#this is the funniest possible Big Final Battle so far i have no idea how it'll end but so far i am LIVING for it | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

rottenbrainstuff · 2 months

Text

BG3 playthrough - still trying to find Minsc

Spoilers below the cut!

Been a bit busy lately and I’m STILL trying to get Minsc but goddamn it this is turning into a big huge fucking thing, I had no idea, and I am tired.

One of the funniest things I have seen in this game so far are the high-security family vaults in the great big vault room in the bank, where you have the fight with the cultists. The game wants you to go out on a scavenger hunt and grab all the keys but myeh. You can just pick the locks. You can pick the locks while the bank manager is STANDING RIGHT THERE. If he’s behind you when you do it, he will run up behind you like HEY! WHAT ARE YOU… oh whatever, go on. Not like it matters now anyways.

I am crying!

The vaults were kind of neat, little pieces of lore for some of the characters we’ve already met. The Ravengard diary made me sad, I didn’t have Wyll with me when I read it, oops, does he have a reaction to that? I also liked the memo that notes that a “representative” from the Szarr family was by at night depositing something and acted “shocked and horrified” when they were asked the standard security screening questions. A supervisor noted that this was standard behavior for their representatives and no more questions should be asked. I assume this is a spawn on an errand and panicking because they were asked questions that they didn’t know how to answer. Neat tidbits.

Speaking of that vault fight btw, wtf is up with the bad guys’ invisibility shroud, why is it always perfect? That fight took way longer than it should have cause those assholes kept disappearing and my character that can see invisible things couldn’t see them. In the end I had to throw around alchemist fires until I finally hit them. And once I was all done, I was going around reading books in the desks and whatnot, and suddenly got attacked by one last cultist who was just apparently hiding in a shadow I guess, was that a bug or was he supposed to be hiding there?...??

Now I’m going through the sewer trying to track Minsc, which I thought was going to be a quick jaunt but noooo, apparently everyone is hiding out down here. I ran into Arabella, and Gandrel with two Gur children (tell me again how it’s a better decision to just kill all the spawn?), Voss is down here patiently waiting for me and he is going to keep on waiting for now, I found some random sleeping tiefling who is just there apparently and has no actual dialogue or associated quests, and I ran into the craziest fucking dude just hanging out being crazy with some nasty grease monsters. My oldest kid says she made friends with him, but I don’t know how that’s possible. Every single dialogue option I have leads him to allow me to pass through exactly once and if I come back, they attack. She also speeds through this game at a blinding speed so I’m thinking she is possibly simply mistaken.

Apparently Orin is down here too somewhere? Man I don’t know if I’m ready to do all of that yet either… I’m still enjoying this game so much, more than I can remember enjoying any game in a long long time, but act 3 is definitely rough around the edges. At least I haven’t been running into any of the game-breaking bugs some people have described. I wonder if those have largely been fixed? I’ve found no bugs, just a ton of random, messy, loosely-integrated content.

Hey for some reason I had in my head Zevlor was hanging out at a pub somewhere in act 3 and you could chat with him to recruit him for the last battle, but apparently that’s not a thing, you can’t talk to him anywhere, and he will just show up when it’s big fight time like “yay I’m a Hellrider again”. Boo! Come on, I would be really really willing to sacrifice things like a weird random grease sorcerer and a pointless sleeping character for, you know, even one tiny little proper act 3 chat with an actual recurring character I’ve been friends with since act one…

Random thought: I was thinking about pre-game durge recently, and Sceleritas. I mean obviously pre-game, durge was not a good person. You have flashbacks of leading a Bhaal cult. You have flashbacks of graverobbing and murder and vivisection. Durge sounds like a literal monster.

But, now I find myself wondering just how much they went along with things, and if they ever tried to resist, pre-game.

Because I’ve just been thinking about how Sceleritas talks to you. If you are playing a resisting durge, Sceleritas never sounds *surprised* that you don’t want to commit horrible murders, he only sounds disappointed. You’d think that a resistant durge is acting so out of character that Sceleritas would be somewhat surprised, but it’s never ever “oh no master, what has happened to you, you used to LOVE the cold-blooded slaughter of innocents?” Sure in act 1 there’s an element of, “oh poor master, your brain is all scrambled, don’t worry we’ll get you fixed”…. but in act 2, it feels more like “oh you naughty disobedient master, you better listen to what daddy says”, like he’s heard durge try to argue out of murder before and he needs to yet again convince naughty durge to eat their murder-vegetables. I dunno. I was wondering if even pre-game, durge resisted sometimes. It’s interesting to think about a durge that was always having little problems all along the way, a rebellious teenager talking back to daddy every once in a while, Sceleritas trying his best to keep durge on the “right” track. Maybe it’s not what the writers intended at all, but I was just thinking about it.

And lastly, Kled - still thinking about Kled - I will never shut up about Kled. Kled would still love you if you were a worm. Kled assumes it’s impossible the lady he likes could ever like him back and he doesn’t care, he’s there anyways as a friend with no expectations. Even Nere has fics on AO3 and Kled has none and that’s not fair! Kled forever.

#bg3 #bg3 playthrough #baldur's gate 3 #dark urge #bg3 spoilers

0 notes

makeste · 3 years

Text

BnHA Chapter 324: Is There a Force Field Around Him??

Previously on BnHA: Flashback!Rat Principal was all “please tell Midoriya that I spent a concerningly small amount of money upgrading U.A. into a wacky physics-defying funtime grid so as to make the final battle much more confusing for everyone.” Present Day!Mic (or Present!Mic, if you will) and Jeanist were all “if only somebody could deescalate this dangerously unhinged mob, we’ve tried nothing and we’re all out of ideas.” Ochako was all “LISTEN UP PEOPLE.” The mob was all, “god??” Ochako was all, “NO, IT’S ME, OCHAKO. I’M REALLY HIGH UP ON THIS BUILDING AND THE VISIBILITY IS LOW DUE TO THE RAIN, SO I CAN SEE HOW YOU MIGHT MAKE THAT MISTAKE. ANYWAYS, DEKU WAS OUT THERE RISKING HIS LIFE FOR YOU CLOWNS EVEN THOUGH HE’S JUST A KID, SO I WOULD REALLY APPRECIATE IF YOU COULD ALL REMEMBER HOW TO BE DECENT HUMAN BEINGS, THANKS.” Let’s see if her Big Scolding Energy has any impact.

Today on BnHA: Horikoshi is all “so I have this speech planned out, and it’s really good, but it also only really needs about 6 to 8 pages, but I’m gonna see if I can stretch it out to 17 pages so I can kill time before we get to the next volume cliffhanger two weeks from now.” Anyway but it really is a good speech though. There are feels, and tears, and more talk about how Deku is so in need of a shower that just looking at him requires a tetanus booster, and more feels, and more tears, and bonus ship drama, and an iconic callback to the very first chapter which reframes the entire series in a new context in a totally epic and moving way, and it’s all very good. Except that Horikoshi is determined to never let anyone actually give this kid a hug. Who hurt you, dude.

omg we are opening on a callback to chapter 212, a.k.a. the chapter with by far the cutest flashback that doesn’t involve any baby Todorokis

baby Ochako is lethally cute. she could literally murder someone with her cuteness. I just want to scoop her up and play airplane with her until she accidentally activates her quirk while we’re spinning around and we both helicopter up into the air never to be seen again

“a child’s insistence” huh well that’s all well and good, but I sure hope this doesn’t mean we’re going to drag out the whole “sternly lecture the obnoxious citizens” plot for another whole chapter. no offense but I think we’re good

so page 2 is just continuing the whole happy/worried faces monologue, which of course is very important to Ochako’s character as it provides the context for why “who protects the heroes” ended up becoming her thing. and this is making me think we actually are in for a whole second chapter of this sob. when will my boy finally get to rest

OH MY GOD SUDDENLY THESE PEOPLE HAVE EYES IMAGINE THAT

HORIKOSHI: [reaches for a box of tissues while tearfully penning an homage to his beloved Spider-Man 2, specifically the train scene where the crowd sees Peter without his mask and they suddenly realize just how young he is]

HORIKOSHI’S HOMAGE SCENE: “COME TO THINK OF IT, I GUESS IT WAS KIND OF MEAN FOR US TO PICK ON THIS TEN YEAR OLD KID WHO WEIGHS 75 POUNDS AND LOOKS LIKE HE LOST A FIGHT WITH SATAN’S MOLDY OLD BASEMENT”

lol at this one guy who can feel the mood of the crowd shifting and is all “WAIT, NO, I WANTED TO KEEP BEING AN ASSHOLE DAMMIT”

as many pointed out last week, this man is wearing an All Might shirt. that’s some fantastic irony there

-- SDKFJWIGKS

“LITTLE GIRL, I HOPE YOU’RE NOT SUGGESTING THAT WE SHOULD ALL BE WALKING AROUND DRESSED LIKE A SOVIET-ERA BUS STOP.” heh. last week I said I was ashamed of BnHA being my favorite manga. that was a lie, actually

(ETA: in the original Japanese Ochako’s next two lines are basically “the only ones covered in mud will be us heroes!” followed by “please give us some time to get rid of the mud”, with that second line basically being the single funniest thing I’ve ever read rdslkjl. Ochako thank you so much for supporting my running gags. “YEAH WE KNOW HE’S DIRTY. WE ARE GONNA TRY AND CLEAN HIM UP, BUT IT MAY TAKE A WHILE, I’M JUST SAYING. I MEAN LOOK AT HIM. HE LOOKS LIKE AN ASBESTOS COSPLAY.”)

doesn’t the megaphone kind of look ever so slightly like an axe that she’s wielding maniacally here

easy there Lizzie Borden

also that’s a really bold claim to make there. and not one she necessarily should have to make, either. but as we all know, there’s nothing that shounen manga likes more than having its heroes bravely hoist heavy burdens of responsibility like good self-sacrificing citizens

p.s. lowkey loving how Kacchan is positioned here standing slightly behind Deku. not presuming to stand in front of him all overprotectively (because he would hate if anyone ever did that to him), and kind of being unobtrusive and letting others take center stage -- but still being close enough to Deku that he can catch him if he stumbles or passes out again

(ETA: or maybe not lmao.

DEKU: [falls to his knees]

KACCHAN: [glancing up from his phone a few minutes later] “someone just sent me the stupidest meme about milk crates -- oh. uh. you good...?”

really, son. “the burdens you can’t carry, we’ll carry them for you. ...later, I mean. right now it’s late, and we’re all cold and wet.”)

also lowkey loving this OchaTsu moment here

I was going back and binging Ochako chapters this past week for reasons, and I gotta say it really stuck out to me just how often these two are paired with each other. they do everything together. it’s a really sweet friendship that often goes unappreciated but it’s very cute

meanwhile, not to be outdone by the OchaTsu, Iida is staring at Ochako with open admiration talking about how she’s fighting too. it’s been so long since we’ve had any IidaRaka you guys. I was starving and I didn’t even know it

oh my lord IT’S FINALLY HAPPENING

THE LIGHT IS BACK. he finally looks like him again. what a cathartic fucking moment omg

ffklkdw

“I KNOW YOU ARE ALL SCARED, BUT THE GOOD NEWS IS, WE DEFINITELY CANNOT GUARANTEE YOUR SAFETY AND WE ARE ALL SCARED TOO!” good pep talk there kiddo

BUT, jokes aside, truth be told this is the exact right approach to take imo, and something that’s long overdue. I’ve said this before, but this new generation of heroes is shaping up to be much more transparent than the All Might generation. they’re basically abandoning the almighty, untouchable Superman “heroes as gods” concept in favor of the more nuanced “heroes as people” concept instead. and that’s a good thing. seeing their heroes as humans, with human limitations and weaknesses and flaws, will hopefully not only lead to more scrutiny and accountability, but also more awareness of how hard some of them are working and how much they’re sacrificing. that’s something All Might never quite grasped back at the start of the series -- that the weak, vulnerable, injured him could be just as inspiring as the mighty, invincible him -- perhaps even more so. there’s a power in seeing otherwise ordinary people show extraordinary bravery and compassion. it inspires others to try and do the same

SSDLHK AIZAWA SIGHTING AAHHHHHH

so he was still back at the hospital this whole time?? smdh at this disrespect. that feeling when your sexy self-insert character’s powers of rationality are too strong, and so you have to nerf him so that he doesn’t ruin your Deku Angst arc twice over by (1) immediately talking some sense into Deku and making him come home Right This Instant Young Man, and (2) not allowing him to leave U.A. in the first fucking place. excuse me, you want to do WHAT now, Midoriya?? that’s it, go to your room

also living for Katsuki and Hawks’s soft expressions. Shouto’s too, although his is tinier and harder to see. and Jeanist’s 12-foot-long neck. imagine Jeanist’s head with Mic’s hair. maybe Jeanist had a mohawk back in the day and that’s why U.A.’s doors are so big now

speaking of soft faces, Enji’s is also excellent

what could this random close-up possibly imply?? hell if I know. but Horikoshi truly fears no discourse and that’s what I love about him

OMGGGG

“smh my child is so dumb.” poor Ochadad. your child is cute af count your blessings

SDOFFHSMH

I’m telling you guys. lethally, catastrophically cute

this speech is still ongoing lol. Horikoshi you’re doing so good but I think we get the point now my dude. you gotta learn how to transition out of these things

UNEXPECTED TOGA WHAT

“there we go” Horikoshi says, crossing off the last line on his list of Ochako ships. “that’s all of ‘em”

poor Ochako is just repeating the same “LET HIM REST, PLEASE, WITH EVERYONE’S COOPERATION, IF YOU DON’T MIND, WE APPRECIATE IT” talking points over and over again hoping someone will throw her a bone and acknowledge her already. SOMEONE PLEASE HELP HER

literally they’re all just staring up at her silently omg. work with me people!!

now she’s saying it for the 56th time but more dramatically all of a sudden

they got so dramatic that for a minute I thought she had suddenly leaped off the building or something

look, not to rush you or anything Horikoshi, but I’m starting to get the feeling that this is yet another one of those “the volume is ending soon so I need to either hurry things up or slow things down in order to make sure we end it on my perfect cliffhanger ending” chapters where you go to ridiculous lengths to drag things out much to the exasperation of your week-to-week readers

(ETA: ftr, volume 31 ended on chapter 306, and I’m predicting that vol. 32 will end with chapter 316 (a.k.a. “you’re next!” [explodes]). I’m guessing vol. 33 will follow suit and likely end on chapter 326, so keep your eyes peeled for a big cliffhanger in two weeks’ time. Deku’s dad?? All Might in peril?? U.A. traitor at long fucking last?? we shall see.)

is Deku straight up falling in love with Ochako right on the spot lol what is happening

I know I just said that I enjoy when Horikoshi gives zero fucks about discourse, but shipping discourse is a whole different beast lol. I hope he’s prepared

(ETA: and for the record, I have no interest in shipping discourse either, as always. and I think this scene can be interpreted as platonic, tbh, with the context being that Ochako was literally introduced as someone who was willing to help him so casually without a second thought, and now here she is saving him again.

I don’t think it really fully hit Deku until this moment how much he needed saving. like I said in another meta somewhere, selflessness is basically just selfishness on behalf of others. and Deku is selfless to a fault, but that’s okay, and it doesn’t mean he needs to change -- he just needs friends who are willing to be be selfish on his behalf in turn. and I think the full emotion of what it means to have friends like that just hit him at last. everything his friends have done for him, how much he needed it and didn’t even realize, and how grateful he is. anyways what a terrible day for rain.)

-- son of a --

is he apologizing?? or pleading?? please tell me that’s not the case, because what the actual fuck. Deku you beautiful precious radiant selfless child, this is the exact opposite of how this should be. all these motherfuckers should be on their knees apologizing to you

DEKU WHY

I DIDN’T ASK FOR THIS FREAKING BOMBARDMENT OF EMOTIONS GODDAMIT. OUT HERE ARMED WITH YOUR FREAKING TREBUCHET OF FEELS TO LAUNCH AT ME UNPROVOKED. WHAT’S WITH THAT

FREAKING CHRIST. THIS BOY IS CRYING HIS EYES OUT AND HORIKOSHI IS JUST ZOOMING IN WITH THE CAMERA, LIKE CAN WE JUST CUT HIM A BREAK ALREADY. ENOUGH OF THIS. HE’S SO YOUNG AND HE TRIES SO HARD AND I JUST NEED HIM TO FEEL SAFE, HORIKOSHI PLEASE CAN YOU JUST GIVE ME THAT ALREADY WHAT IS THE FREAKING HOLD UP!!

GIGANTIC FOX LADY!!!

GIGANTIC FOX LADY PLEASE BE MY HUGGER BY PROXY!! SERIOUSLY GIRL IF YOU JUST HOLD YOUR UMBRELLA OVER HIM OR SOMETHING AND DON’T GO THE EXTRA MILE I’M ABOUT TO LODGE AN OFFICIAL COMPLAINT. THIS IS GETTING RIDICULOUS NOW

!!!!

A KOUTA IS GOOD TOO!!! oh my god if Kouta hugs him I will seriously 100% straight up cry. go on and test me

FOR THE LOVE OF --

is this man expressly forbidden from drawing hugs in his contract or something. DO YOU DO IT JUST TO SPITE ME?? this is tyranny, sir

AND I KNOW, THIS PAGE ACTUALLY CHALLENGED THE VERY PREMISE OF THE SERIES ITSELF, AND HERE I AM COMPLAINING ABOUT HUGS, OR THE LACK THEREOF. “this is the story of how we all became the greatest heroes.” and just like that, he waves a polite middle finger at all of the Strongest Greatest Chosen One shounen protags of old, in favor of something much less conventional, much more interesting, and much more suited to Deku’s character. because if that one sentence doesn’t just sum up Deku to a T. he gladly relinquishes his Greatest Hero status in favor of acknowledging the hero in everyone. what a class act. that’s my protagonist

I love this kid so fucking much I swear. only just PLEASE. FOR THE LOVE OF GOD. GIVE HIM HIS HUG

#bnha 324 #uraraka ochako #midoriya izuku #bnha #boku no hero academia #bnha spoilers #mha spoilers #bnha manga spoilers #makeste reads bnha

228 notes · View notes

slothcritic · 5 years

Text

Dragon Ball Z Abridged - Episode 5 Review

Weird yet creative cutaways with strong overarching momentum.

Vegeta: Kills Bugs Dead opens with Goku finally reaching the end of Snake Way and the end of his journey to reach King Kai. The "nice job, jackass" as Goku literally craters into the planet sets the tone for this character in a big way. We're also treated to the incredible hijinks of Vegeta and Nappa.

[Title Sequence]

The pit-stop at Arlia at least receives a well-fitted and rather hilarious incarnation in this series. Even though the episode alternates its focus between King Kai and Arlia, I'm going to talk at length about Arlia first, and then move onto the King Kai segments.

I'm already going into this scene with some personal bias, as the "stronger guy playing along with the weaker guy because it'd be funny" trope is one of my favorites. And here we have exactly this. Vegeta and Nappa allow themselves to be captured and thrown in jail by the Arlians, where they meet an assortment of varied bug characters.

"Don't drop the soap" seems a little outdated for the modern style of TFS, as I feel they've leaned away from really older, cruder, less PC subject matters like calling someone retarded or insinuating prison rape, etc, but it fits Nappa's character completely as someone who is childish, crass, annoying for the sake of being annoying, and kind of a jerk. TFS has at least acknowledged the idea of possibly re-dubbing Season 1 with better equipment and perhaps a more refined script, and I dearly hope they keep this line unedited simply for the sake of nailing Nappa’s character identity.

After very nearly becoming a prison bitch, Vegeta decides he's had enough and promptly kabooms his way out of prison, landing smack-dab in the middle of a coliseum with the king of Arlia and his queen.

Nappa's blunt manner of introducing himself with simply "Hi." will never age.

It’s noteworthy that scene is also the first moment we get a good look at Vegeta as a character. Nappa was firmly established as the goofball from the start, but Vegeta's portrayal has more depth to it than could be conveyed in one-liners. Most of which is just sass, smug pride, and anger, but still.

It's also made clear very quickly that despite their bantering idiocy and gruff talk that they're not just for show, as Nappa no-diff's the thirteen elite Arlian guards with a massive shock wave that we later see level a city.

The king and queen are then more or less blackmailed into fucking. Nappa's eager fascination during this whole scene, the descriptions, visual edits and sound design are... Well, there's no other way to put it, it's fucked up. And it is hilarious! These are some very creative takes and decisions that were made entirely for internal experience of the show itself rather than as a parody of something else. Nappa even takes a photograph of it and sends it to Vegeta, since he's abstained from watching.

The comedic jabs don't stop there either, as Nappa tries to adopt the Arlian Rancor, but just like the kid who can't sit still, Nappa ends up breaking everything he plays with. Just as Vegeta is about to kill the king, rocks begin flying around the coliseum.

"What are you doing?"

Vegeta smirks. "I'm about to rock you, like a hurricane." And then boom, he hurls a rock into the king and kills him. Let's put a pin in that brick joke for later.

The long flashback scene doesn't play any music, which feels like a weird editing misstep after a series of home runs. They leave the planet as heroes, and Nappa sets Vegeta up for another predictable bit of mood whiplash, where Vegeta obliterates the entire planet. This is a huge escalation in power scale compared to everything else we have seen thus far. But then, this is Dragon Ball Z. We've already reached “destroying planets” at only the fifth episode, and everyone knows that it only goes well past 11 on the dial from here on out.

Granted, there is controversy in the official version about whether or not this would’ve been possible for Saiyan Saga Vegeta, considering Arlia is not canon, but I will not be considering that simply because DBZA contains no filler. Everything shown in the flagship series (not counting movies, DBZA Kai, or other shorts) is presented as being canon to DBZA. Also, Vegeta and Nappa are shown standing outside of their pods... in the vacuum of space. Series veterans will understand the massive can of worms this opens. I'm looking at you, Battle of Gods.

Once everyone, including the people that they JUST SAVED from a tyrannical king, have been reduced to space dust, Nappa closes off this scene nicely.

Now that we've discussed Arlia, let's focus on King Kai's role in the episode.

He explains to Goku that the planet has high gravity due to it's small size. Gregory from off-screen pipes up that this doesn't make any sense. I suppose "higher planet density" wasn't considered when writing the script - or perhaps it was, and they just decided that the easy answer wasn't the funniest one. Maybe “there’s an incredibly powerful pirate trapped in the core of the planet, which is why the gravity is so strong" was deemed better for a parody.

Honestly, I agree. Bojack works as an in-the-know reference, and is also fleshed out enough within the show that a newcomer would understand what's being discussed.

At the time of this review, the Bojack Abridged movie has not yet been released, but this is easily one of the longest brick jokes in all of DBZA, since Episode 5 was released in 2008 and it is my expectation that Bojack Abridged will be released within the year, leaving in its wake an 11 year old callback.

When King Kai asks Goku why he had been sought out, Goku explains that the Saiyans are coming to Earth and he requires training. Excellent fade-in and musical choice for Goku's uncharacteristically serious speech to King Kai.

Of course, it gets cut off at the peak swell with King Kai's indifferent "sure", leaving Goku gobsmacked.

In this series, King Kai's indifference and easy acceptance of Goku is attributed to the mind-numbing loneliness of only having a monkey and a grasshopper (cricket, sorry) to talk to for the last 500 years. Goku agrees, as he couldn't imagine anything more boring.

Major flash-forward to Namek. Just this scene being here at all is a major instance of a sequence break. But it is the introduction of another exceptionally interesting character in the series.

In terms of placement, this works as a long-term cutaway gag and reminiscent humor but not much else. We're still about half a season away from even considering Namek within the story, and the Saiyans haven't even arrived on Earth yet. The decision to slide this segment into the middle of this episode leaves some serious questions in my mind. But at face value, it's not that bad.

We're treated to a solid ten seconds of just staring at a massive fat green alien while birds chirp in the background. We hear a fish go "plonk!" in the water, and Lord Guru calls for someone named Nail, who looks a lot like Piccolo, to approach him.

"I saw a fish. That was all, you can go back outside now."

Definitely reinforces the point of boring. And while Nail is lamenting how boring his job is, Lord Guru tells him that he saw a bird and then promptly instructs him to "kick its ass."

But we’re not Nail, are we? We’re the viewer, and for some reason in the human mind, segments of extremely boring content usually pique our interest even more, because we have it drilled into our psyche that something is going to happen to break the tension sooner or later. That notion, the idea of slowly leaning closer to the monitor during the ten long seconds of a single still image, both conveys the boring tone of Namek, but also leaves the reader waiting in anticipation long enough for these dull scenes to just fade from their perspective and only latch onto the climatic moment. In this case, Guru commanding his apparent servant/bodyguard to assault a fish.

Not to overstate the obvious, but if it’s not the viewer’s own sense of tension and curiosity, it’s the pure absurdism and characterization of Guru that carries this scene. Disregarding source material, the design of Guru is meant to make him look old, wise and compassionate. Making him a lazy, annoying, verbally violent fatass is a near-infinite cash cow of writing material. It’s very difficult for me to judge this scene unbiased, knowing what comes next, but I imagine this would be a tryhard non-sequitur at worst, or promising potential for the future at best, with regards to this scene on its own, within the context of this episode and nothing more.

This episode also saw the genesis of perhaps not the first, but one of the most popular jokes in all of DBZA: Piccolo just jobbing the shit out of Gohan. DODGE! The scenes chosen and the delivery are outstanding compliments to this cheesy, simplistic joke. At this point I feel it's important to address that my editorial reflections or descriptions of these skits are relative to the context of these episodes. Even with the best of what this episode has to offer, we're still in peak 2008 internet humor era. The use of the word "outstanding" here will not carry a similar significance should I use it to describe a later episode.

Also the most random cutaway in all of DBZA, full-stop, is the brief look into the Hall of Justice, as Superman, Batman and Aquaman debate how they will stop the approaching Saiyans. This is humorous only in its absurdity, but less-endearingly than Guru was. Even if this scene makes zero sense, and relies upon an almost lower form of comedy than slapstick, Aquaman's voice is still just Krillin's voice. At least Superman and Batman sound different than the main cast. I'm really tempted to dislike this more, but the lackadaisical attitude and context of the whole scene definitely draws your eye more than a lot of the sensible but base-line plot progression of the story. I don't know if it belongs. To me, this scene just screams out that TFS is flinging spaghetti wildly at the wall, any and everything that might be funny, and while some of it sticks for one reason or another, (Jadoshin as Solid Snake, Antics on Arlia, even Guru's abrupt cameo) some of it flops. If anything, this show builds upon the corpses of its failures, and learns what works and what doesn't work surprisingly quickly.

Conclusion

Bizarre, but I liked it. Nothing in this episode that's bad is memorable. I might criticize the Namek cutaway for being out of place, but after letting this review sit for a few days, I just remember Goku saying "Man, nothing could be more boring than that!" and the immediate cut to Namek, and Nail pleading for the love of his sanity for something to happen. I might criticize the Justice League cutaway for being wildly out of the place, but I just remember "WHAAAAAALES!"

The meat of the episode was also decent, as it establishes Goku training under King Kai, and Piccolo's continued training of Gohan, the origin of DODGE! and the realization that Gohan can transform into an Ozaru. And you can nod your head and say that these may be necessary to the story all day, but they're also presented with... let's call it a clumsy grace. It's not bad, but it's miles away from official dub quality. This is in essence what the benchmark or gold standard was for early abridging back in 2008. The quality that TFS will continue to evolve the series into simply defies all logic or explanation, and in comparison makes these episodes look downright crude.

But let's face it, if Episode 1 began with a person lying on the ground and shot in both kneecaps, Episode 5 shows that same person at least hobbling down the street to the hospital.

It might not look pretty on the whole, and some of the dialogue might be clunky, but it seems like a lot of the flaws in this episode are simply caused by being products of their time.

Whether we're looking at Namek or The Hall of Justice, even the most outlandish oddities of this episode have still made me laugh. That's really the end of it.

Score: 75

Passing Thoughts

"I hope something exciting happens around here soon. I don't care what it is." - Ominous!

"You're surrounded by my thirteen elite *KABOOM* ...dead guards."

"SUMMON THE RANCOR!"

#slothcritic #DBZ #Dragon Ball Z Abridged #TFS #teamfourstar

9 notes · View notes

whatarubberchicken · 6 years

Text

Lukadrinette - Part 2

I feel bad not getting my Marichat May fics in, but damn they got dark all of a sudden. To make myself feel better, have another section of the fic that’s currently eating away at my mind:

First part is here.

Again, adult language and situations going on. This happens years after the show.

Adrien woke to a queasy stomach, a massive head-ache, and sunlight in his eyes. He groaned and rolled over, trying to hide under the blanket.

The blanket smelled weird.

Dammit. Now he had to do laundry again!

He hated this part of getting drunk—wait. It wasn’t a bad ‘weird’ smell. Just different.

He sniffed again.

Floral… mint… salt… and some sort of cologne…

Aww, fuck. He wasn’t home.

He groaned again, wondering what hell-hole he’d managed to dive into this time. It couldn’t be too bad, he supposed. The smell was nice. At least he hadn’t woken up to somebody beside him. He hadn’t been drugged. He wasn’t naked. (Well, not fully-naked, he corrected himself, realizing he’d lost his shirt somewhere in there. And judging from the uncomfortable wet spot in his jeans, he probably should’ve lost those too before he’d pissed himself.)

He heard a chuckle come from somewhere in the room.

“Well, well. He lives!” a familiar voice called.

Adrien groaned. “Please don’t yell at me,” he whimpered. Crap, now he knew exactly where he was. And like always, his pulse quickened and he could feel his mood lifting, just by being the same room as this man.

“Ouch,” Luka laughed. “I’m talking softly, pretty boy. You really did a number on yourself.”

“You try getting left at a club by a girl who told you she loved you for two whole weeks,” Adrien grumbled. “See how you take it.”

“Wow. Two whole weeks,” Luka deadpanned.

“Shuddup.”

He heard the other boy chuckle again.

“Coffee?”

“Please,” Adrien sighed, finally surrendering to the inevitable and sitting up. Slowly. Dammit, his head hurt. Luka appeared in front of him with a steaming cup and two pills. Adrien nearly slumped with relief as he took them. “Bless you.”

“Meds first, or Mari’ll have my hide.”

Adrien obeyed. “Sorry about your couch,” he said, indicating his lower half.

“Ehh, you’re not the first drunk who’s crashed at our place,” Luka said, throwing himself into a nearby chair and grabbing his guitar. “We put some puppy pads underneath you to absorb it.”

Frowning, Adrien flipped over part of the blanket he’d been sleeping on. Sure enough, absorbent pads covered the cushions beneath him.

“I don’t know if I should feel relieved, or insulted about being considered a puppy,” he muttered.

“We got them after your buddy Kim tried to drink Jules under the table. That was the funniest shit I ever saw,” Luka said, shrugging as he lightly-fingered a few chords. “So, you can blame Marinette’s ability to plan for anything and everything. You did manage to make it into the vomit bucket every time, though. Thank you for that.”

“Wh-where is she now?” Adrien asked, clearing his throat awkwardly. He took a sip of his coffee to try to calm himself.

“Mari? She’s in the bathroom, getting ready for work. Someone has to feed my lazy ass.”

Adrien wanted to hate him. He really did. The other man had everything he’d ever wanted. A loving home, a beautiful girlfriend, a job he didn’t despise with his every breath….

… a hairbrush flying at his head…

Luka yelped and barely managed to duck it.

“Dammit, woman, we’re having guy-talk over here! Can’t you pretend I’m the king of this castle??”

“Not if you put yourself down like that,” Marinette called sweetly as she appeared in the doorway, putting on her earrings. “You are not lazy. You are in-between jobs because you got illegally sacked by a bunch of morons who don’t know how to carry a tune.”

Luka grumbled, running his hands through his hair. “Still not getting paid, though,” he reminded her.

“We’ll make it just fine,” she said softly, coming over and kissing the top of his head. “Joan will find you guys another gig and then I’ll never see you at night ever again.” They grinned at each other as she retrieved the hairbrush. Adrien didn’t even realize he was staring until Marinette looked over at him.

“How are you feeling, Adrien?” she asked, keeping her voice low.

“Good! Good,” Adrien said, nodding and clearing his throat again. God, she looked so beautiful. Hair up in a professional-looking bun. Makeup on. Killer outfit with a button-down blouse and matching slacks. So grown up and put-together. And here he was, sitting in his own piss and nursing a hangover.

Somebody kill him now.

“Make sure you take a shower before you go home,” she said, crossing into the kitchen and pouring herself a cup of coffee as well. “Luka can loan you some clothes while you throw yours in the laundry.”

Luka cleared his throat and pouted at her, giving her big, puppy-dog eyes.

“I don’t think now’s the best time, Luka,” she sighed.

“Can I at least ask him??” Luka begged.

“Ask me what?”

“You are going to make this awkward!” Marinette snapped.

“It’s already awkward!” Luka argued. “Look at him, babe! He’s ready to bolt as soon as you leave! At least this way he’ll have something to look forward to if he stays!”

Adrien, who had indeed been thinking he’d make up an excuse to get out of this apartment as soon as his high-school friend left, snapped his mouth shut on his questions and looked between the two confusedly. What the hell could they possibly be arguing about??

“Luka….” Marinette groaned.

“Don’t you ‘Luka’ me!” her boyfriend snapped. “You know I’m right. You want him as bad as I do!”

Adrien blinked. Wait… what?

“Umm, look,” he said slowly, licking his lips, “if me being here is gonna cause a problem for you two, I can just go….”

“You’re not a problem, Adrien,” Marinette said. She and Luka locked eyes for a moment, silently battling it out. To Adrien’s surprise, Marinette was the first to look away, shrugging helplessly.

“Fine, ask him,” she said. “But if he runs away screaming, I’m blaming you.”

“Ask me what?” Adrien’s curiosity was eating him alive.

Luka turned to him eagerly. “I—we—were wondering if you’d like to stay here with me today,” he said. “Breakfast, shower, laundry, all that. But also, with the understanding that I desperately want to bend you over that kitchen counter.”

Adrien choked. He hadn’t taken a drink of his coffee, but he straight-up choked as he stared at the other man. Behind him, Marinette groaned and facepalmed.

“Babe, we need to work on your tact,” she said.

“What? It’s the truth!” Luka protested. “Oh, and Mari! Mari would like to join us when she gets home.”

“Mari would like to strangle her boyfriend with his guitar strings,” Marinette muttered under her breath.

“We’ll save that for the second date,” Luka winked at her.

“So, wait… both of you?” Adrien asked, trying to talk, even though his mind had been blown. They were already a couple, but… they weren’t talking about breaking up over him…. “You both want me?”

“Please ignore the horny blueberry in the corner there,” Marinette said, stepping around the kitchen counter. Luka made an offended noise. “But… let’s just say… in the past, we have considered adding you to our relationship and found that neither of us were against the idea.”

“Against the idea?” Luka scoffed. “You were screaming his name as I—”

“Quiet, you,” she growled. She focused on Adrien again. “You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to,” she said softly. “If you just want to get cleaned up and go, that’s fine. Nothing has to change between us. But if you want to—”

“I can have both of you?” Adrien choked out, looking between them wildly.

God, the idea… he’d wanted Luka for forever. Before he’d even known that boys could like boys like that. He’d simply thought something was wrong with him until Nino had realized Adrien had never gotten any sort of “talk” from the non-existent parental units in his life. And Marinette was… well, Marinette! The one he’d secretly pinned after for years, hoarding every single picture Alya had sent him; always heartbreakingly-aware that she was far too good for him.

They wanted him? Even broken and pathetic on their couch? He knew he was pretty, but they of all people knew just how messed up he was! Most of his partners ran away once they realized just how deep the drama got. But Marinette and Luka already knew about all that.

And they wanted him anyway??

I can have this?

Even if they didn’t love him—if it was just a one-time deal…. Just the thought of them—both of them—holding him, touching him, kissing him, oh fuck, taking him, acting like he mattered—

Yes. YES. WHERE THE FUCK DO I SIGN??

“Hmm,” Luka chuckled, watching Adrien and leaning back in a very self-satisfied way. “I think he likes it.”

Marinette looked between them, biting her lip.

“Please,” Adrien breathed, ready to beg on his knees if that’s what it took. “Please. Let me have you, Mari. Both of you,” he added, looking over at Luka, who was grinning broadly. “I’ve wanted both of you forever. Please, I’ll do anything.”

To show he was serious, Adrien sank to his knees. Instantly, both of them leapt forward.

“Whoa, whoa, man!”

“Adrien, that’s not necessary!”

Because he was closer, Luka reached him first, pulling him to his feet. “No need for that, buddy,” he said quickly. “If we’re gonna do this, we all have to be on equal ground, okay?”

“Huh?”

“We’ve got some strict rules about communication, Adrien,” Marinette explained, placing a hand on his arm. Even their simple, friendly touches seared themselves into his mind. “If you want or need something, we need you to tell us, not keep silent because you’re afraid you’ll do something wrong and lose us.”

“I need you,” Adrien said immediately. Marinette gaped at him and then jumped as an alarm on her phone went off.

“Catches on quick, doesn’t he?” Luka snickered. “You’re gonna be late for work, babe.”

“I know,” Marinette grumbled, searching Adrien’s eyes for a moment more. She sighed in defeat. “Fine. I’m going. Luka, make sure you talk to him—”

“I will, I will,” Luka promised, shooing her away.

“And remember, don’t put jeans in hot water—”

“Got it, Mama-Marinette.”

Marinette made a face at him and finally ran out the door.

To be continued....

#lukadrinette #lukadrien #lukanette #not really too much adrinette yet #luka couffaine #adrien agreste #marinette dupain cheng

165 notes · View notes

childofsquidward · 6 years

Text

Queen’s Battle (pt. 1 + pt. 2)

*WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD*

First off, I didn’t think we’d get Queen’s Battle before 2019. I can’t be the only one. I for sure thought that Frozer would be the last episode we’d get to see for 2018.

Moving on, literally every time Marinette goes into freak-out mode, I want to reach through my screen and give her a hug - stop stressing my child out 2k18 and beyond. Everyone needs a Tikki in their lives, btw. Also, why do I feel as though the writers scroll through Tumblr? Because everyone’s been talking about Adrien’s allergies, and the writers fixed that plot hole up real quick with synthetic feathers. Like, I feel as though they’re getting better at not leaving us with a million questions…?

AntHoNy -

Girl, you forgetting his name on purpose or…?

(Gorilla’s face was everything though, he was probably just like, “my boss may be Hawkmoth, but at least he remembers to treat me like a human every now and then, sayonara bitch.”

Why isn’t the carpet made out of marble - jfc! I can’t deal with this woman and it’s only been like two minutes. Her magazine is named Style Queen? Why didn’t anyone on here think of that? Also, Audrey’s just a straight up bitch, I want to knock that ridiculous hat off of her head, she is the worst, and not to condone Chloe’s own actions, but if that's what I had to look up to, if that was my main influence growing up, I’d be Chloe too.

cLarA?!

Thomas, what the hell is this?! We can’t have parents on this show who are worse than Gabriel, he’s the fucking villain!

“And you’re fired.” - from what, being your daughter - wait, actually, that’s not the worst idea, run Chloe run (I’d just quit if I could)

Aw, Adrienette, my sun, my stars, the only way to turn this episode around… No, seriously, I missed their adorkably awkward interactions, it feels like it’s been a while since we’ve had on of those (maybe it’s just the shipper in me, but whatevs)

Okay, I know that everyone thought that Nathalie might deliver some savage comebacks or whatever, but her monotonous air of ‘shut up, god, why are you still here?” was the funniest shit ever, I lived for it people! Oh Nathalie…

Moving on, are they really gonna’ have Audrey get akumatized cuz she thinks that Gabriel making her sit in the second row (GOD FORBID) is a sign of disrespect? So he reserved the front seat for his son’s closest friends, one of whom designed a piece for the show, big deal.

The coffin - oh dear god, I knew it was coming but with the music and everything, chills, literal chills. Also, why does Emilie’s outfit look like a fencing uniform…?

But like, my boy Nino living his best life, fulfilling his dreams - YAAAASSSS DJ!NINO

“Is this supposed to happen?” - Tom is so precious!

ADRIEN WHY DIDN’T YOU RUN?! (I knew it was gonna’ happen, but he could’ve gotten away and transformed, ugh)

I know that Style Queen’s the villain, but she’s not wrong about the costume. Is it practical and thematic? Yes. Does it look like the work of an aspiring fashion designer? Don’t make me laugh.

Aw, Chloboats just saved her hero’s life - Chloe’s a real stan, like she’d do anything for Ladybug, even somewhat defy her mother.

Also, I can’t believe they actually made Adrien as Sleeping Beauty canon. I’m telling you, someone in that writers’ room is on Tumblr.

Mari met Plaag guys, she met Plaag- I LOVE THIS SEASON SO MUCH!!!

Yo, I need flashbacks of what Plaag did to Atlantis, the leaning tower, dinosaurs, and god knows what else. Master Fu was quick to jump on him though. Like, Marinette comes in full panic mode and he’s just chillin, meditating, living life, but the minute Plaag starts talking he was in Mari mode like “no, nope, nopitynopnope.” and Wayzz just groaning in the background - highlight of the episode for me honestly.

Alya nearly became Queen Bee y’all!!! I love how Marinette just knows that she’ll be there, so she’s like, ‘yo, how’s about a second miraculous, you up for it?’ By the way, what are rules of being a miraculous holder exactly? Like, are you allowed to be in possession of more than one? Can they like, switch miraculous all willy nilly depending on the situation?

Is it wrong that I love Plaag even more now knowing that such a tiny little bean can cause so much damage? God bless Marinette and Tikki’s powers cuz’ otherwise, I think Plaag’s cataclysm would’ve probably destroyed the entire city, or at least half of it.

Also, Mari, sweetie, the bee miraculous! The bee mirac- this girl...

Nathalie knows?! Did we know she knows?! I know we headcanon she knows, but did we know?! Guys, this is too much for me. On that note, Pollen is adorable, I love her already, she must be protected at all costs!

Now onto part two…

HE’S GIVING UP?! GABRIEL, REALLY?! I mean, should be happy…? I did not see that one coming but I guess this was the final straw for him, so I kind of get it. Like, Style Queen was supposed to be his end all be all, and even she failed to seal the deal for him, and with Adrien being caught in the crossfire once again, it was just too much, and goddammit, am I relating to/sympathizing with Gabriel? Especially after what an asshole he was to Nooroo during the last episode, like, guys, I wanted to wring his neck, what is this feeling?

Okay, so after all that crap in part one, Audrey’s suddenly doing a complete 180 and being sweet and complimenting people? I mean, she’s still a shit mother so I still loathe her existence, but giving credit where credit is due is actually pretty fair of her considering everything we just witnessed. Everything’s coming up Marinette, and I want to be happy for her, I really, truly do. But we all know Chloe’s hurting and she’s gonna’ blow a gasket.

Imagine doing everything you possibly can to follow in your mother’s footsteps despite the way she treats you, imagine loving her so much that you nearly start to become her, and she doesn’t give a fuck and simply continues to refer to you with the wrong name (casserole, really?). Then imagine watching her praise your classmate who you despise, and offering to take her to New York with her when she wouldn’t even take you, her daughter. Add that to said classmate getting support from her own parents, one of your oldest and only friends and his dad, the biggest name in fashion who is known for being cold-hearted and ruthless. And the cherry on top is said mother not feeling a single speck of guilt, remorse or regret. I feel bad for Chloe you guys, her outburst makes sense, her anger is justified in my opinion.

Pulling out the miraculous though… I get it, rash decision taking her heightened emotions into account, but still not okay. Despite my feeling bad for her, I still don’t think her actions were okay, she’s so all over the place emotionally, she’s going about things the wrong way. She’s so desperate for her mother’s approval, she’s ready and willing to do anything, which actually makes her so dangerous taking her powers into consideration.

CHLOE WHAT THE FUCK?!

NONONONONONONO

SHE INDIRECTLY BROUGHT HAWKMOTH BACK TOO, DAMMIT, EVERYTHING WAS GOING SO WELL!!!

Of course Mari’s parents are the first to rise to the occasion and help save everyone, everything about Marinette makes so much sense now.

Moving on, the fight sequences in this episode were exceptional! I don’t know why, but they were so cool in this episode I just had to talk about them. Queen Wasp was like a one-woman arsenal, she was the most badass villain ever, which is saying a lot considering Anansi and Sandboy. The underwater fight sequence was good too, my only complaint about this episode is honestly just the lack of Pollen, like, she’s so precious, I wanted more than four words to come out of her mouth y’all.

I don’t know how the rest of you felt about the episode, but I don’t think that they forgave Chloe too easily. Obviously Adrien knows her, he knows she is and he understands why she did what she did. But that look on Mari’s when Audrey told Chloe that she wasn’t exceptional, and then later on when Tom said he was willing to do anything for his daughter, I think something may have clicked inside Mari like, ‘I have two parents who love me, so I’ll never understand how Chloe feels, but I guess I get why she is the way she is,’ and just like in Zombizou, this was Marinette extending the olive branch in a way. This Marinette is definitely different than the one from Antibug, and I like that Marinette is being patient with Chloe and letting her come terms with her actions on her own rather than being so quick to just berate her for her mistakes - THANK YOU CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT (for both my girls).

Now, as far as the confrontation with Audrey goes, I think a little part of Marinette used helping Chloe as an excuse to stick it to both Bourgeois women, and honestly, I see you Marinette and I must admit, you made me proud. Mari throwing shade aside, I feel like they could’ve ended it with a much more tender moment between Chloe and her mother rather than Audrey just being ecstatic at how her daughter is as horrible a person as she is, which I honestly think just regressed all the progress she made, like, come on Thomas, give me a break!

All in all, I did think that Queen’s Battle was a really great two-parter, part two was definitely a lot more action-packed and hit me right in the feels, but part one really brought that comedic element, so I guess they’re both pretty even in that sense.

10 notes · View notes

consulting-celiac-in-the-tardis · 6 years

Text

5 Surprisingly Awesome Things About Having Celiac Disease

New blog post! When you learn you have celiac disease, you might initially focus on the things you lose, like the ability to eat gluten or eat whatever or wherever you wanted. However, as I discussed with tons of other gluten free teens back during the first annual Gluten Free Teen Summit (click here if you have no idea what Summit I'm talking about!), there are some surprising "perks" about having celiac disease.

So in honor of National Celiac Awareness Day on September 13, today I’m rounding up five surprisingly awesome things about having celiac disease, from being the first one to eat at the buffet to finally feeling like the healthy badass you really are!

1. You are more motivated to try new (gluten free) foods.

One of the best questions asked during the Gluten Free Teen Summit’s Teen Panel was our favorite gluten free food/product. It was hilarious to hear everyone in the audience moan when they heard one of their favorite foods or gasp at the fact that a delicious gluten free pizza actually existed.

Finding tasty gluten free products can be challenging, and it requires a lot of trial and error (even if you do your research and go with gluten free foods that a lot of celiacs give a big thumbs up). On the plus side, though, this search for the gluten free “holy grail” or whatever food you’re missing (whether it’s pizza, cookies, sandwich bread, etc) often pushes us out of our comfort zones and motivates us to try new foods!

Personally, I was a suuuuuper bland eater pre-celiac. I’d never even tried sweet potatoes, avocado, sushi, dragonfruit, olives and countless other foods I now love. Once gluten was taken out of my edible equation, though, I felt extra determined to try as many gluten free foods as possible and expand my dietary boundaries. And let me tell ya...while I still certainly miss plenty of gluten-filled foods, my gluten free life is pretty dang delicious now and my diet is even more diverse than it used to be.

2. You're a VIP when eating out.

One of the surprising benefits of celiac disease that one of the Gluten Free Teen Summit attendees mentioned was getting first dibs on the buffet. I actually haven’t eaten at a buffet since my celiac disease diagnosis, which is why I’ve never seen this “awesome” side effect of celiac disease first-hand. I do know, though, that when I’m at a potluck with friends or family, I often go first to make sure there’s no accidental cross-contamination from people serving themselves and switching utensils, etc.

On a related note, several of the gluten free teens also pointed out that they get special attention from chefs when they eat at buffets. Although eating out gluten free can be scary, it is true that celiac disease often makes us VIP diners (especially if you’re at a very food allergy aware location like Disney World). So if you ever feel self-conscious or uncomfortable because of your “special diet,” flip those feelings on their head and say, “Heck yeah, I am special, for better or for worse!” And when you find a restaurant or a chef that makes eating gluten free "easy" and delicious, give your thanks and spread the word!

3. You may grow closer to your family and true friends.

After I gave my presentation on being gluten free in college, I stayed back and chatted with some of the audience for a few minutes. My heart absolutely melted when one of the younger GF Teen Summit attendees said something like, “I am grateful that celiac disease brought me a lot closer to my family and some of my friends ‘cause they try really hard to make sure I’m safe and can eat stuff OK.”

My journey from celiac disease diagnosis to being healthy gluten free is one of the most challenging experiences I’ve been through in my life. I know my parents hurt as much as me when I was severely underweight and malnourished from celiac disease, and my health struggles certainly caused tension in my family during the worst points. However, I’ve also seen exactly what that young lady was talking about. I’ve seen:

How much time, money and effort parents are willing to put into making their pantry and kitchen celiac safe

How much parents will educate themselves about celiac disease to ensure their child gets what he/she needs

How flexible real friends will be in where we eat out, what we do for fun, etc. to make sure my dietary restrictions can be accommodated

Unfortunately, not everyone will “get” your celiac. Many attendees of the summit also mentioned being bullied at school because of their dietary restrictions. However, the people who really care about you will do their best to help you adapt to and thrive on a gluten free diet. And those close relationships and solid sources of support are priceless.

4. Sometimes, your food is better than the gluten-filled alternative!

One of the common stereotypes about the gluten free diet is that all gluten free food is “gross,” “bland” or less tasty than gluten-filled alternatives. But that is one heck of a big lie!

The truth is, there is good gluten free food and there is bad gluten free food, just like there are tasty and gross gluten-filled foods. Some of the funniest moments of life with celiac disease, though, are seeing peoples’ faces when your gluten free food actually smells (and tastes) a lot better than the “normal” food being offered.

Case in point? One of the gluten free teens made me laugh out loud when she talked about one particularly memorable snack time during state testing in elementary school. To make sure she wouldn't feel left out, the girl's mom had dropped a gluten free cupcake off at the school. “All the other kids who teased me for eating gluten free had got carrot sticks for a snack!” She laughed. “While I got to eat my big chocolate cupcake. Who’s eating the tastiest food now!?!”

I’ve never had quite an epic gluten vs. gluten free food battle before, but I have had people drooling over the gluten free pizza I packed for myself when I attended Papa John’s pizza parties at club meetings in college. Sometimes, the celiac eater really does get the best end of the edible bargain!

5. You can actually feel AWESOME!

One of the most awesome things about celiac disease? Changing your diet can actually help you feel better and stop struggling with celiac symptoms!

Of course, I’m not minimizing how hard going gluten free can be. Plus, it's important to recognize that, for some people like me, going gluten free wasn’t enough to start healing after a celiac diagnosis. However, compared to other diseases with no cures at all or expensive or painful treatments, it is empowering in a way to be able to largely influence your health with celiac disease by what you eat.

One day, a gluten free diet may not be the only treatment for celiac disease. At the GF Teen Summit, I was excited to hear that progress is being made on medications that, along with a gluten free diet, could improve celiacs’ overall gut and intestinal health. But until then, try to focus less on what you "lose" with a gluten free diet and more about the health, vitality and happiness you can gain!

After all, nothing is more awesome than waking up a few months (or even a few years, depending on your pre-diagnosis intestinal damage) after being diagnosed with celiac disease and going gluten free, and realizing that you actually feel better than you have in ages.

What I Hope You Remember This National Celiac Disease Awareness Day

If you have celiac disease or know someone who does, you certainly know that celiac disease is NOT all unicorns and rainbows and gluten free cake. Celiac disease changes far more than just your diet, and it comes with its own fair share of challenges.

However, I truly believe that focusing on any positives you can find in your chronic illness plays an important role in feeling good with a medical diagnosis. You shouldn't forget how flippin' AWESOME you are ether, with or without your chronic illness!

And if you have celiac disease and were feeling alone or recently got a celiac diagnosis and are terrified of how your life will change, I hope this post made you smile, made you laugh or just made you realize that celiac disease is definitely NOT the end of the world. It’s just the start of a new and often equally delicious and awesome life.

Like this post? Tweet me some love by clicking here: "In honor of National #CeliacDiseaseAwareness Day, I'm sharing 5 surprisingly awesome things about having #celiacdisease and eating #glutenfree. Need help seeing the bright side of #celiac or the #glutenfreediet? Read my whole post here --> http://bit.ly/2CzuKof"

What's one thing that has changed for the better since your celiac disease diagnosis? I'd love to hear!

via Blogger https://ift.tt/2NHY4xe

#Blogger #college #celiac #gluten free #coeliac #celiacs #paleo #primal #foodporn #foodart

1 note · View note

lavila27 · 7 years

Text

Richonne “Say Yes” Review by Lauren Avila

WARNING: THE FOLLOWING POST CONTAINS SPOILERS TO TWD'S 7.12 "SAY YES"..... AND IT'S ALSO YVETTE NICOLE BROWN'S NOTEBOOK LONG!

I'm the queen of the world! Woo-hoo! I feel like I'm flying at the front of the most magnificent ship on television. Rick and Michonne Grimes are honestly one of the strongest, healthiest, and inspiring couples I've ever seen in any media form. I know it sounds cliche, and they are anything but cliche, but they complete each other. It's remarkable really because independently they are already capable warriors who don't NEED anyone but that's essentially what makes this pair so amazing. Rick and Michonne on their own are survivors, but together they are an unstoppable force. This episode really was a beautiful tribute to each character but a undeniable display of their impressive teamwork. I loved this episode so much I can hardly express why. It was the little things that made me the happiest. I truly appreciate the hardwork that goes into The Walking Dead. The whole cast, crew, writers, and producers are in a caliber quite different from any other tv show out there. It's such a gift to be able to pick up on new things each time you see an episode. As some fans might have noticed. There was a lot more to the episode than just what was at the surface, as often there is in any episode. Okay, so let's dive in. There were parts of the episode that I was swooning over as a fangirl but other parts that I found I was completely fascinated by as a regular viewer. I found there was a lot of symbolism and signs going on especially regarding callbacks to other episodes and possible foreshadowing to the future. Let's first discuss all the callbacks. As a whole, I feel like this episode sort of embodied their journey so far, individually and together. If you look enough into it (as a fangirl), you might even say this was like going down an AISLE of memory lane. ;)

There were Claimed references like Michonne's past, staying put in one safe place for awhile, scavenging, and Michonne's love of cheese. Sitting around a campfire and "You okay?" was an A reference. Even saying "Clear" very distinctly during their dinner felt like a throwback moment. Going after the deer didn't actually make me think of a few episodes prior like they talk about, but rather Carl. He went after the deer just before being shot. Obviously we've now learned that Grimes boys and deers aren't a safe combination. However, I've now heard people talk about a deer being a symbol of fertility... and Rick owes Michonne a deer? Hmm. Time will tell on that one. The roof caving has happened before in Season 4 when Michonne comes back from going after a past villain, the Governor. It's also in that episode that Rick wants her "to stay awhile" just like in this episode. I could go into a lot more detail about the parallels between "Say Yes" and "30 Days Without an Accident" but it might have to be another post. Let's just keep it at: characters struggling with inner demons, establishing a new life for Carl, fighting for a chance, etc. While I'm on the subject of the prison though, I felt like the whole carnival setting was reminiscent of that with the walkers roaming inside gated areas and taking down barriers. I'm sure if you look deep enough you will find all sorts of little things, but the final callback I want to acknowledge is the car from this episode and the tank from the pilot. Rick was once again stuck in a car, surrounded by walkers. Only this time, he didn't have Glenn to navigate him out. :( By the way, I love that Richonne even have chemistry while separated by an entire car backseat.

Speaking of Glenn, I think that Rick's grief over Glenn's death is also a big reason why he doesn't want to lead anymore. Even though Michonne has been encouraging to him with her confidence in his ability to lead, I think he's scared. She has told him before that it's not his fault when people die but I think that every loss is going to weigh on him for a very long time. He can't forgive himself for some things which is why I think it terrifies him to be responsible for anyone. This brings me to the most official unofficial proposal/marriage on tv. It seems that Rick only truly believes in himself because of Michonne's faith in him. He says later "You led me here." That's why he will only consider leading with her beside him. These are the facts as far as I'm concerned: Rick asked her if she would be willing to lead a life with him. She said yeah. They sealed it with a kiss. They are married, folks. They are Chilli and Mac&Cheese together.

Shoutout to @siancore for noticing something I noticed too. I wondered if I was reaching a bit far with it but I guess I'm not totally fangirl crazy because someone else hears it too. They sound different when talking to each other. I'm so in love with this acting decision! I assume that Andy and Danai do this purposely, that is. They have a soft, playfulness in their voices that they really only use with Carl and that's about it. It's like you can hear them letting their emotional guard down. I heard it A LOT in this episode. Whether it was during their comedic relief, their lovey-dovey giddiness, or even in their vulnerable heart-to-hearts. The only time I heard Rick sound like the Rick we're used to was when he was talking about the upcoming war. It was the natural and serious protector coming out in him. I could talk about their subtle voice changes throughout the episode in an entire post like their old-married couple tones, their smitten teenager tones, and their warrior lover tones but I'll leave it at that for now. You get what I'm saying though. The flirting... the love... the softness... it was all on point!!

Let's talk about Michonne's post-traumatic stress. First of all, I wonder if this abandoned school reminded Michonne of the camp she lost Andre to. The way she immediately identified the place as somewhere something serious has happened. It seem to not settle well with her. I also found it interesting how fast she went back to that dark place that Rick and Carl pulled her out of. When she thought Rick was lost to walkers, like Andre, she emptied right before our eyes. She became the shadowy creature she once was because her whole world collapsed in that moment. Yes, she's a strong woman, but Rick gives her life meaning. Without him, she would be lost. She later says, "I can't lose you." We've seen how Rick and Michonne react to extreme grief and trauma, but they both have survived it. Of course, I think that they helped each other find joy and hope again in each other, but they have others who were part of that too. When Rick told her "You can lose me. I can lose you," it surprised me at first. Right away I thought he meant that they were capable of bearing that loss because they've done it before. I thought that he should at least say it more gently like, "Yeah, it would be difficult but we can survive. We're the ones that live." Then I realized, no he's not talking about the ability to lose each other, rather the possibility. He's telling her that it's entirely likely that he can lose her in this war they're about to start and vice versa. He's telling her that there's a chance that they might not come out of this alive but it's still a battle worth fighting because the future is worth fighting for. He wants a life that's worth having for the kids but also for each other. I think it was really important for them to have this talk. I think something that really crushed Rick when it came to Negan was how far he fell. He was basically getting cocky over the world being theirs. This new mentality will probably be a lot more useful to them though. They know what they are fighting for, who they're fighting for, and what they're willing to sacrifice to win. They are both putting the greater good above themselves.

While I'm on the topic of future, let's talk about something a little happier. There seems to be a lot of signs of a potential future pregnancy for Richonne. The baby blanket they found in a drawer, kissing Michonne's belly, and then that whole deer thing that I talked about earlier. Based on Michonne's mood swings from devastation to joy and her growing hunger for those ready-to-eat meals, I might even guess she's already expecting. In all seriousness, I think it's a very real possibility that we'll see a little Richonne baby one day.

That leads me to my fangirl list of episode highlights: - I loved that in a series where the characters rarely get to smile, this episode was nothing but smiles and laughs! Their joy brought me joy. I had a big smile on my face the whole night. - Their epic embrace when Michonne knew Rick was alive and ok. It was emotional and so real. They held each other so tight like they were literally each other's whole world. - Rick's negotiation to keep the cat. I'm thinking that this was the line that Nicotero had in mind as the funniest line of the season. It's hard to figure out because there were a lot of good ones but the idea that Ricky-Dicky Grimes (who has ripped out throats, dissected walkers, survived herds, murdered Terminites and Negan's crew in cold-blood, and has beast-mode against anything to live) is negotiating with a dumpster diva for a cat statue is hilarious. - All their physical contact: kissing, hand-holding, hugging, other stuff ;) - All their non-physical contact: watching/staring at each other - Favorite lines: (also contenders for funniest line) "We found the only way in, so..." "It's Chilli and Mac & Cheese... Together. C'mon." "This is about doing it quiet, with the sword... You can handle 8." "You got your 8 walkers. I can push." "Or we could just go." "You wanna go?" "Nah, we can do this." "Yeah, I know we can."

One more thing I want to touch on before wrapping up. Did you guys notice them kissing each other's hands/wrists? Personally I've got a thing for character's holding hands. I sometimes think it's even more sexy than kissing. So them kissing each other like that already had me fangirling but then I thought about the symbolism. Had it been their left hands, I would've freaked out and said that it was a metaphor for them exchanging rings. It would've furthered my argument that they are married now. However it was their right, dominant hands. These are their stronger hands that they rely on to do everything and to survive by. They are each other's right-hand people. "And having one of those is important." Without them you would be left, to an extent, helpless in this world. They are each other's strength. Think about that for a minute...

[Update: Upon further review, I noticed it is actually Michonne’s left hand. Therefore both metaphors apply. Carry on.]

Even though I think I could discuss this episode until the season ends, I've already gone on for awhile. As a proud Richonner, I give this episode a 5 star rating and highly recommend it for constant rewatch. I really enjoyed the Talking Dead episode too! I loved YNB and Denise Huth’s commentary! Congrats to Jill & Brandan on winning the Ultimate Fan Search! I'll post again some day about how I met Brandan and his mom at the S7 premiere in the Hollywood Forever Cemetery. Until then, that's all I have for you.

Sidenote: I really enjoyed Tara and Judith's scene. I'm a fan of both characters so this scene was really cute to me.

#richonne #richonners #richonnephotoshoot #twd #The Walking Dead #say yes #rick and michonne #Grimes 2.0 #Rick Grimes #Michonne #Andrew Lincoln #Danai Gurira #captain andy #talking dead

209 notes · View notes

entergamingxp · 4 years

Text

Five of the Best: Jokes • Eurogamer.net

Five of the Best is a weekly series about the incidental details we don’t celebrate enough. We’ve talked about all kinds of things so far from Game Over screens to Scares and Villains – there’s a whole Five of the Best archive if you’re interested. But there’s so much more to talk about too.

Five of the Best works like this. Various Eurogamer writers (and friends) share memories and then you – probably outraged we haven’t included the thing you’re thinking of – can share that thing you’ve been thinking of in the comments below. Then we all have a lovely chat about it. Your collective memory has never failed to amaze us – don’t let it stop now!

What’s your favourite joke – Aliens: Colonial Marines? No, no, I don’t mean that. But what is your favourite joke? Do you have one? I can never think of one when someone asks. I cheated and had to Google one. Try this: What do pirates say when they turn 80? Go on, guess. “Aye matey!” Good, isn’t it? How about: Why did Beethoven get rid of his chickens? All they said was “Bach Bach Bach”. Or maybe: How do you make a tissue dance? Put a little boogie in it!

I think the point here is that I shouldn’t write jokes, but thankfully there are funnier people writing them in games so I don’t have to, so here’s to laughing, here’s to jokes, and here are five of the best. Happy Friday one and all!

Monkey Island magic

I encountered Monkey Island so early on in my life that I sort of expected all games to be as witty and elegant as this one was. But there is one joke right at the end that absolutely blew my tiny mind.

The game’s over and the baddie is defeated. The hero and the governor are watching fireworks in the sky – a classic victory scene. You still have dialogue options though. And what options.

“Just goes to show,” I chose, or words to that effect.

“Just goes to show what?”

“Never pay more than twenty dollars for a video game.”

Okay. Already funny. But we’re not done.

“What’s a video game?” asks the governor.

“I don’t know,” I reply. “I don’t know why I said that.”

META.

-Donlan

To see this content please enable targeting cookies. Manage cookie settings

World of Warcraft gets silly

World of Warcraft – have I gone mad?! No, well, I don’t think so but then I would say that. WoW isn’t known as a funny game, although if you factor in the people you play with, it can be hilarious. Back when the game launched there was a Eurogamer guild on Bloodscalp called Elite Guard (shit name but it had the initials EG) and the guild chat was hilarious. I’d never laughed so hard at, effectively, a chat room. And the laughs kept on coming over many more weeks and months. Happy days.

But that’s not why I’ve listed World of Warcraft here. It’s here because of the jokes characters tell. If you type the command /silly into the chat box and press enter, the character you’re playing tells a joke. There are hundreds of them, a handful for each race and sex combo.

For instance, the undead male character – my main – would say, in a gravelly, sardonic voice: “Roses are gray, violets are gray, I’m dead and colorblind.” I nearly spat my coffee out when I first heard it. He also might say: “Hey diddle diddle, the mucous and the spittle. The corpse sank in the lagoon. The murloc said ‘mmmmm’ to see such a sight, and the dwarf spanked the baboon.”

This blew my mind. I cannot overemphasise how different, how alive, how charismatic this felt after coming from mute MMOs like Dark Age of Camelot. Characters didn’t do anything of the kind there, they had no voice. And I tell you what, I stood in that Undead starting area in Deathknell for ages doing nothing but standing still and telling myself jokes, lapping it up, cackling at every one.

-Bertie

To see this content please enable targeting cookies. Manage cookie settings

Skip to 5.40 for the Undead male jokes. They still make me laugh!

Assassin’s Creed 2 plumbs the depths

Modern day Assassin’s Creed games are – among all those sweeping, expensive-looking vistas and blockbuster action set-pieces – wonderfully warm, witty things, graced with ample charm and good humour. That’s generally been the case since the thigh-slapping high seas adventure of Black Flag, of course, but before that – based on my admittedly hazy memories of the earlier games, at least – you’d be lucky to encounter even the slightest moment of whimsy in what was an often unwaveringly po-faced and rather self-important series.

So imagine my surprise when – after the interminable, joy-free drudgery of the original game, and the somewhat mirthless opening hours of its Renaissance-Italy-set sequel – Assassin’s Creed 2 suddenly, and out of nowhere, let rip with a moment of sublime silliness. I might even go as far as to call it the greatest video game joke of all time, but I suspect it only left such an unshakeable impression because it had all been so dreadfully serious up until then.

Partway through Assassins Creed 2, you see, beloved hero Ezio runs into his uncle out in the Italian countryside. Thrilled to see his nephew again, the jovial moustachioed gent, a local to the area, spreads his arms wide and warmly exclaims – what else? – “IT’S-A ME MARIO!”.

-Matt Wales

To see this content please enable targeting cookies. Manage cookie settings

Everything about Portal 2

If you asked me what I thought was the funniest video game I’ve ever played it would almost be reflex at this point to gush about the writing in Portal 2. I’ve played a lot of games with good jokes, with funny moments, but there’s nothing like Portal 2’s wall to wall dedication to making the player laugh in as many ways as possible. “We didn’t jettison everything, but I absolutely do not want to try and resurrect a three-year-old meme. That seems like it would be kind of sad. It’s not a good idea.” writer Erik Wolpaw told Gamasutra back in 2010, and he wasn’t messing around. Portal 2’s consistently quick-witted gags come from not just depth but breadth, in my humble opinion. There’s the format go-tos of slapstick and ‘random’ humour that we’re probably all a bit sick of by now but they’re intertwined with irony, meta-humour, darkly-comic scenes and self-poking jabs at the absurdity of the sights around you. All of this is then bolstered by a stellar voice acting cast with honest to god comedians like Stephen Merchant playing the companion-turned-villain Wheatley.

My favourite joke of the game concerns the villainous side of Wheatley, destroying everything around him in a fit of incompetence and arrogance at the climax of the game. He has to be taken down but just like his predecessor, his clumsy but ultimately terrifying power over the automated systems of Aperture science makes him nigh on impossible to defeat. It’s a true masterpiece of a final boss battle – sheer self indulgence and bombast with rockets flying, bits of equipment exploding all around you and a cast of ridiculous personality spheres shouting out a million jokes a minute as you pick them up and chuck them around.

This game is absolutely dedicated to its comedy and could only end in one big joke, one big deconstruction of just how ridiculous the very concept of this portal gun technology is. How terrifyingly dangerous it would be in the real world. You’ve shot portals onto more surfaces you can count but they only work when you hit something that’s painted white. Why? I have absolutely no idea, but do you know what’s really big and white? The goddamn moon. That’s how you finish a boss battles in Portal 2, you shoot the boss into fucking space.

–Michael Whelan (Dicebreaker)

To see this content please enable targeting cookies. Manage cookie settings

The unintentionally hilarious Heavy Rain

I’m welling up just thinking about this one. The mother of all cry-laugh inducers. Where to start? I like the cars, that bit’s very good. I love the doors – top detective, flummoxed by doors. The ice, which he can’t stand on but everyone else seems to be walking over just fine. The weird skidding around every corner! Why can’t he corner?! Why do I have to press a button to get him to go around a corner like a normal human being?! Why does it not matter if you fail to press any of the buttons?! Why are the button prompts in there in the first place if they don’t matter?! Gold. I have to assume it’s funny on purpose. It has to be – too funny not to be, too po-faced everywhere else for this bit to not stand out – and honestly the game’s so much better for it.

-Taps

To see this content please enable targeting cookies. Manage cookie settings

This is a serious game!

from EnterGamingXP https://entergamingxp.com/2020/07/five-of-the-best-jokes-%e2%80%a2-eurogamer-net/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=five-of-the-best-jokes-%25e2%2580%25a2-eurogamer-net

0 notes

recentanimenews · 5 years

Text

Bookshelf Briefs 9/19/19

A Bride’s Story, Vol. 11 | By Kaoru Mori | Yen Press – Back to Bookshelf Briefs with this volume. Not that it’s not good; it’s very good. But I don’t have a lot of detailed analysis about it. This is possibly a slower-burning romance than even Amir and Karluk, as Mr. Smith is an English Gentleman and Talas is chasing after love after several husbands have all passed away. The “husband and wife” part goes quickly—in fact, Smith proposes almost immediately—but, as with a lot of couples in this series, actual romance is awkward and relatively innocent—the best part is a ride on a swing where we finally see Talas fully open up emotionally. In any case, we now get to go ALL THE WAY BACK, as Smith and Talas decide to reverse his journey. Which means we get to check up on everyone. Peaceful reading. – Sean Gaffney

Cells at Work! CODE BLACK, Vol. 1 | By Shigemitsu Harada and Issei Hatsuyoshiya | Kodansha Comics – Yikes. I knew this was going to be a bit more serious than the main series based on the premise, which is that we see a red and white blood cell in a crappy body that’s smoking, drinking, impotent… the works. But this ran in a seinen magazine, and is not afraid to pile on the gore… as well as the boobs. A lot of the cast die trying to save the body, the liver is portrayed as a host club with girls galore, etc. In among this is the aggrieved Red Blood Cell, male in this spinoff, and his stoic White Blood Cell friend, who is also busy dealing with the fact that White Blood Cells are vanishing. Heck, even the Killer T’s get brainwashed and then arrested (and presumably executed). For hardcore fans only. – Sean Gaffney

Cells At Work! CODE BLACK, Vol. 1 | By Shigemitsu Harada and Issei Hatsuyoshiya | Kodansha Comics – One of several spin-offs of Akane Shimizu’s Cells at Work, Code Black takes the same premise—personifications of human cells, viruses, bacteria, etc.—and moves the action to, well, a body that’s really not doing so well health-wise. The first thing I noticed about Code Black was its mature content warning. In part this is earned due to subject matter (for example, one chapter deals with erectile dysfunction), but also because the creators incorporate a fair bit of fanservice into their interpretations of physiological processes (the white blood cells’ breasts are barely contained by their uniforms and rest and recuperation in the liver includes some nudity.) Code Black also examines the effects of smoking, drinking, and sexually transmitted infections. (Someone is having a rough time of it.) While the original Cells at Work is so far the stronger series, Code Black, like its predecessor, can be both entertaining and educational. – Ash Brown

A Centaur’s Life, Vol. 17 | By Kei Murayama | Seven Seas – After the anime of this aired, and perhaps after hearing from fans, I’ve been noticing that the lesbian members of the class have been appearing more and more and getting more and more out. Though here we hear that it’s not lesbian but “yuri” as yuri is “pure and innocent,” which is meant to be pointed commentary, I believe. If so, it fits right in with the rest of A Centaur’s Life, which continues to have things like parasites trying to blend in while taking over human hosts, kaiju monsters helping to save battleships, and Manami straight up beating her grandfather into the hospital when he accuses her sword style of being soft. I honestly have no idea what’s coming next. Nor does the author, I suspect. – Sean Gaffney

Giant Killing, Vol. 16 | By Masaya Tsunamoto and Tsujitomo | Kodansha Comics (digital only) – The flashback to Tatsumi’s playing days concludes with him being branded a traitor for accepting an offer with an English team, even though he only did it so his teammates would no longer be so dependent on him. Back in the present, he’s seeking the help of Kasano, the man who recruited him to ETU in the first place, to help bring in some promising new players. This whole scene—“I know his faith isn’t dead yet”—made me unexpectedly verklempt. And then it’s time for a midseason training camp, where Tatsumi attempts to foster team unity by subjecting his players to various weird tasks. I love how skillfully the creators depict that this strategy is actually working, and that some players are discovering abilities they didn’t know they had. I’m glad volumes of this have started coming out again! – Michelle Smith

Haikyu!!, Vol. 34 | By Haruichi Furudate | VIZ Media – A high five made me cry. Honestly, that probably tells you all you need to know about Haikyu!! and how Furudate-sensei creates characters so beloved that readers celebrate with them. Finally, Karasuno and Nekoma are facing each other on a national stage, and what really got me here is that Tsukishima and Yamaguchi prove that Kageyama and Hinata are not the only rookie duo to look out for. Yamaguchi’s floating serve paired with Tsukishima’s blocking proves a very effective strategy, only possible because various people have helped Tsukishima both with technique and with allowing himself to shed his reluctance to really try. Unfortunately, Karasuno still can’t manage to win a set off Nekoma, and the volume ends as the second set begins. I’m sure this’ll be a game that spans multiple volumes, but man, is it going to be a good one. – Michelle Smith

Kakuriyo: Bed & Breakfast for Spirits, Vol. 5 | By Waco Ioka and Midori Yuma | Viz Media – Sometimes all you need is one customer with pull to turn things around. So Aoi finds when she ends up serving a tanuki who enjoyed her boxed lunches and is also a writer… and when he enjoys her meals and also (natch) finds out about her grandfather, he gives the place a write-up. Of course, now that it’s doing better it’s also attracting attention, as Aoi is asked to cater to another couple where the husband is a yokai and the wife is human—what sort of food would serve them best? And yes, there’s more romance here and there, but for the most part this has become a food title. My one complaint is it’s too short—the lower page count means less plot happens. – Sean Gaffney

Magi: The Labyrinth of Magic, Vol. 37 | By Shinobu Ohtaka | Viz Media – Let’s get the big complaint out of the way: a series that began with a fun cast of three ends with only two of them saving the day, despite a token attempt to have Morgiana do something. She needed to be in the final battle. Still, Aladdin also gets a bit shafted, as in the end this is Alibaba’s journey and his story, as it’s his choices that prove to carry the day time and time again, to the point where they save the world—admittedly a world that is a bit topsy turvy. And we do end with a wedding. Magi got a bit drawn out by the end, and a lot of its best fights were interrupted by lectures and platitudes, but I was happy to read it, and will miss it now that it’s over. More Shonen Sunday series, please! – Sean Gaffney

Snow White with the Red Hair, Vol. 3 | By Sorata Akiduki | Viz Media – My wish is granted in this third volume, which has no short stories at the end and is entirely about Shirayuki. She’s still trying to deal with the first prince, and also her own self-doubt. Things are not helped when Prince Raj, the jerk who started this whole mess, shows up on a visit between royals. Fortunately, he turns out to merely be an immature schmuck (tum-tum may be the funniest part of the book), and his presence actually makes her feel better about herself. Which is good, because we continue to get vague romance, and politics, and both of those have to be solved by Shirayuki being clever and plucky. A volume that shows why fans were clamoring for this license for so long. – Sean Gaffney

Wonderland, Vol. 3 | By Yugo Ishikawa | Seven Seas – I must admit, I was expecting the main cast to stay shrunk for the entirety of this title, so seeing our heroines (and the old guy) return to normal due to the power of hot baths was very startling—it was startling to them as well. Unfortunately, Yukko’s parents are still dead by cat, though they also appear to now be normal sized—but still dead. So Yukko is going back to school and attempting to process everything. Fortunately she has her friend Takuya. Unfortunately, she also has a government minder, and she seems intent on erasing Takuya’s memory of everything that happened. I suspect “cast vs. the evil government” may be the theme of this series, but will Yukko shrink again? And can she reunite with Alice? Still weird, still good. – Sean Gaffney

By: Ash Brown

#Anime #News #Manga Bookshelf

0 notes

makeste · 4 years

Text

BnHA Chapter 287: Family Reunion

Previously on BnHA: The Tomura For One VS Deku And Pals clusterfuck reached new levels of clustfuckery as AFO possessed Tomura’s body and stabbed Kacchan and Endeavor. Shouto was all “good thing I leveled up offscreen so as to be able to fly around whilst carrying 400lbs worth of people”, and did just that and it was like, damn, son. Meanwhile Deku’s rage went Mach 100, and he kicked Tomura’s ass for almost two whole seconds, but in the process he apparently forgot that IF TOMURA TOUCHES HIM THAT IS VERY BAD, and so he stupidly let Tomura touch him and Tomura was all “GAME, SET.” Fortunately for Deku, his quirk plays by its own rules, and so the chapter ended with us cutting to the METAPHYSICAL OFA/AFO PARANORMAL DREAMSCAPE OF MYSTICAL BULLSHIT, where AFO!Vestige was all “lol Tomura y u mad”, and Nana!Vestige was all “SUP DEKU, YOU’RE JUST IN TIME, LOOKS LIKE IT’S ASSKICKING O’CLOCK.” I’m paraphrasing a bit, but that’s more or less the gist of it.

Today on BnHA: AFO is all “well if it isn’t Tomura’s grandmother who I murdered that one time”, and Deku is all “?”, and AFO is all “fucking vestiges, man, wild”, and Deku is all “??”, and AFO is all “ANYWAYS GETTIM TOMURA”, and OFA is all “NOT SO FAST”, and Deku is all “???”, and really, same. AFO then goes off on some wild tangent about how Deku is unworthy because he couldn’t protect everyone and needed help from OFA and got mad about his friends being stabbed, which is such a cold take it gave me hypothermia, but it ends up not mattering since Deku and Tomura both wake up seconds later with OFA still in the possession of its rightful owner, HOW ABOUT THAT. The chapter ends with the LoV approaching on Gigantomachia’s back with Dabi practically salivating at the mouth, and Toga trying to reignite an old fandom blood feud. Toga why would you do this to me. Toga.

YESSSSSSSSSSSSS

[CROWD LOSING THEIR MINDS] FINALLY THE NANA HAS COME BACK TO BNHA!! IF YA SMELLLLL WHAT THE NANA IS COOKIN!!!!! [RINGSIDE BELL CHIMING WILDLY] [LOUD AIRHORN NOISES]

“chapter 287: mistake” omg. yeah I’ll say you made a mistake, AFO. I HOPE YOU ENJOY THESE FLEETING LAST MOMENTS OF YOUR SHITTY EVIL LIFE

(ETA: so in all seriousness this must be referring to AFO’s belief that All Might/OFA made a mistake in choosing Deku, right? “I can’t believe you went and chose this shounen manga protagonist as your champion, what were you thinking.” I’ll just put this out there: however many comic books AFO read as a child, it clearly was not enough.)

wow Deku how slow are you

yes you’re inside OFA you dimbulb, did you think your clothes suddenly vanished out of the blue and the ghost of Nana just randomly appeared in the real world by some freak coincidence?? can you believe this kid. breaks his arms a measly 10-15 times in a row and all of a sudden he can’t think straight, get it together Deku

but also brb having a moment at the fact that his thoughts immediately run back to Kacchan, even with all of this nonsense going on and Nana about to lay the beatdown on AFO’s potato-lookin’ ass. forget that noise, all he wants to know is whether or not Kacchan is all right. fuckin’ geez. AM I OVERREACTING HERE A BIT. probably

(ETA: ALSO!! the way he just trails off!! “Kacchan is...” and then he can’t bring himself to complete the thought. oh my god my heart.)

HOLY SHIT

okay,

damn but this man sure knows how to ruffle my feathers. as eminently detestable as ever!!

could it be any clearer here that AFO is not on Tomura’s side?? for a moment I thought he had actually grabbed him by the back of the head in order to get him to look. but nope, he’s just resting his pointing hand on top of his head instead while he’s all “HEY TOMURA LOL IT’S THE GHOST OF YOUR DEAD PATHETIC GRANDMA”

for those keeping track at home, this would be the first time that Deku has heard this information -- that Tomura is Nana’s grandson -- and possibly the first time Vestige!Nana has heard it as well. Nana died when Kotarou was still a child, so for all we know the Vestige!Nana didn’t even know she had a grandson, lol. TODAY ON “MAKESTE RANTS AT LENGTH ABOUT THINGS THAT WILL PROBABLY BE ADDRESSED WITHIN THE NEXT THREE PANELS”, anyway moving on

lmao for the record I fucking LOLed at this giant question mark immediately bubbling up over Deku’s head

no idea what AFO is about to ramble on about now, haven’t read that far yet. but let the record show that Deku’s immediate reaction to hearing “BTW NANA IS YOUR ARCHNEMESIS’S GRANDMA LULZ” is everything I could have hoped for

(ETA: fandom nailed the shit out of this one with the confused Mr. Krabs meme lmao.)

okay so now AFO is monologuing at length about how he would sometimes have “riveting dreams” about the previous owners of all the quirks he stole. but once he gave the quirks away they stopped bothering him?? holy moly let me just take all the notes

okay so he’s saying that Vestiges are created whenever someone has their quirk stolen by AFO. but if they then disappear when he gives the quirks away, does that also mean that whoever receives the quirks also gets the original owner’s Vestige bundled in every time?? that would be wild okay hold up let me read the rest of this

so he’s saying that the Vestiges are actually the “consciousnesses” of the original quirk owners, which have become embedded in their dna or something. SOUNDS INCREDIBLY DUBIOUS TO ME LOL but on the other hand this is a world where children can be born with airplane heads, so my disbelief can hardly afford to pick and choose what it’s gonna be suspended at! anyways though, how does he know he’s the only one who was able to converse with them? did you conduct detailed six-month follow-up interviews with everyone you gave quirks to or what

and if it really is the case that this ability was formerly exclusive to him, isn’t that more evidence than ever that OFA and AFO are actually THE EXACT SAME QUIRK oh whoops am I getting ahead of myself again, sorry

MEANWHILE TOMURA IS ALL, “GRANDMA?”

“WHY AM I HERE, WELL LET ME TELL YOU A STORY, GRANDSON. YOU SEE THAT MAN GROWING OUT OF YOUR RIBCAGE THERE? WELL IT’S JUST THE FUNNIEST THING, ACTUALLY”

WAIT SO IS HE SAYING THEY’RE SOULS OR NOT??

this makes it sound like they won’t ever get to rest, which sure sounds like a soul thing to me. well whatever, soul, consciousness, I guess it’s just semantics at the end of the day

anyways though, so this asshole is finally done talking (I’m sure that won’t last), so now we can finally have the heartwarming reunion we’ve all been waiting for

sigh

-- actually, no, not “sigh”!! you know what!! because Tomura says “whatever the reason”, but that’s only because he doesn’t actually have a fucking clue about the reason. like, I don’t know if the knowledge that AFO killed Nana would be enough to give him pause, but if he knew the whole story and knew that AFO was behind not only Nana’s death, but the rest of his family’s deaths as well... now that would be a whole different thing

anyway. but at least it’s becoming clearer now why AFO spent all that time raising Tomura up as his heir and brainwashing him even though he seems to have been planning this body takeover the whole time. it’s all because he loves making people miserable! yaaaaay

btw HAS NANA HAD THE EXACT SAME MOLE ON HER CHIN AS TOMURA THIS ENTIRE TIME WTF. am I just the least observant person who ever lived lmao

lol wtf

ground: [randomly starts exploding]

Deku: “ONE FOR ALL IS BEING ERODED!!!” LOL IS THAT WHAT’S HAPPENING HERE, OKAY THEN. I’ll take your word for it

y’all I cannot fucking get over this “AFO growing out of Tomura’s hip socket like a fucked-up ventriloquist dummy” shit though

you do realize that absolutely no one can take you seriously right now, right?? it’s important to me that you know this

WHAT’S THIS NOW

seems like SOMEONE has had it up to here with a certain SOMEONE ELSE’S bullshit lmaooo bye Felicia

I SAID GOOD DAY!!

you guys why is he not dying!!

-- OH DAMN

love how Deku is just lying there like “YOU KNOW THOSE DAYS WHERE YOU’RE LIKE, THIS MIGHT AS WELL HAPPEN.” poor Deku

(ETA: where in god’s name is OFA Prime standing. why are my thoughts fully consumed by this lmao.)

are Nana and OFA Prime even doing anything?? why are they sticking their arms out like that. wait hold up is this all a big metaphor for the back-and-forth going on between Tomura trying to steal OFA and OFA being all “actually no you can’t, please enter your password and click on all the boxes with bicycles in them to prove you’re a human first”?

OH SNAP OFA PRIME SAID NO THANKS

“SORRY BRO WE’VE ALREADY MADE OURSELVES AT HOME HERE”

I have only just noticed that metaphysical!Deku has the same scars as actual!Deku. and yet his arms are not currently broken! that doesn’t really seem consistent to me but whatever!! maybe he saved right before the boss battle, that would be smart of him

anyway, that’s great and all that OFA Prime is here helping out, but I really wanted to see Nana fight AFO in a one on one though so I’m a bit disappointed. also why is it only the two of them?? where are Banjou and the others. of all the times to be sleeping on the job

FOR FUCK’S SAKE, THIS MAN

WOULD YOU STOP. WOULD YOU JUST QUIT IT ALREADY

oh shit hold up

doesn’t this confirm that the reason he wanted to transfer his power to Tomura is because he believed it would make him strong enough to finally take OFA because of Quirk Singularity? jesus christ. and here he was so sure of himself. but it turns out he doesn’t actually know shit! you can’t just fucking take OFA like that ya dingdong that’s not how it works

(ETA: SO, A THOUGHT -- is there any sort of subtle hinting here in the way that he words this? “if your strength is combined with mine”, as opposed to “if my strength is combined with yours”? no idea if the admittedly-so-small-as-to-be-almost-inconsequential distinction between those two sentences exists in the original Japanese or not, but I find it very interesting that the English wording implies that he’s the one adding Tomura’s strength to his own, rather than vice versa.)

now he’s insulting Deku!!

excuse me sir WHO ASKED YOU anyway. and never mind that being consumed by an, AND I QUOTE, “unquenchable” rage is your protege’s whole THING, and that he also needed your help to avoid being burned to a crisp a short while ago. where do you get off I swear

(ETA: also just want to point out that in the panel before this one he says that he’s been “watching through Tomura”, which pretty much confirms that his consciousness or whatever is alive inside of him all the time. Tomura is definitely not getting rid of this guy any time soon.)

WOW

first he calls Kacchan useless, then he calls Deku a simpleton, and don’t even get me started with Nana. just, you guys. this man is just... a very, very rude man

NOW OFA IS ALL “THAT’S EXACTLY WHAT MAKES HIM SUCH A GOOD PROTAGNIST YOU BUTTMUNCH” AND OMG PREACH

“DESPITE HIS COMMON SENSE” sdfkllk my man he already has one brother roasting him, take it easy guy

AHH WHAT

IS THIS BACK IN THE REAL WORLD

YEP

hahaha nice try Tomura

so Deku’s all “I didn’t lose my power! BUT” and I assume the “but” is the part where his arms are still broken and shit, and meanwhile Tomura’s body is almost healed up now finally

they’re both wiped out and now AFO is again petitioning Tomura to let him take over goddammit

“you won’t lose your mind” yep, he sure won’t! scout’s honor!! pinky swear!!

meanwhile Deku is getting fucking desperate flkjl;k my baby. and Machia is going to show up any second now too, probably. what else can fucking go wrong at this point

oh shit I shouldn’t have asked

get ready to rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrruuuumble, probably

OH MY GOD

WELL AT LEAST SOMEONE HERE IS HAVING A GOOD TIME. jesus

so as soon as he heard Endeavor was there he got all, “TIME FOR THE BIG REVEAL”, is that right? WELL JOKE’S ON YOU TOUYA, YOUR DAD DOESN’T SEEM ALL THAT CONSCIOUS AT THE MOMENT, SO THAT’S GOING TO DRAIN A LOT OF THE TENSION FROM THE SCENE WHEN YOU GO ALL REVERSE DARTH VADER ON HIM AND HE’S ALL “ZZZZZZZZ”

meanwhile Toga is having unsettlingly quiet angst

jesus christ Toga this is all we need right now

“WAS JIN-KUN NOT A PERSON” sdkfjlk Horikoshi I swear. please have mercy on this fandom. this is the debate that refuses to die!!

but seriously ffs, the issue isn’t that Jin deserved to die, it’s that the countless people whom Jin would have either directly or indirectly killed didn’t deserve to die either. people don’t only become people when you attach names and faces to them! we all loved Jin because we’d gotten to know him, but that doesn’t mean his life was inherently worth more than the lives of all the people he would have killed. sometimes there’s just no good answer

like, it’s just crazy to me that because the heroes are all “we want to protect everyone!” but then aren’t always able to do so because that’s literally impossible, whereas the villains are all “we don’t care about anyone other than the select few people that we actually like!”, the villains somehow wind up getting the better PR. it just so happens that it’s infinitely easier to be loyal to the interests of a few people as opposed to ALL THE PEOPLE. like, no shit, it’s easier to stick to your moral code when you barely have a moral code. and so the villains can kill thousands and no one bats an eye, but if a hero fails to save even one person they’re hypocritical moral failures. like what the hell

BUT ANYWAY, sorry to go off on a tangent there lol, it’s not really a big deal. I’m just preemptively trying to stave off more discourse about it lol but who am I even kidding

anyways lol, but of course they won’t kill you unless they have no choice, Toga. but when it comes to catch-22 situations, it’s a bit much to infer that the heroes don’t consider the villains people just because they opt for the choice that spares more innocent lives. I sure as hell don’t want my babies out here killing people, but to say that they can’t no matter what or else they’re no different from the villains is just...

anyway so the chapter has now just ENDED, just like that!! on a shot of Ochako’s face!

I SENSE ANOTHER THROWDOWN COMING. and it had better not be a total letdown like the last one! NANA BARELY DID ANYTHING HORIKOSHI, WHAT THE FUCK. I started out with such high hopes lol

but I will settle for Toga VS Ochako, and Deku VS Tomura: The Sequel: Shouto’s Revenge! SPEAKING OF HEROES WHO HAVE NO QUALMS ABOUT MURDERING PEOPLE lmao

#bnha 287 #shigaraki tomura #all for one #shimura nana #midoriya izuku #one for all #lil bro when are you gonna get yourself a proper name so I can tag you #himiko toga #bnha #boku no hero academia #bnha spoilers #mha spoilers #bnha manga spoilers #makeste reads bnha #ofa the first

512 notes · View notes