucking ice court in a shared adaptation. idk if that made sense i could talk for hours about how the writing took away everything interesting about kaz’s perspective or at least did it in a messier way or how rushing wesper this much completely takes away everything from their dynamic and what made them so loveable as a pairing or how the crows internal conflict from ck happening now makes no sense but they deserve seperate posts. idk.

#shadow and bone #shadow and bone netflix #six of crows #review #rant post #rant #s&b netflix #s&b spoilers #s&b s2 #shadow and bone netflix review #s&b netflix review #im seething #crooked kingdom #this is probably very messy but if you’ve seen the season and read the books you probably know what i mean #at least the acting and set design and costumes were great

[toastplayspokemon]

This review on the pokemon center website for the hisuian growlithe plush stole all the air from my lungs i-

#B E E S #pokemon #pokemon legends arceus #pokemon center #funny reviews #growlithe #hisuian growlithe #plush

[popentertainment-moviereviews]

CREED III (2023)

Starring Michael B. Jordan, Tessa Thompson, Jonathan Majors, Wood Harris, Florian Munteanu, Phylicia Rashad, Alex Henderson, Spence Moore II, Tony Bellew, Selenis Leyva, Jessica McCaskill, Jacob 'Stitch' Duran, Canelo Álvarez, Thaddeus J. Mixson, Mila Davis-Kent, Jude Wells, Sherri Belinda Quinones and Michelle Davidson.

Screenplay by  Keenan Coogler & Zach Baylin.

Directed by Michael B. Jordan.

Distributed by United Artists Releasing. 116 minutes. Rated PG-13.

In the 47 years since the original Rocky was released, the film franchise has spawned nine films – six Rocky titles and now three Creed movies. Of all those films, Creed III is the first of the films in which Sylvester Stallone has not been involved as an actor and/or a writer. In fact, Stallone does not appear to have been involved in the film much at all. And his character of Rocky Balboa is not mentioned once in Creed III.

Stallone does get a producer’s credit, but that seems to be mostly contractual, judging from some of the complaints that Stallone has been airing in recent months about series producer Irwin Winkler hijacking his story from him. Stallone also gets a credit of “Based on the characters by…,” but honestly other than the dead character of Apollo Creed (originally played by Carl Weathers and killed off in Rocky IV) being discussed several times by characters in this film, and a huge portrait of the former champ in his son’s gym, none of the characters in Creed III seem to have been from the original Rocky movies. Technically, maybe you can also count supporting character Viktor Drago (played by boxer Florian Munteanu) as one of Stallone’s creations, too, because he was the son of a Rocky IV character, who was introduced in Creed II, which Stallone co-wrote.

However, considering that Creed II – which is the only one of the Creed films that Stallone had a hand in molding from a story aspect – was by far the worst of the now three Creed films, perhaps it is not a bad thing that the Creed films are distancing themselves from their original creator.

Creed III returns the creative reins to the Coogler brothers who were also in charge of the first Creed film, which was such a refreshing change from the slightly long-in-tooth original Rocky series. Keenan Coogler takes over the screenwriting responsibility from brother Ryan (who was busy working on Black Panther: Wakanda Forever), although Ryan also helped to develop the story of Creed III. Not only that, but star Michael B. Jordan takes over for Ryan Coogler as a first-time director.

Honestly, Creed III is not as good as the original Creed film, but it is a definite step up in quality from the disappointing Creed II.

The weird issue is that to a certain extent, the first two Creed movies were revamps of earlier Rocky stories – with Creed giving a ghetto update to Rocky and Creed II being an odd mashup of Rocky II and Rocky IV. And although there are a few echoes of Rocky III in Creed III, for the most part this is a pretty original take on the storyline.

It doesn’t always work. There is a slightly melodramatic death of an older character (not unlike Rocky III). Also, the scenes with Adonis Creed (Jordan) and his cute deaf daughter Amara (Mila Davis-Kent) – while humanizing for Adonis and showing him to be a good father – end up wearing out their welcome long before the end of the film.

However, the main storyline – in which an old friend from Adonis’ streetwise childhood returns from a long jail stint to become his nemesis – is rather intriguing.

That returning character is Damian (played by Jonathan Majors, a mere weeks after he was introduced as the latest MCU antagonist Kang the Conqueror in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.) As kids, Damian and Adonis both wanted to grow up to be boxing champs. However, one night when young Adonis got into a fight and Damian pulled a gun to protect him, Adonis got away from the police, but Damian ended up spending time in jail.

Damian is finally out of the joint not long after Adonis has retired from the ring. Damian shows up, hat in hand, looking for help to become a boxer, as he has kept himself in shape. Adonis feels guilty and tries to help, but when that help succeeds Damian allows the anger that he has felt for years to bubble over and starts antagonizing his old friend to come back to the ring and get a major beat down.

The character of Damian is a bit of a puzzle, honestly. At least twice in the running time of Creed III, he has a major shift in personality and priorities. While it is understandable that he’d have bitterness for going to jail for all these years for something he did to protect his friend, the whiplash of his feelings gets a bit overdone.

Still, while it was far from a perfect chapter of the franchise, at least Creed III puts the franchise back on the right footing. It may be interesting to see where the Rocky-verse goes next, which is not a statement that you could always make.

Jay S. Jacobs

Copyright ©2023 PopEntertainment.com. All rights reserved. Posted: March 2, 2023.

#Creed III #2023 #Movie Reviews #Michael B. Jordan #Jay S. Jacobs

[agallimaufryofoddments]

Hypothetically Heckling Hyperbolically

Scene: If Huey had been a couple years younger and able to overhear Ronny and Elmer’s peri-drowning conversation...

⁂

(TL;DR)

Ronny: Magic mirror of the sea, who is the unlikeliest to smile besides me?

Huey: Me.

Elmer: True that. Psyche! It’s me.

Ronny: Shit.

Elmer: Cope. I do. Anyway, you’re going to make Maiza smile, and you’re gonna like it. You’ll like it till you drop dead from smiling!

⁂

Ronny: Mortal, I can grant you power beyond your wildest dreams. Perfect immortality. Freezing time. Extreme farsightedness. Command over the human race. Money go brr. Anything. Anything! Think big. Bigger. BIGGER. Think deep.

“After thinking for a little while...”

Elmer: s m i l e

Ronny: Elaborate.

Elmer: Laugh from the bottom of your heart, at the top of your lungs, like you’re having fun, like you’re overjoyed. Woo me like one of your French girls, bright-eyed, rosy-cheeked, lips parted just so in the latest fashion of joie de vivre. Tell me how you smile, you who are called a demon, and what makes you really and truly happy.

Ronny: What? No. Who are you.

Huey: Addict. Smile Junkie. Joyster.

Ronny: Listen. Before you are two buttons. The red one can get you permanently clean on the spot. The blue one gets you a one-time BSOD except the :( is a :). Choose wisely.

Elmer: :)

Ronny:

Ronny: This is the most difficult, most challenging, most unfeasible wish ever asked of me. You ask for what is impossible now, nigh impossible in the near future, and forever the unlikeliest of the unlikely to occur.

Huey: Oh, God, don’t encourage him.

Elmer: so what I’m hearing is that there’s a chance

Huey: Elmer, remember when I asked you “would a man who had no personal experience with happy smiles be able to give them to others?” and you went ‘point taken?’ Think carefully.

Elmer: So, what you want to do, Ron, what you do in this sort of situations is you attach yourself to someone else in similar smileless straits, straits sans smiles to quote your French girls, and you make them your pet—pet project, yeah, and you just, you know, do what it takes until they give you a laugh right from the gut. Ron, I betcha anything you’ll be able to smile after that, I mean, we’re talking my tried and true methods here. And partner, if we reunite, smile then, because you owe me—I love ya, Ron, but I’ll find you, and you’d better be glad that you met me again. ‘I can smile now! How d’ya like them apples?!’ …I’ll even take a reason like that, so please, show me your smile.

Ronny: Methods?

Huey: His only one.

Ronny: Has it ever worked?

Huey: No.

Elmer: It worked on you.

Huey: You know which party he meant.

Elmer: Look, I was going to suggest that Ronny stick close to Maiza, what with the dead brother and other dead so-and-sos being a real bummer and all, but... I guess I could wish for Ronny to tag alone with me until I smile for real instead...

Ronny: Wait. Hold on. Wait, demon, there’s still time to change my wish—I hadn’t pressed it y—Maiza! I wish for Maiza! My mind is made up.

Elmer: Ah, you’ve chosen the blue button after all. I figured you would. 

Huey: Dare I ask why you didn’t wish for my smile?

Elmer: Well... When weighing my options, I like to choose the one that has the highest chance of succeeding.

Huey: So that’s why you didn’t wish for a genuine smile to call your own, Mr. Empty Ending?!

Elmer: Words can’t hurt me :). Not if I’m empty, right? You should try it sometime oh wait you are. What was that about failed methods, again? Cheer up! You know you want to you. You’ll never best me in the sans émotions racket, so you may as well give up and smile. Come on. Give up. Embrace failure. It’s futile to grieve the dead, but to be so delusional as to try and Lazarus-Frankenstein your wife when not even Ronny can? Move on. Smile for me like your French mother.

Ronny: Mortal, heed me as I literally drown out your words via an ocean of hurt.

Elmer: Huey’s mom :) would know  :) a thing or two about that :). Hey, Huey, look to your right, I think I can see Monica from here! Smile and wave!

Huey: The line is breaking up—sounds—gargling?—can’t hear—

Elmer: Remember, demon, that with but a smile you summon meeeee!

#Baccano! #Baccano #Ronny Schiatto #Huey Laforet #Elmer C. Albatross #Frankenstein won't be written for another 107 years of course. #I know my comedic exchanges are not -uh- funny (see those immortals superlatives reblogs) but I couldn't resist writing this one out. #I was jotting down some thoughts about Elmer not taking advantage of B!'s three Ds of insta-rewards (devouring / demon's wish / drugs) okay #and when I was reviewing the nitty-gritty of the wish itself—where Ronny can't smile on command #so Elmer gives him the hang with and help out Maiza condition with the reasoning that Ronny will smile at the end of it— #I realized :Oh. Elmer you absolute cad. That's your thing. The only thing you ever seem to try these days AND HOW'S THAT WORKED OUT? #Then there's Ronny (making the mistake of) admitting the wish is uniquely difficult. Uh oh. #Elmer *thrives* off the challenging cases. The worst of the problem children. Why? Because *he* is The Most Challenging Case of All. #I have thousands of words of notes/draft fragments for a write-up about how Elmer is drawn to and fixates on the series' mini-Elmers. #Anyway I reread Ronny's 'it's too difficult' objection and could HEAR Huey say you poor stupid fool you've encouraged him #next thing you know I abandon the notes-jotting to spend way too much time writing this post #disclaimer: Huey and his mother are never said to be living in a French village.

[b-movie-mondays]

B Movie Mondays

The Frog Prince(ss) (NR, 2009) DVD - YouTube - Amazon Run Time: 40m Watches: 2 IMDb Rating: 1.6/10 My Rating: 🦈 Word Count: 288

Man I don't even think I can call this a movie. Dear god. This might be the shortest review I've ever written just because there's really nothing to talk about.

So this “movie” is a knock-off of Disney’s The Princess and The Frog. The voice acting and the animation and the story and the characters and the everything! It’s all so so so bad! I could hardly watch this thing! 

This clipart animation has me at my wits end. The characters hardly move and the sprites are so boring and unexpressive that it makes you wonder what emotion they're trying to portray.

The voice acting isn't even laughably bad, it's just bad. The delivery of lines is so poor in so many places that they would have been better just cutting them out of the script. To be fair this was originally dubbed in Portuguese so maybe that was good and the English is just trash.

The story is boring and dare I say non-existent. There are multiple points in the plot that seem like they’d be important (princess school, the Rain Spirit kingdom) that are just never brought up again. 

The characters are all horrible people. The protagonist, Princess Iria, is so self centered and judgmental and just cruel that it makes it impossible to like her. The frog is a sleazy, misogynistic asshole. So are half of the other men in this movie. The only decent character is Iria’s father, but even he’s kind of annoying. 

Overall I cannot recommend this movie less. If I could give this zero sharks I definitely would. Alas, that would defeat the point of my rating system. Long story short, don't watch this movie. It's not worth the 40 minutes.

#the frog prince #bad movies #b movie #b movie mondays #b movies #disney knock offs #movie review #2000's movies #i wanted so badly to write a decent review for this one!!!! but there's just nothing to talk about!!!!!!!!!!!