#I’m always looking forward to these game vs show comparisons! so good!

[chibivesicle]

How GK should have ended. Looking to a similar piece of media - Black Sails

I’ve been meandering around various series as of late and finally found one that really stuck a similar chord with me and GK - the mid- 2010s drama - Black Sails.  It is a series that had so many similar themes to GK, the level of violence and brutality, a similar level of outcast/criminals/convicts to colonial powers in a territory that is intended to be tamed for a distant power.  The theme overlap is so great that if you liked all the stuff going on in GK, this show will be your jam. Most importantly, the creative team for Black Sails kept CONSTANT characterization for everyone and it paid off so well.  They make each character so clear that when they go off and do a dumbass/rash thing, you only slightly groan b/c you know that Jack Rackam cares about his identity, that John Silver wants to belong and be accepted despite pushing people away, that Max is tired of the cycle and feels guilt for having to chose between two shitty decisions, Eleanor will not allow anyone to change her mind and that Captain Flint is a carefully crafted fiction/tool for James McGraw to exact revenge upon the very nature of the British Empire.  And Woodes Rogers is just such a good guy to dislike when he enters the story. After finishing Black Sails, I just thought about how Flint/McGraw was so much better that Tsurumi and Sugimoto.  The thing that always fell short with Tsurumi’s motivations about the death of his wife and child were the feelings that were associated with that loss.  It always felt hollow to me that we still never got the full Tsurumi back story to really push his motivations.  We know he came from a family who became wealthy and then lost it and it was never resolved.  His overlap with Sugimoto is his similar tendencies to go to extreme lengths for someone who has not actual input into those motivations (aka I’m doing this for Umeko vs Thomas).  He also has that reckless ability to be shot in the shoulder with a musket and then swim, one armed to a Spanish man-o-war, board her and take the ship over is as equally unlikely, but he pulls it off so much better than Sugimoto.  I noticed that Charles Vane is the one who is more likely to use a musket as a blunt weapon while Flint does a calculated mix of precision musket shot, then sword, and then it degenerates into whatever it will take to kill his opponent - cannon ball, fists etc.

So, if you are looking for a series that is under the radar to fill that void that GK left in your soul with that last arc and flat ending - go watch Black Sails.  Season 1 is a bit lame and over the top at times but after they stopped trying to be ‘Pirate Game of Thrones’ it shines as an excellent series. This show might just make me want to scratch that itch to meta-nerd out again, perhaps doing more GK comparisons.  Plus, I can clearly state that Flint was my favorite character the entire time in Black Sails.  Which is saying a lot for me since I rarely love a MC this much.  There is no real Ogata character in Black Sails as many more of the cast are dealing with lifetimes of trauma, abuse, guilt and moments where suicidal types of behavior are necessary.  Which is a relief for me, since the thing which ruined Ogata for me in retrospect is that he should have died on that damned ice floe.  And Black Sails will not shy away from killing someone with Ogata level involvement to serve the story and motivations going forward and they feel like they make sense to the viewer.

That’s it for now, if you want to see a series that really gets it and nails it - go watch Black Sails. 

[irelise]

Yassen Gregorovich - Books vs TV

With the excellent new Alex Rider tv show out, I thought I would make a comparison post for one of my old favs, Yassen Gregorovich, who has a somewhat different feel in the books as compared to the show! This post will largely cover the first book Stormbreaker and should theoretically contain no spoilers for the potential future arcs of the show, since the events of Stormbreaker are presumably non-canon now. (Spoilers abound for the episodes of the show already out, though!)

If there’s any interest, I’ll put up a second post covering Eagle Strike and some parts of Russian Roulette that delves deeper into Yassen and his complicated relationship with Alex. Just let me know!

Much like the show, Yassen was the one who killed Ian Rider. Unlike the show, however, he’s known to be active on the field and the first time we “encounter” him is prior to Alex’s first mission, where Mrs Jones gives Alex a warning:

She took out a black-and-white photograph and laid it on the table. It showed a man in a white T shirt and jeans. He was in his late twenties with light, close cropped hair, a smooth face, the body of a dancer. The photograph was slightly blurred. It had been taken from a distance, possibly with a hidden camera. “I want you to look at this,” she said.

"I’m looking."

“His name is Yassen Gregorovich. He was born in Russia, but he now works for many countries. Iraq has employed him. Also Serbia, Libya, and China.”

“What does he do?” Alex asked.

"He’s a contract killer, Alex. We believe it was he who killed Ian Rider.”

There was a long pause. Alex had almost managed to persuade himself that this whole business was just some sort of crazy adventure…a game. But looking at the cold face with its blank, hooded eyes, he felt something stirring inside him and knew it was fear. He remembered his uncle’s car, shattered by bullets. A man like this, a contract killer, would do the same to him. He wouldn’t even blink.

[…]

“Why are you telling me this now?” Alex asked. His mouth had gone dry.

"Because if you see him, if Yassen is anywhere near Sayle Enterprises, I want you to contact us at once."

“And then?"

“We’ll pull you out. It doesn’t matter how old you are, Alex. If Yassen finds out you’re working for us, he’ll kill you too.”

I always thought this was a pretty good introductory scene -- Yassen has a very deadly reputation in the books, which is established at once then hammered in over and over again. Other traits which come up again and again include his coldness and his dancer’s body which is totally something I’m into, gotta love those “elegant and deadly assassin” tropes

(also, yes, Yassen is blond in the books and definitely not a brunet or even a redhead as in the movie. he also doesn’t have a distinctive facial scar!)

Yassen doesn’t actually have many scenes in Stormbreaker, although the shadow of his presence looms pretty darkly over the narrative. Alex only runs into him twice on the mission: once from a distance -- A lean, fair-haired figure dressed in black detached himself from the assembly line and walked languidly toward a door that slid open to receive him -- and the other encounter also occurs from a distance, when Alex is spying on a mysterious delivery at the docks in the dead of the night...

And then the tower opened and a man climbed out, stretching himself in the cold morning air. Even without the half-moon, Alex would have recognized the sleek dancer’s body and the close cropped-hair of the man whose photograph he had seen only a few days before. It was Yassen Gregorovich. Alex stared at him with growing fear. This was the contract killer Mrs. Jones had told him about. The man who had murdered Ian Rider. He was dressed in grey overalls and sneakers. He was smiling. He was the last person Alex wanted to meet.

[…]

Meanwhile, the guards from Sayle Enterprises had formed a line stretching back almost to the point where the vehicles were parked. Yassen gave an order and, as Alex watched from behind the rocks, a metallic silver box with a vacuum seal appeared, held by unseen hands at the top of the submarine’s tower. Yassen himself passed it down to the first of the guards, who then passed it back up the line. About forty more boxes followed, one after another. It took almost an hour to unload the submarine. The men handled the boxes carefully. They obviously didn’t want to break whatever was inside.

By the end of the hour they were almost finished. The boxes were being repacked now into the back of the truck that Alex had vacated. And that was when it happened. One of the men, standing on the jetty, dropped one of the boxes. He managed to catch it again at the last minute, but even so it banged down heavily on the stone surface. Everyone stopped. Instantly. It was as if a switch had been thrown and Alex could almost feel the raw fear in the air.

Yassen was the first to recover. He darted forward along the jetty, moving like a cat, his feet making no sound. He reached the box and ran his hands over it, checking the seal, then nodded slowly. The metal wasn’t even dented.

With everyone so still Alex heard the exchange that followed.

“I’m sorry,” the guard said. “I won’t do that again.”

“No. You won’t,” Yassen agreed, and shot him.

Largely a reaffirmation of what we saw from the photograph scene, this time in person: Yassen is generally quiet, understated and deceptively relaxed -- up until the point he murders somebody without blinking. I think the show does a good job capturing that aspect of Yassen, with scenes like Ian’s death and Dr. Greif in the car coming to mind in particular. Gotta love that pairing of Yassen’s generally calm demeanour with the bursts of restrained yet lethal violence!

Some other minor but interesting character notes: despite being one of the most highly-paid and successful assassins in the world, Yassen is perfectly comfortable doing grunt work (passing boxes, dressing in shitty grey overalls). Similarly, despite being (presumably) more comfortable working alone, he’s also at ease with giving orders and coordinating large groups of people.

Now, moving onto the last time Yassen shows up in Stormbreaker. This is right at the end of the book after Alex successfully foils the plot of the big bad (Herod Sayle), only to get kidnapped by him while his guard is down. Sayle takes them to a rooftop where a helicopter is coming to whisk Sayle away, but first he wants to have some revenge...

"That’s my ticket out of here!” Sayle continued. “They’ll never find me! And one day I’ll be back. Next time, nothing will go wrong. And you won’t be here to stop me. This is the end for you! This is where you die!”

There was nothing Alex could do. Sayle raised the gun and took aim, his eyes wide, the pupils blacker than they had ever been, mere pinpricks in the bulging white.

There were two small explosive cracks.

Alex looked down, expecting to see blood. There was nothing. He couldn’t feel anything. Then Sayle staggered and fell onto his back. There were two gaping holes in his chest.

The helicopter landed in the center of the cross. The pilot got out.

Still holding the gun that had killed Herod Sayle, he walked over and examined the body, prodding it with his shoe. Satisfied, he nodded to himself, tucking the gun away. He had switched off the engine of the helicopter and behind him the blades slowed down and stopped. Alex stepped forward. The man seemed to notice him for the first time.

"You’re Yassen Gregorovich,” Alex said.

The Russian nodded. It was impossible to tell what was going on in his head. His clear blue eyes gave nothing away.

"Why did you kill him?” Alex asked.

“Those were my instructions.” There was no trace of an accent in his voice. He spoke softly, reasonably. “He had become an embarrassment. It was better this way."

"Not better for him.”

Yassen shrugged.

“What about me?” Alex asked.

The Russian ran his eyes over Alex, as if weighing him up. “I have no instructions concerning you,” he said.

"You’re not going to shoot me too?”

"Do I have any need to?”

There was a pause. The two of them gazed at each other over the corpse of Herod Sayle.

“You killed Ian Rider,” Alex said. “He was my uncle.”

Yassen shrugged. “I kill a lot of people"

“One day I’ll kill you.”

“A lot of people have tried.” Yassen smiled. “Believe me,” he said, “it would be better if we didn’t meet again. Go back to school. Go back to your life. And the next time they ask you, say no. Killing is for grown-ups and you’re still a child.”

He turned his back on Alex and climbed into the cabin. The blades started up, and a few seconds later, the helicopter rose back into the air. For a moment it hovered at the side of the building. Behind the glass, Yassen raised his hand. A gesture of friendship? A salute?

Alex raised his hand. The helicopter spun away.

Alex stood where he was, watching it, until it had disappeared in the dying light.

HOO BOY where to start! This is a longer scene compared to the rest but I love it so much, it’s probably the best part of Stormbreaker for me and obviously it’s fairly different from the show. I adore the last scene of the show since the tension was delightful, but this hit in a different way. Alex! And Yassen! Actually talking!!! It’s a sparse scene (like most of AH’s writing), but very atmospheric and loaded with meaning all the same.

Let’s start with the obvious stuff first - book!Yassen is fair-haired and blue-eyed (or grey, depending), and has a very measured way of speaking without any accent at all. He very much falls into the archetype of “inscrutable Russian assassin with a mysterious connection to the protagonist” and it’s delightful.

I do like the fact we only really see Yassen in person for two scenes in the entire book, and both times he kills someone ruthlessly and efficiently. (...yes, he did kill Sayle while piloting a helicopter) His reputation is well-deserved and I think the show does an excellent job with that too; every time we see Yassen on screen there’s a feeling that shit is about to go down and somebody is about to die.

The show also does a pretty good job hinting at the connection between Yassen and Alex (ughh Yassen’s expression when he sees Alex for the first time kills me every time). In Stormbreaker, Yassen does (initially) seem colder towards Alex, emotionless, just a man on a job. But even then, we get little hints of warmth shining through such as the way he smiles when Alex promises to kill him, and of course the salute! It’s pretty clear that Yassen has some measure of fondness for Alex, because no way an assassin would normally just let somebody go after they promised to kill him, even if that person is only a teenage boy (especially considering that teenage boy is driven by a desire to take revenge on his uncle’s killer). I also think it’s interesting that Alex reciprocates his salute. He’s clearly aware (even if only subconsciously) of the connection between the two of them.

Though I think what hits the hardest for me is the fact Yassen is the one to tell Alex that he belongs in school, that he’s a child and he shouldn’t be part of this world. Alex in the books is much, much lonelier compared to the show. There was no Jack or Tom there for him, since Jack was kept completely out of the loop and Tom doesn’t even exist in the book. Wolf and the K-Unit largely either ignored or bullied Alex. As for Blunt and Jones, Alex just saved thousands of kids in England yet the only thing MI6 tells him afterwards is that his actions can never be revealed to the public, his youth will make him useful for future missions, and then the only thing they give him is a doctor’s note(!!!) to explain his absence from school.

If that sounds all sorts of terrible and unfair, Alex agrees:

In the end the big difference between him and James Bond wasn’t a question of age. It was a question of loyalty. In the old days spies had done what they’d done because they loved their country, because they believed in what they were doing. But he’d never been given a choice.

Nowadays, spies weren’t employed. They were used.

And of all the people to point out how fucked up the whole situation is and how Alex needs to get out...it’s Yassen, the contract killer, his uncle’s murderer. And Yassen says it straight to Alex’s face instead of just making token protests about how wrong it is to send a teenage boy into danger and then doing it anyway. I think the moment had a fairly big impact on Alex, and I was sad it wasn’t included in the show, but ah well. Another time, maybe?

BONUS

OK i know this was meant to be a book vs tv show thing BUT I WOULD BE REMISS IN MY DUTIES NOT TO LINK TO THE LAST SCENE AS DEPICTED IN THE OLD MOVIE

‘2 minutes of questionable everything’ from the video description about sums it up. the violins. the closeness. the long lingering looks. “i’ll never forget you.”

Anyway, hope this was interesting and at least a bit informative! Do let me know there’s any interest in a part 2 of this post covering Eagle Strike and maybe a bit of Russian Roulette!

[glassvines]

Thoughts on 2020 Favorites

Thoughts on all my favorites from 2020! Sadly, I witnessed what is most likely the demise of one of my favorite hobbies: going to the movies. I hope all my local theaters don’t close up for good this year, and I start going more regularly again in 2021 but. I don’t know if it’s ever going to be the same again. TV Shows 1. Battlestar Galactica (2004) - Getting into this one rather late, but I just discovered I can watch it for free on Peacock haha. Absolutely loving it. Been meaning to finish it ever since I watched the 2003 mini series a few years ago. Stylistically brilliant, and I love that the theological-laden dialogue appears to have a plot-driven point to it. 2. Evil (CBS) - I love this show! Hope it gets another season. It manages to pull off that fine line between silly and creepy most of the time, and all the actors come off as sincere. Also Michael Emerson is there which makes everything even better. Also, also a plus: I'm used to the media portraying Catholics in two different ways: lapsed or bigoted. Muslims? Devout and spiritual or terrorists. It's nice to see a series centered around a devot Catholic, a lapsed Catholic and an ex-Muslim who are all the good guys. Fantastic central characters dynamic. Animation 1. Hilda, season 2 - One of Netflix's best imo. The new season was gorgeous, and even got me to shed a tear at one point. I want to read the comic it's based on. 2. Infinity Train, seasons 2 + 3 - Excellent follow-ups to a great first season. Both were good seasons, but I really enjoyed s2 for Jesse and MT's instant chemistry. 3. Castlevania, season 3 - This show is going to end up breaking my heart but damn if it isn't a really fun watch. Fight scenes continued being top-notch in s3. 4. Bee and Puppycat, season 2 - Yeah, this isn't getting an offical Netflix release until 2022 (what the fuck), but I watched the leaked episodes and enjoyed them a lot. The show feels un-polished and the plot is surrealist nonsense, but those aspects of the show also make it creative and original. I'd like more seasons in the future, but given how disorganized to the point of incompetence the s2 release is, I'm not counting on getting anymore. I don't like seeing the popularity of this show squandered so it's a huge shame. 5. Amphibia, season 2 - Best Disney show airing right now. Characterizations and animation continued being great and I'm looking forward to s3. 6. Wolfwalkers - We all needed a beautiful Cartoon Saloon movie in 2020. It did not disappoint! Hope it has a bluray release soon so I can rewatch it somewhere other than Apple TV+ :/. 7. The Willoughbys - More Kris Pearn directed films please. This movie's character design style was so charming and cute. Loved the Ricky Gervais Cat Narrator. I watched this one with my family after having been separated from them for some time due to the lockdown. It was probably one of the happiest evenings of this year for me. 8. Soul - I enjoyed Onward quite a bit, but Soul hit me in that old-school Pixar feels way. A film about inspiration and finding purpose, so it had a message very similar to Ratatouille. Only Soul ponders on one's worth if they are "not doing what they're meant to do". This movie really knocked that message out of the park.

Video Games 1. Animal Crossing: New Horizons - I played this rather religiously. Definitely kept me from moping during those times when my work hours were cut. 2. Creaks - Amanita Design is offically one of my favorite indie game studios at this point. I adore the atmosphere and music in this game; it's one of the most chill puzzle games I've ever played. 3. Hylics - This game is so bizarre. I've never seen anything like it. Really want to play the sequel.

Films 1. Emma - May officially be my new favorite Emma adaptation. I loved everything about it. The stylized look to the cinematography, the costumes, the music, the actors. Everything. 2. Doctor Sleep - Was surprised at how much I enjoyed this one, as I completely missed it in the theaters. An excellent sequel to a classic, and a well-done good vs. evil story. 3. The Vast of Night - Fun little sci-fi/indie/1950s period piece. I hope streaming services start distributing more films like it. 4. Prospect - My dad recommended this one to me and we watched it together. I was blown away by the dedication to detail; how everything worked in this future setting. Pedro Pascal's character was constantly surprising me too. (Also see: very handsome.)

Podcasts This is only here so I can mention that my favorite new thing was 100% The Magnus Archives. I listened to a lot of new stuff in 2020, but it all paled in comparison to TMA. Good spooky times, great characters and character dynamics, interesting plot direction. The lore is so, so good; I'm impressed with how thorough it is with explaining the seemingly unexplainable, without fully taking away the air of mystery.

Honorable Mentions 1. The Mandalorian, season 2

Things I'm Looking Forward to in 2021 1. Hopefully we'll finally be getting that PacRim series?? 2. The French Dispatch 3. I just want to go the movies again sighhh

Some Creative & General Goals for 2021 I actually managed to do a proper job this year with the journaling and taking more photography! I've started serveral journals, as well as a digital one. So, at least I managed to keep up with one of my creative goals. Managed to have a fairly successful deck garden this year too. My sugar peas didn't die on me haha. Hope to expand on it more this spring/summer. Moving forward this year: 1. Continue to keep up with journaling: drawings, gardening, travel (fingers crossed) and tv/film commentary. 2. Seriously organize my photography this year, as well as post online more often. 3. Help my brother this year with some of his own creative projects! He's always asking for art and I'm usually too busy, but this year I want to get more serious and contribute to his projects. 4. Maybe get back to an old goal of learning how to play the guitar. I want to drop some cash on one this month so I can practice at home.

[strxga]

Thoughts & Review on V7C12

This is my personal review for the latest chapter of RWBY. I tried to keep my points objective and organized, and to not take too much time discussing each, and I would sincerely appreciated if it could be given a read. Thank you if you do read it.

Well. It’s finally happened.

After a hazy but relatively positive start, I can say that Chapter 12 is yet another tipping point in a direction. The last chapters of Volume 6 were certainly… A lot, but compared to this one, Volume 6 pales in comparison. This one is… A doozy for several reasons. Let me preface by saying this: I love this show.

I sincerely adore it and the characters, and the reason I’m writing this think piece is precisely because of that. Because it could be so much better, it could be truly a love letter towards Fantasy, anime, and its fandom… But the writers specifically seem to not know how to balance that… But enough ranting. Off to the meatier sections, which I will progressively go from what I liked the most to what I liked the least.

Penny & Winter Scenes

This was, by far, the best written scenes in the episode, and coming from an unlikely pair of friends. Penny has always been emotional despite being a robot while Winter, despite being human, has always acted mechanical. This episode provides a nice contrast between the two, with Penny emphasizing with Winter and trying to get through to her only for Winter to refute her claims, but doing so with a sadness to her face because deep inside she knows James Ironwood’s plan is flawed. In a way, one acts as the other should, but doesn’t. Their awkward but working friendship makes that its mold and comfortably rests atop it.

It’s flawed, but realistically, it’s the best option to take over having to fight Salem with depleted and exhausted forces. The two play off one another marvelously, and this keeps up until Cinder’s entrance (which is another point I’ll discuss later) and the entire time they keep up this great dynamic. Penny asking if it’s going to hurt Fria to transfer her Aura directly to Winter, only for her to once more act as Penny’s foil and say that it doesn’t matter. The only thing that matters is following orders and keeping the Relic and Maiden Powers safe.

Team ORNJ Scenes

Thankfully this time, it doesn’t take an entire episode to figure out where Oscar is. Frankly, there isn’t much to talk about here, but what little there is of it is good! A problem is established, and then it’s swiftly solved by Neopolitan’s confidence only for everything to fall apart when the real Oscar appears, confirming he wasn’t taken away but had been actually fighting solo against Neopolitan for the lamp.

It establishes he’s no longer the wimp he once was and is making full use of Ozpin’s cane, but I honestly do feel like it was mostly a cat-and-mouse game with Neopolitan stealing the lamp and him chasing after her, because I don’t think he could’ve beaten her on his own. Team ORNJ then sets up to fight Neopolitan, spicing up the fight between them that’s going to take place in the upcoming chapter.

(Upcoming) Neopolitan vs. Team ORNJ

There honestly isn’t much to talk about this regarding on what happened in the episode, but what it did amazingly is set up the fight. We know Neopolitan is an experienced fighter, and strong enough to go toe-to-toe with Cinder without her using her Fall Maiden powers. We also know that Jaune and Ren aren’t the strongest fighters, but they can still hold their own, and them accompanied by Oscar who is slightly below-average but still powerful enough to hold his own and Nora who is, now that Pyrrha’s gone, the strongest member of what remains of Team JNPR, I think the battle between them and our favorite ice cream girl is going to be a highlight of this season, especially with how it was set-up.

Cinder’s Entrance

This is when we start to get into the ‘meh’ section of this episode. Cinder is usually compelling in small doses, but extremely dull, boring and irritable in extended scenes due to how confident, smug and self-assured she is despite her multiple failures ever since the Fall of Beacon. But from a writing perspective, she was amazing. She showed how fearsome she is yet again and that her cleverness is part of her character and not just a plot device. She sent Ironwood into a paranoia and then tracked Winter knowing he’d send her after Fria.

Now, the only thing I don’t get, but this might be just me having forgotten, is if there was one point in which Cinder actually learned Winter was the next candidate to be the Winter Maiden… After all, prior to this point, Cinder had never met or encountered Winter or even less have known of her affiliation with Ironwood in the sense that she is her second-in-command. I have difficulty following that thread of logic… Unless Neopolitan told her at some point? I don’t know. Not knowing is what makes me ‘meh’ about this scene.

Clover, Qrow & Tyrian’s Fight

Taking away the connotations and context from the fight and looking at it purely from a choreography perspective, the fight was amazing and showed all of the fighter’s individual styles and strengths. As per usual, Tyrian was shown as crazed and psychopathic. There is no rhyme, reason or logic to his moves, and therefore there is no pattern or proper way to attack other than improvise. Qrow was versatile in using both his hand-to-hand skills and Harbinger to get the job done, but who stands up the most to me is Clover.

Clover really shows why he’s the leader of the AceOps. He was strategic in using Kingfisher to constantly tie-up Tyrian a few times (I cannot remember if he caught Qrow though) and managed to actually keep up with both of them for a long time! Had it not been for Tyrian’s interference while Clover and Qrow spoke, well… I’ll mention that later. But the point is, Clover was an absolute king in the battlefield and despite his weapon being a fishing rod, he was able to use it tremendously.

Furthermore, what surprised me the most is the fact Qrow and Tyrian worked so well together. They made-up for each other’s flaws whenever Clover had one of them against the ropes, and this surprises me even more considering the fact Tyrian was responsible for Qrow’s closest brush with death. It was… Surprisingly bittersweet.

(Upcoming) Cinder vs. Penny & Winter

Nothing much to talk about here given that this hasn’t yet happened, but as per usual Cinder is flaunting and showing off her power while severely underestimating her opponents. It has been approximately three years since she last saw Penny and since she was rebuilt stronger than before, not to mention the combat experience she’s accrued defending Mantle from the Creatures of Grimm and the occasional bandit and the like.

Winter has also presumably gotten stronger since then, but the scope of her abilities are still unknown since she only engaged in combat once and it was against Qrow all the way back in Volume 3. There’s so many ideas up in the air regarding this upcoming fight that nothing’s stopping me from theorizing Fria will wake up and use her Winter Maiden abilities to kick the snot out of Cinder.

But I am looking forward to what the fight has to offer. I don’t think any of them will die though. Cinder is still too important to the plot as are Penny and Winter for as long as the setting is Atlas.

Clover, Qrow, Robyn & Tyrian Scenes

Yeah. This whole encounter was… It wasn’t exactly ‘bad’ but I felt like the characters here acted completely out of character. Well, sans for Tyrian of course, given that at his core, he is simply a psychopath.

Clover has always been one who acted as one of the most morally-upstanding member of the AceOps as well as the one who was, arguably, given the most screen time. But for some reason, this episode had him betray everything he stood for and wanted to arrest Qrow even though Qrow… Well, what did Qrow even do for Ironwood to want him arrested? That’s another minor nitpick I have about the situation. But with how closely Clover and Qrow had bonded, you’d think he’d try and make sense of the situation instead of acting as a drone even though before he had never done so.

Robyn went from a pragmatic and understanding leader-like figure to, well… Whatever that was. I sincerely can’t understand her character because she isn’t cohesive at all. The only trait about her that remains is her loyalty to Mantle… But that’s it. One moment she’s against Ironwood, the next moment she’s siding with him… Then she sides against him and then once more sides with him. It’s honestly very boring and for someone who is supposed to be based on Robin Hood, she’s never done anything Robin Hood-esque. Even her aesthetic doesn’t match him. She feels like an incomplete character and the only side of her we see is a temperamental, indecisive leader. She couldn’t even tell it wasn’t Penny who attacked her at the election party even though almost every single part of her, weapons included, are bioluminescent. It’s frustrating, really. She should’ve known something was wrong from the get-go when Ironwood gave the order instead of immediately resorting to blind anger.

Qrow… There has never been an instance in the show when Qrow reacted with direct violence ever since Volume 3 while he was drunk. He saw Robyn attack Clover first and decided that he was going to attack Clover when he was the one being assaulted. Robyn and Qrow, as far as I know, never even had a single interaction together one-on-one, and even if he did, he’s always been one to stand against wrongdoings despite his shady demeanor. It honestly sucked seeing him being so out of character this entire chapter because he is a fan-favorite and for good reason. He has had a good amount of development. But he acted on violence instead of simply sitting down and having a talk with both Clover and Robyn. It simply didn’t make sense to me.

AceOps vs. Team RWBY

Just like before, I will focus entirely on an unbiased analysis of how this fight went and criticizing the things that particularly stood out for me whether bad or good. I’ll also be dividing this into subsections because it’s going to be a more direct and easier way for me to do so, and in case anyone’s reading this, that way they can skip ahead to their favorite fight. I watched this battle several times in an attempt to breakdown as best I could. So, let’s start with the main show and the one we saw the most of:

Ruby Rose vs. Harriet Bree

Arguably the most balanced fight out of the four short ones we saw. While I am apprehensive of aspects such as Ruby’s Semblance being able of breaking through iron barricades so easily despite never having alluded or shown her Semblance doing something like that before… I can give it a pass if anything because it made the environment more malleable. Despite that, however, I did like the fast paced match between the fastest members of their respective teams. It’s a very fast battle, but we can see it fully and what we see… Is a fight in which Ruby is on the defensive the entire time, and a battle she should’ve completely lost.

Ruby landed exactly zero hits on Harriet. Zero. Well… Not entirely. She does push Harriet down once but Ruby… Isn’t good at hand-to-hand combat and it’s been shown time over time that she’s not very physically strong so I’d hardly say that counts as a hit… But it does happen. Yet we’re supposed to believe that she was taken out by running into an ice wall created by Weiss at the last moment and that her Aura broke from that? Harriet landed exactly 5 very powerful attacks on Ruby and yet her Aura never even budged. I find that hard to believe. First Ruby got kicked on the face with enough strength to send her flying towards an elevator and break the doors off the wall.

Then he got double-kicked by Harriet on the gut and sent flying back. Then she got punched right on her back by Harriet’s weapon, Fast Knuckles, which are basically Yang’s gauntlets. An attack like that should’ve, at least, done significant damage to her Aura given it was strong enough to buckle her legs and crash her against the floor, which in and of itself should count as another impact given how hard she hit it. Then after that, Ruby got headbutted on the face by Harriet and then choked on the neck by Harriet with her legs and once again slammed with tremendous force on the floor. But her Aura is unscathed for some reason?

Then in comes Weiss, puts an ice wall in front of Harriet for her to crash into, and somehow that takes her down and breaks her Aura. Objectively, this battle was amazing, but Ruby never even once had the advantage. Ruby should’ve been knocked out by Harriet when her Aura broke, but for some reason… That didn’t happen. Good choreography, however.

Weiss Schnee vs. Marrow Armin

I frankly can say this one was expertly choreographed as well. We finally get to see a fight in which Weiss gets to use her Semblance at its full capacity, and this time she doesn’t abuse ice dust only. While it’s still in the vast majority of her attacks, she also relies on fire dust, which does add a degree of excitement and a fresh take to her battle style. Not to mention she now isn’t as reliant on the Arma Gigas only. It was a good balanced diet of everything Weiss can do! There still was very little of her in actual close-quarters combat, but that’s never been her specialty. She’s more of a mid-ranged fighter than anything else with lots of tricks and gimmicks. As for Marrow– well, Marrow… Could’ve made things so much easier if he had used his Semblance effectively.

When it comes to the battle itself though it was… Very lackluster on Marrow’s end, but then again it is heavily-implied by Harriet that he’s not fighting seriously at all and was purposefully holding back, so perhaps the fact he was defeated so easily really isn’t that hard to believe considering his heart wasn’t on the fight and even then he still put up a good fight. But like with Harriet… I find his Aura breaking so easily to be… Weird? He only got hit one time by Weiss’ homing fire dust… Flames? Bullets? Rays? I don’t know what to call it, but he got hit just once with Weiss’ dust and I don’t really count it as a hit but he got pushed to the wall once, but nowhere with near the same intensity as Ruby getting slammed and thrashed all over the environment by Harriet.

But ultimately while it is a nice fight… Again, I find Marrow going down to a single attack borderline offensive and humiliating for one of the members of the AceOps, but then again this was the only battle that felt like a member of Team RWBY deserved to win, and that’s saying something given Weiss’ battle track record isn’t exactly the cleanest and she’s lost the most fights out of any Team RWBY member when it comes to one-on-one encounters.

Blake Belladonna & Yang Xiao Long vs. Elm Ederne & Vine Zeki

Honestly, this is probably the best fight out of the ones regarding Team RWBY vs. the AceOps. It is nice to see this fight’s choreography because it was quite enjoyable. It was very dynamic and there was a lot of movement which made it flow just like a river of water, but there were also… Lots of inconsistencies regarding the character’s power levels and how they performed in this fight, especially regarding Elm and Vine who, from an objective standpoint if one sits down and analyzes the fight as I did, it’s also easy to tell that… Elm and Vine should’ve won.

While it’s disappointing that we didn’t get to see Vine’s weapon in this final bout, we did see Blake and Yang working together as well as Elm and Vine despite their personality conflicts. There really wasn’t a lot of team coordinating, but both sides performed admirably. Yang & Elm with their brawn and ferocity as well as Blake & Vine with their strategic minds and nimbleness. Now… While I can only praise the dynamics, the battle was, again, stacked against Blake and Yang. Like I did with the battle between Ruby and Harriet, I went through this one thoroughly and counted the amount of hits each character received.

Yang landed a total of three direct blows against Elm. A punch to the face that sent Elm staggering back a few steps, and then she didn’t land a single hit on Elm until she punched the ground with her Semblance, destroying it and sending her flying, but this doesn’t count as a hit because Elm wasn’t harmed when Yang did this. She was only sent flying in mid-air and then Yang and Blake both delivered a single attack on Elm before she fell to the floor, shattering her Aura. Now, we know Elm is basically the Yang of the group, except bigger, stockier and presumably stronger, so with how tough she’s been portrayed up until now, that she was defeated so swiftly surprises me… Especially when she herself beat Yang down to the point her Aura should’ve broken as well.

First she headbutted Yang, knocking her off-balance and later swinging her hammer with enough strength to send Yang, the strongest and bulkiest member of Team RWBY, flying a considerable distance with her massive hammer. This didn’t happen just once, twice or thrice though. Elm hit Yang on the chest with Timber, her hammer, four times, and every single time she was sent flying. We’ve seen the ridiculous feats of strength Nora Valkyrie’s performed with Magnhild. Well, Elm is at least twice stronger than Nora. The fact Yang’s Aura never even budged despite getting hammered on the chest with the heaviest and most powerful hammer we’ve seen in the show is beyond me. It doesn’t help that she got also hit directly by Vine with a rock the size of her entire body and pushed back. If anything, Elm and Yang’s fight is the most balanced one so Elm being defeated is not the issue. The issue is how despite receiving double the punishment, Yang’s Aura never broke while Elm’s broke with just three hits that didn’t pack the same punch and power all of Elm’s attacks which connected did.

Now regarding Blake’s encounter with Vine… Like Ruby with Harriet, Blake landed a total of zero hits against both Elm and Vine. Coincidentally, however, Blake also was also hit the most in this battle to the point her Aura actually did break. Why only her’s though is not something I can answer. I could describe how Blake got hit, but two of those times she got crushed by Vine’s Semblance and slammed against the wall twice, the second time enough to break the wall as well, and the one time she got hammered on the chest by Elm with enough strength to send her several feet on the air, which likely hurt a whole lot since every single one of Elm’s hits pack two massive punches. Now if any of you are curious about how many hits Vine took before his Aura broke…

It was one. He got sent flying to the ground by Yang and his Aura broke. I don’t count the explosives that detonated near him because he was using his Semblance to hold onto them, reducing the explosion’s power and size, but it still destabilized him and sent him careening to the air for Yang to grab. But Yang’s explosives aren’t exactly the strongest anyways so even if they did do some damage, it was still extremely minuscule damage for his Aura to break from a single hit like Marrow’s did. It was honestly disappointing, especially after we got to witness how strong they truly are by perfectly fighting against a Geist in the earliest episodes of the Volume.

My overall rating of the fight is that, objectively, it was amazingly choreographed… But the power level in RWBY is still awful and largely-irrelevant, since there is no instance in which Team RWBY will actually lose a fight even if throughout the encounter they are taking more hits than their opposition. This is an issue they still need to fix…

Team RWBY’s ‘Plan’

This one is… Upsetting. Even more so than the above because, at this point, Team RWBY is devoid of any and all potential consequences of their actions, and frankly I’m tired of it. Ever since Volume 6 their ‘plans’ if they can even be called that, have been compromising even more things for the sake of their so-called righteousness. In Volume 6 they endangered all of Argus and attacked an entire military base, and to this day they’ve suffered exactly zero consequences for their actions. If anything, they got rewarded for their criminal activity by getting a free pass to Atlas. Ironwood didn’t even look in their direction after they did that too. All for their selfish righteousness too, which in most occasions isn’t even right. They just do whatever they can even if it comes at the cost of other’s safety as long as it serves them

Now they even refuse to even see where Ironwood is coming from. They don’t offer him help, all they do is judge him and criticize him both to his back and in front of him and only side with him when it benefits them. They are, physically, mentally and emotionally incapable of sympathizing with others yet they want others to sympathize with them and their hypocrisy only continues to go rewarded. The narrative is very obviously in their favor and attempts to sway the viewers into thinking Ironwood is the villain for… Doing the only few remaining things he can do to try and keep not just Atlas and the Mantle survivors safe, but all of the world. They don’t even bother to see his point. At no moment during that confrontation do they go ‘we see your point and where you’re coming from, but that’s just playing into Salem’s hands and we can’t do that.’ No, all they do is yell at him and tell him he’s wrong, that he’s an awful person.

They don’t see the greater scheme. All they see are their own lofty ideals. They physically cannot save all the people of Mantle. They physically cannot keep the Lamp and the Staff, and they certainly, at this point in time, physically stop Salem if she is coming. They need ships to save the people of Mantle, they need to be on guard duty to protect the Staff and the Lamp. They need to keep Fria safe to keep the Winter Maiden powers from being robbed, but how are they physically going to do that? By ‘standing their ground?’ That is such a nonsensical, idyllic solution. They can’t do all of those things, but somehow, someway, they are ‘right’ because they want to do ‘the right thing.’ Except. There is no right thing thing to do. Not everything is as black and white as they want it to be. And every single time they do this and experience zero consequences while reaping many rewards for their hypocritical and catastrophic reckless decisions, the more faith I lose in the writers and the show.

Team RWBY defeating the AceOps

Like I said above, this was something I really didn’t enjoy… As I’ve mentioned above, it seems Team RWBY’s recklessness and inconsiderate behavior that endangers far more lives than they save will always go rewarded, and here is no different. I’ve gone through the battle several times and the only fight which deserved to be won by a member of Team RWBY was Weiss’ battle against Marrow, and this was largely because Marrow was holding back and implied he could push Weiss more against the ropes if he wanted to. Not to mention that it was due to Marrow’s hesitation Team RWBY even had a fighting chance. Had he used his Semblance at the very beginning he could’ve frozen all of Team RWBY where they were and have them apprehended immediately because they’d be unable to move.

Besides that one, the only other one who could’ve gone in Team RWBY’s favor is Yang’s fight against Elm, but even so it was… 75/25 in Elm’s favor. But the proof is in the animation, and it shows Elm landing far more attacks on Yang than Yang ever did on her, but since Team RWBY’s victory is required for the plot to progress, they were able to defeat the AceOps. Blake’s fight against Vine and Ruby’s fight against Harriet is not something I can even justify if I tried to do so because it was entirely one-sided on the AceOps’ favor. I try to give a lot of leverage to the show and its writing, but I cannot suspense my disbelief for such a one-sided fight, especially when the AceOps dished out punishment after punishment for Team RWBY and none of their Auras broke nor did they look even remotely tired while the AceOps all went down with two-to-three hits that I find hard to believe would take down the most elite Hunters in all of the Atlas continent.

We don’t know the AceOps’ members’ age, but what we do know is that they’ve been serving directly under James Ironwood for years now, and as the most elite, that makes them the strongest military platoon in all of Atlas with several years long specialized training years under their age while Team RWBY received not even a year of formal training at Beacon Academy and fought some Creatures of Grimm on the way to Mistral, had very limited and minor training under Ozma/Ozpin and then had small bouts against Salem and Raven’s forces in the Battle for Haven. Then after that they faced off against more Creatures of Grimm on the way to Atlas except for the one time they teamed-up to fight against Caroline Cordovin’s Colossus. Compared to the AceOps’ rigorous daily training and constantly having to carry out extremely difficult tasks under Ironwood’s leadership, Team RWBY’s training really pales in comparison.

There are many other ways that Team RWBY’s physical, mental or emotional strength without having them win fights they don’t deserve, because at this point it simply feels like no matter what happens, no matter how gray the situation the writing team behind RWBY attempts to portray, the narrative always tries to portray Team RWBY as being in the right even though for the past two Volumes they have been wrong in their methods without suffering any consequences. It’s exhausting and frankly, not good writing. I understand this is said a lot, but in this case, it can really be attributed to bad writing. Team RWBY doesn’t have to win every fight, they don’t have to always come out on top. They don’t always have to be right. And they most certainly don’t have to always be at the center of everything. That’s what side characters are for, side characters that they rarely use at all but keep around and keep increasing the amount of side characters for the plot. It’s overwhelming in all the wrong ways.

By the way, it was Team RWBY who attacked the AceOps, not the other way around. They could’ve stood down, they could’ve calmed down and realized they were in the wrong in this scenario, and Harriet herself said it first. They decide what happens next. Ruby draws out her weapon and escapes the room, forcing Harriet to chase her. They were the ones who forced the AceOps into acting, not the other way around. But the next moment Ruby is begging Harriet to team up with her to fight Salem even though a moment ago she was challenging Harriet to a fight because of her arrogance and unjustified massive ego. At this point, Ironwood might be paranoid and making bad decisions, but Team RWBY certainly poured gasoline all over his paranoia.

Qrow

I think most of the FNDM can agree that what they did with Qrow makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. There are a lot of things wrong with his character this chapter. For starters, at no point since he was introduced did Qrow try to solve the problems he faced with outright violence. He always preferred the diplomatic and peaceful approach because that’s what Ozpin taught him to do and what he genuinely believed was the right step today, because violence leads to panic, and the panic leads to Creatures of Grimm… Except in this case where he… Decided to rely on violence.

But the greatest offender was the fact he teamed up with Tyrian of all people– that’s right. Qrow willingly teams up with Tyrian, the same person who has tried to slaughter both Ruby and himself and has successfully murdered dozens of innocent civilians for his own amusement to attack Clover… What? Then he has the audacity to blame Clover for what happened and feels awful when, to no one’s surprise, Tyrian betrays him and stabs Clover with Harbinger when it was him who knocked out Clover’s Aura in the first place.

It’s awful, and I can understand why so many Qrow fans are enraged by this, because even I was and I don’t relate to Qrow that much. Just as the meme goes, ‘everything happens so much…’

Clover’s Death

Didn’t need to happen. Literally that’s my entire point on this section. It didn’t need to happen, it shouldn’t have happened, and this was RWBY’s writing team attempt at shock for the Volume. Because Qrow is just not allowed to have happy endings or friends. Qrow has no rights mourning Clover’s death when he himself was the direct catalyst for it to occur in the first place. But there is something else that is horrifyingly atrocious in the writing department going on with Clover in the last moments of his death. Seconds before getting stabbed with Harbinger, Clover states that he would trust Ironwood with his life… Then, all that changes right after he is nearing the end of his life.

The moment he realizes his life is fading away, once again, Clover goes against anything and everything he stands for by wishing Qrow good luck when the other claims he’s going to make sure Ironwood takes the fall for what happened, when Ironwood is doing nothing wrong. Ironwood keeps getting painted as the villain even by his most loyal soldier, the one who claimed he would trust the general with his life, but that ultimately doesn’t matter based on the show’s writing. Clover previously also talked about how Ironwood was doing the right thing by making the toughest decisions, the decisions that realistically could and would save thousands of lives unlike Team RWBY’s lofty goals.

Goals which by the end of the episode continue being unanswered. How are they going to accomplish all the naïve promises they want to fulfill? From a non-biased opinion and how they tend to solve the writing’s plot holes in past volumes, what most likely’s going to happen is yet another Deus Ex Machina. In Volume 4 it was the ‘random’ troops that just happened to arrive to Kuroyuri on time to escort the group all the way to Mistral and seek medical first aid for Qrow. In Volume 5 it was Blake showing up with an entire militia of the reformed White Fang as well as Vernal, somehow, still living to get that cheap shot in for Raven to have an opening to knock Cinder off the vault’s cliff. In Volume 6 it was Ruby’s empty speeches somehow convincing Cordovin to give them a free ship so they could travel to Atlas even though Team RWBY and company were responsible for everything bad that happened to Argus because of their selfishness.

[courage-a-word-of-justice]

Deca-Dence 4 | Maou-jou 2 | Fruits Basket 2 24 (49) | Magatsu 1 | IWGP 2 | Koi to Producer 11 - 12 (FINAL) | HypMic 3

Still chugging away at these summer and spring anime...sorry for the delay...(LOL, that rhymed without me meaning to.)

Also, I’ve been on the fence about whether to keep Golden Kamuy, since almost no one I read the reviews of follows it now and it’s a week’s wait (when accounting for my AniList challenge)...so I’m putting it on pause so I don’t have to suffer later.

Deca-Dence 4

“…who possesses the will to fight.”

…Great. Kurenai is absolutely tethered to Kaburagi in a one-sided love. Just when I thought Natsume had an independent role model to look up to.

Maou-jou 2

Oh, this is from Shonen Sunday? Didn’t know that until now.

“Demon Shroud: A demon with 99 clans. A cloth demon that puts on airs that it won’t be used before it’s finished off, due to its wonderful fabric. It is full of beautiful ghostly power, so its skin is smooth. However, the hero (who commonly uses things he finds in his surroundings) caught one, so now the princess has zeroed in on them. The princess doesn’t need the hands or the head of these demons, so it’s a cycle of killing and taking revenge for them. Their fighting style is squeezing the life out of things.”

Apparently, the teddy is acceptable, LOL.

I like how the window stopped displaying text at one point.

I saw someone with a huge plait in the ED. The queen, maybe…?

I noticed the laughs dropped off significantly in comparison to last time, but it’s still good. I can flex my translation skills even if I can’t laugh at one part.

Fruits Basket 2 24 (49)

…jumping to the 2nd-last episode in a season is pretty unprecendented, but I’m going to watch this for the sake of Jon’s Creator Showcase…then again, I need to finish this anime anyway, so it’s just cutting and changing the order for something I already know the outcomes of.

I used to lose myself in movies so much that I would lose all sense of who I was and would have to “regain the bearings of myself”, so to speak. I would have to reconstruct who I was, even though I technically hadn’t “been broken” and I knew once I did that, it felt different. Like I’d travelled through time and past me would never be the same as present me. That’s why I kind of get what Machi means.

Oh, I didn’t listen to this OP much…probably because I’m emphasising bingeing the spring and summer series I left behind and now that I can skip the ads on most of my anime, I’m leaving behind the anime I’ll be slower on.

The manga was written when there weren’t as many cell phones around, much less smartphones.

Rin’s on bad terms with everyone…

…if I remember the year of the dragon correctly, the last one was 2012, then the one before that is 2000…around the turn of the millennium, huh? Froob is showing its age here, albeit unintentionally.

Now that I’m closer to the Musketeers’ age, I can kind of empathise with their scenes a bit more.

“If I always blame someone or something, I’ll never change.” – True. I realised I’ve been a bit too haughty lately (what with the HypMic anime going on and it being the first thing I could research extensively before the anime’s debut, my feelings are of course reaching fever pitch – combine that with continued COVID lockdown and you get me being all defensive of HypMic, for better or for worse) and so I may have acted like a jerk to someone, but since I only know them online and generally when I try to apologise to people online they don’t see the things I apologise for as things in need of apology, I know the fault lies with me to rein myself in. I guess this means changing yourself is the only way to move forward.

I wonder how Hatori did his doctor training while avoiding hugs from girls who aren’t Sohmas…?

Shigure vs. Gentaro (of HypMic, of course)…a writing competition! That would be fun.

…Crow’s note here makes sense (<- this is why I changed the order). Shigure was clearly asking a question there.

Come to think of it, HypMic and Froob have some similar characters. The stoic doctor is Hatori/Jakurai, the energetic smol one is Momiji/Ramuda, the teasing author is Shigure/Gentaro…that could make for some good fanfic material, really.

Magatsu 1

…that title is an absolute killer, man. Anyways, I’m here for the director, who also worked on Hataraku Maou-sama.

Is this a no guns thing, like IWGP is a no drugs thing?

…this OP has lyrics?! I just hear strange squeaky noises, the kind you hear on some autotuned sogs to make them seem more ominous (I can’t remember if there’s a similar sound in G-Anthem of Y City or Yokohama Walker, but one of the MTC songs has similar noises).

I kinda guessed Leo’s package was the one Schaake and her partner were looking for. I was right.

That CGI (on the truck) is…kinda conspicuous.

These backgrounds are gorgeous.

“The definition of in dubio contra reum is "in doubt, against the accused", meaning that, where there is doubt, the accused in a trial is not given the benefit of that doubt; they are assumed guilty.”

I wonder: how many protagonists start out as absolute wimps, unwilling to fight because they either know or don’t know their own power? It’s a pretty standard introduction for things with fights.

This battle track is nice. I listened to some of the Magatsu music under Masaru Yokoyama’s name on Spotify and it’s pretty cool, but since it’s background music, there’s not a lot of demand to listen to it (from me or anyone else, I don’t think).

Why is there only a single shield if they know the enemy has heavy artillery?

…what the heck is a Zeits? Update: You can see a “Zeits” (or however it’s spelt) in the credits list, suggesting Zeits is a character in this.

I knew this was my last premiere and this might have made or broken my entire watching schedule, but this is just a pretty down-to-earth premiere for a fantasy mobile game. While that cliffhanger compelled me to continue, I don’t think it’s good enough to beat its competition in the long run.

IWGP 2

I know I said Magatsu was my last premiere, but just to be sure, I’m watching this one.

This dance scene is beautifully orchestrated. The fact there’s no music means you focus entirely on the motion.

The OP seems to trade more in colour and spectacle than actual “cool factor”.

…wow, $2.90…? That’s some cheap food.

You know I hate 1st person cam with a passion, right? So…uh…

Eyyyyyyyy…this is basically McDonald’s, curry style.

I think I can almost see Ichiro of HypMic in how the G-Boys seem to mostly be reformed delinquents or actual delinquents.

…yeah, but what’s your name, random messenger guy? Update: We find out later his name is Isogai.

“It’s because I suck at working and communicating.” – Yep, that me.

Ikebukuro licence plate. I still have no idea exactly what places get licence plates in Japan.

There are actually 2 characters before “Hospital”, but no one confirms the reading of those characters…which is probably why they’re omitted.

…oh gosh, if this were a BL, Mitsuki and Masaru would be star-crossed lovers…*sigh*

Maybe it’s an unrelated 3rd party??? (In mysteries, you can never dismiss the work of a 3rd party.)

You can tell exactly which group is which based on the colours they wear. Makoto isn’t affiliated with anyone, so he’s wearing black and had yellow earlier.

I think an anime is cowardly – or trying to save budget – if they deliberately choose an angle where they can’t show the moment of impact clearly.

E! News, LOL.

Archangel, huh? So like a 2nd in command?

I think IWGP is moving in the direction of pushing the gangs against each other in the way Makoto describes in ep. 2.

As for what I think of it now, it's decent if you want something down-to-earth, but it seems to be missing some kind of "wow factor". Like it's afraid to commit to deeper characterisation, even though it has Makoto as the ostensible lead/viewpoint character.

Koi to Producer 11

“Cognitive Science Association” - I thought it was the Cognitive Psychology Association…? (Psychology is shinrigaku, science is kagaku.)

My boy (Lucien)…why must you be so evil??? Why do I keep falling for the tall but mysterious doctor??? (<- guilty as charged re: Jakurai)

…that’s some funky seatbelts.

What’s that look in Victor’s eyes…? Fondness, or something more…?

…ah, so there is “Science” in the place’s name. It was just being less loosely translated then.

Oh dang. Stuff escalated really fast, huh?

You actually set this in 2020, huh, staff? What happens ten years from now and people watch it, only to realise 2020 and 2030 aren’t so different? That’s what happened when people had the Y2K bug.

That yellow sign on the side says “exit”. It’s not of any use.

That’s not a recoloured Kiro, is it? It’s not Shaw, either (who I think we saw somewhere in the previous episodes)…so then who is it?

…geesh, they even changed Helios to Ares. I guess it makes sense: Helios is the god of the sun, but Ares is the god of war.

Koi to Producer 12 (FINAL)

I read on the wiki Lucien’s power is copying powers. No wonder I couldn’t get a solid handle on it!

So that Helios wasn’t a mistake in the credits list in the previous episode???

Can we even hear what Helios says when Protag-chan is pulled away? Based on the lack of subs, probably no, but I wanted to ask anyway. (Or maybe he said “Watashi”, since that’s the pronoun Protag-chan goes by?)

…so that really is Kiro, huh?

Military…what? When did Protag-chan’s father have a military squad???

LOL, at the very end you can see Gavin gesturing at Greenie (the pot plant, presumably a succulent). I logged on to the game 7 days straight (they have a Discord channel!) and got a Gavin R card with Greenie on it, which is how I know about it.

Anyways, that was a fun show. Not the best, but still fun.

HypMic 3

*snickers* Just look at my boi! He’s so tall, he has to bend down for kids! (I don’t mean that teasingly, I mean that endearingly, but lately I’ve been no good at expressing myself…Must be the lockdown.)

If TsudaKen was a guest last time, then Degarashi and Irihatoma could be voiced by guest seiyuus too…

What is Jakurai, hmm? (A Transformer, LOL?...I’m kidding, of course.)

All I knew about this episode going in was that it was an MTR episode. Maybe they’ll cover the stalker story from the manga…?

More literally, Hifumi’s sign says “will you monopolise me until morning?”. This reminds me of the MTR truck one of the servers I was in was talking about…it looked like a giant billboard.

“The most notable thing about Doppo is that he has no notable characteristics.”…and yet, he’s still one of the most popular characters of the series.

Suddenly, HypMic becomes a mystery…? I’ll take it!

Yup, “Doppomine” is now confirmed as “Doppo-chin”.

If all the mysteries I’ve consumed say one thing, it’s “never forget there might be someone out there with a grudge against you willing to pin a crime on you”…or alternatively, “never forget there may be an unrelated 3rd party who would be willing to pin a crime on you”.

These guys (Tom etc.) are just food critics, I swear…(LOL)

Oddly enough(?), googling “Shinjuku waffles” reveals there are several waffle places in Shinjuku…you wouldn’t expect so many waffles away from the home of waffles (probably Belgium), but there you go.

All the results on Shinjuku French toast point to this Café Aaliya (give or take an H at the end). Apparently, it’s so popular, people line up for it on weekdays.

Oh, so Tom’s a (street) photographer…what are Iris and Rex then?

The CGI on that car looks really bad, man. It may be dark to disguise it, but it still looks bad.

Jakurai’s dad car strikes again!...Was it white? I don’t remember, but I’m pretty sure it was a lighter colour than this.

I was quite worried about how much swearing they were going to throw in the MTC episode, but then…they kicked it down a week. So…start worrying about next week, folks!

I…thought he would call Jyuto for some reason. (giggles) I’ve never seen Samatoki look so happy in relation to Jakurai, but maybe that’s because he’s just chilling. (Or maybe he was meant to have a neutral but slightly happy face and they messed up the angle. I know I do that sometimes in fanart.)

There’s Jyuto, right on cue…LOL, that kick to the guts was so random it became epic!

Uwabami…what sort of snake is that, again? *checks* Giant snake. That’s no help. (That host could have a guest seiyuu too.)

Ooh, I’m fairly sure that’s an automatic car.

Jakurai went Jitsu wa kyoumi bukai desu ne?. “Fascinating” isn’t a wrong translation, but they did forget “In fact…” or “Really…” from the start and possibly the “?” at the end (depending on interpretation). Update: It might actually be Jitsu ni, but same deal.

They struttin’ down Kabuki-cho all fancy-like…Doppo sure does get a lot of punchlines, though.

This random guy at the club could also have a guest seiyuu…

…what’s with the random Tahoma?

…oh, hey. If Hifumi’s jacket acts as a security blanket of sorts against women and he gave it to Doppo for extra warmth (presumably), then…he’s trying to protect Doppo, even in his own sort of unique way.

Mimimi vs Hifumi? This is gonna get confusing…(hey, did they actually make a flourish noise when Hifumi put on his jacket? Does the distinction need to be that clear…?)

…see, never forget the presence of an unrelated 3rd party.Wait, so we have motive…what’s the relationship of Mimimi and the dude she killed? Who is that dude? Update: We find out later.

Notice Mimimi says “Hifumi-kun” – she’s still on an outside layer compared to Doppo, who just uses Hifumi’s name. Also, I noticed Mimimi called herself Hifumi’s “onna” – “woman” – explicitly, as if she belonged to him. The subs reflect that, but it seems to have less meaning in English because they outright translated it as such.

Well, they got to demonstrate Doppo’s snapping. I’m more than happy with just that. Also, Hifumi calls Doppo with a -kun here.

LOL, this song is gonna be known as “catchy”, ain’t it? Anything with an easy-to-sing-along chorus like “nananana” is. Update: Or maybe not even a chorus, it’s just lyrics.

Hmm…I noticed the “use Mr with me” line isn’t actually reflected in the subs, but the lyrics are so fast, I don’t know how they are reflected.

Did you notice the da in the lyrics in romaji?

…and s*** goes ka-blooey, as you’ve come to expect by now.

Mimimi-kun…?

Oh, so the background from Hypnosis Mics can get caught in photos? I never thought of that.

It’s almost as if they’re nodding at the Doppo fans through the 4th wall regarding his appeal.

It seems they’re not switching out this Buster Bros track, which is…okay, but I was hoping for an MTR ED. (Tofubeats was on this track IIRC and the anime website didn’t list a future ED, so that’s why I’m okay with it.)

…Okay, so Irihatoma is Mutsumi Iwanaka, who’s a rookie in the seiyuu world. *goes to consult Anime News Network*

Oh! Mimimi Hibakari! I get it! (It means “me, me, me all day” when written differently to her name.)

Uwabami was Shugo Nakamura and Degarashi was Mitsuaki Hoshino. I’ve never heard of these guys – except for Nakamura’s role as Teru in Idolm@ster Side M – so it’s interesting they contrasted TsudaKen with them…eh? Heilong? Whossat? (Probably the guy whose…parts…almost got crushed by Jakurai with a billiards cue.) This Hiroya Eto is even more underground than those guys.

A-hah! Today’s new song is “WELCOME U” (that’s how it’s spelt, don’t diss me for it!) by Kohei from SIMONSAYZ.

Update: I thought that kid at the beginning was Yotsutsuji, so it scared me for a second.

[marshmallowgoop]

Gushing about Promare (Mega Spoilers!)

I know not everyone has gotten a chance to see Promare yet, but I first saw the movie months ago and have been dying to talk spoilers ever since. So, avoid this post if you haven’t had the opportunity to watch the film yet, but since there’s a tiny bit more availability now, I finally just wanna gush for a sec!

First of all, Promare surprised me. I wasn’t really too interested when the project was revealed, and even when I learned more details at last year’s Anime Expo, I was only moderately invested. The note that the film would be kid friendly is what got me more on board, but I suppose what really got me, more than even the stunning soundtrack (which I think might be Hiroyuki Sawano’s best OST, honestly), was the Trigger x Monster Strike collab.

Maybe surprisingly, I am actually somewhat self-aware, and I recognize that I’m totally biased, but okay, seeing Ryuko and Senketsu noted as characters for the game, right beside Lio and Galo...

Let’s just say that my heart was taken. Seeing that image of Lio and Galo made me fall in love with them, and the comparisons between Ryuko and Senketsu’s relationship and Lio and Galo’s that I found in the 鮮流 (Senryu) tag on Twitter sealed the deal. Teaming up and fighting with the Power of Love is my jam.

So, I got hyped. I expected to like the movie. 

But I didn’t expect to find it to be the best thing that Trigger has ever made.

(Well, that I’ve seen, anyway.)

And even after sitting on it for a while, I still think Promare is Trigger’s strongest work (that I’ve seen). Sure, I’ve read many complaints that the film tries to do too much in its short timeframe, that there are too many characters who don’t get fleshed out as they should, that it’s way too predictable and cliche... but I respectfully disagree.

I mean, I do feel Promare would have worked better as a series, sure. But Promare uses its time excellently. Maybe it’s an odd comparison (or maybe not?), but while The Shape of Water devotes a ton of screen time and attention to subplots and fleshing out characters other than the main leads, Promare stays focused. This is the story of Lio and Galo, and it never, ever forgets that. Whereas The Shape of Water drowns its monster love story inside plots of Russian spies and rotting fingers, Promare stays focused. Promare knows what it is and knows what it’s about. It’s the most cohesive and thematically strong piece that I’ve seen from Trigger, and I’m more than glad that the artists decided to focus on Lio and Galo rather than shove in all sorts of good stuff about the other characters at the expense of muddying its heart and soul.

Because as much as I love Kill la Kill—and as much as it’s still my favorite Trigger work, even if I don’t see it as Trigger’s best—that’s... exactly what that show did. I can’t even say for sure what the heart and soul of Kill la Kill is! Sure, I’ve argued that it’s most definitely a love story between a girl and her sailor uniform more than anything else, and I most definitely have evidence to support that claim, but I recognize that tons of other claims with tons of other evidence behind them could be made as well. Maybe, for example, as expressed by director Hiroyuki Imaishi before the series premiered, Kill la Kill is really ultimately a story about the rivalry and eventual friendship between Ryuko and Satsuki. Or maybe it’s about overcoming fascism, or a warning about wearable technology, or about puberty, or finding family, or really a million things. I’ve been in the Kill la Kill fandom for years, and let me tell you: I’ve seen just about everything.

And that’s not necessarily a bad thing. But the huge variety in interpretations for the anime most certainly points to the idea that it ain’t all that focused. It’s... a bit all over the place. Too much good stuff shoved into one work, resulting in a mixed mass of awesome that’s maybe kinda hard to make sense of.

(And, for the record, I’ll point out that as much as I often feel alone in my reading of Kill la Kill, I’m really not alone at all. An interviewer for Newtype magazine once said, “When you watch through to the last episode, you keenly feel that Kill la Kill is a story about the relationship between Ryuko and Senketsu,” writer Kazuki Nakashima himself has pointed out several times that Ryuko and Senketsu’s relationship is central to the story, such as in his note in the Kamui Bansho that “You could say that Kill la Kill tells the story of a lonely young woman meeting and losing an irreplaceable partner,” and even among English-speaking fans, I can at least link to this one comment not by me that reads, “It's also weird that they say that Ryuko vs. Satsuki is the core of character drama; while it’s majorly important so far, it’s seemed more like Ryuko and Senketsu share the most important relationship.” I know I’m biased, but, okay, I have support, seriously.)

In my humble onion, Promare combines probably the two strongest story threads in Kill la Kill by essentially making the Satsuki character and Senketsu character the same person. You get the rivalry that turns into a friendship, and you also get the synchronization and coming together of two different people who seem like they shouldn’t get along—the combining of “oil and water,” as Galo himself puts it. The fact that the designs of Lio and Galo’s robots were confirmed to look like Kamui in the last live-drawing session (with eyes on the shoulders and teeth on the chest) only strengthens the Ryuko and Senketsu connection, and, c’mon, you can’t tell me that those trailers and promotional materials weren’t hyping up the Lio/Galo rivalry like Kill la Kill hyped up the Ryuko/Satsuki rivalry. Promare takes two of the greatest parts of Kill la Kill, smashes them together, and makes something fantastic. This is what I would have wanted Kill la Kill to be like.

Yes, Promare’s plot is absolutely predictable and cliche, but that ain’t at all a downside! The film utilizes its cliches well, and our main leads are so charming that the journey is endlessly enjoyable. Promare is ultimately a sweet character drama with lots of flashy action, and that character drama is excellent.

I love so much about it. I love how Galo makes an offensive remark to Lio and immediately apologizes, understanding that it was wrong. I love that Galo saving Lio’s life is presented so respectfully, and I love that Galo isn’t at all bothered or embarrassed by pressing his lips to Lio’s, and I love that when Galo freaks out afterwards, it’s simply because he started a fire when he’s devoted himself to putting fires out. I love how Lio’s flames protect Galo, I love the lyrics to “Inferno” and how they amplify the story, I love that there’s a happy ending and the Burnish don’t all die out because that’s somehow “for the best,” I love that there’s a beautiful heart explosion when Lio and Galo save the world. I just love love love these two characters and this film.

But of course, to address the elephant in the room, I do wish that Lio and Galo’s relationship were more explicit; as is always the case in Trigger works that feature potential LGBTQ+ romances, it was stated at both Anime Expo this year and in the latest live drawing that there are no wrong interpretations and everyone is free to think what they would like. But when someone asked if there would be more “boys kissing” in future Trigger works at Anime Expo, and the answer was “yes,” I’m hopeful and don’t feel bad about what we got. Lio and Galo are a sweet, sweet step in the right direction, and I hope for more explicit, charming, respectful LGBTQ+ content in the future from this studio.

Tl;dr, as silly as Promare is, it almost feels like the studio is growing up. The film is what I consider to be their strongest work to date (that I’ve seen, of course), and I crave more over-the-top, kid-friendly, endearing works from Trigger moving forward.

[pattyaifread]

Tales of Innocence: DS vs R Scene Comparisons

When Tales of Innocence was remade as Tales of Innocence R for the Vita, it was inevitable that the script was going to undergo some changes and that expansions would be made, as the original DS game is quite short.

As many people I know have never played R due to it never being localized, I wanted to point out some differences in key scenes, and talk about how the addition of Kongwai and QQ affect things.

This contains spoilers to end game, be aware.

The first scene I want to cover is aftermath of the climatic Sky Castle scene, where it’s revealed that Inanna and Durandal betrayed Asura, and that Asura himself was the cause of the fall. The part I want to talk about is where Luca has his breakdown.

You can watch the clip of the DS version here, and you can watch the clip of the R version here.

I’ve compiled a visual comparison of screenshots together here.

For simplicity’s sake I’m going to use Absolute Zero’s translation where it applies, and then translate anything new myself.

Now, onto why the changes matter.

First, Mathias “......” in DS is voiced with a hesitant grunt, in R she is completely silent. When it comes down to it, Mathias doesn’t want to kill Chitose. DS better showcases it.

Second, slight rewording on Chitose’s lines. This one isn’t necessarily bad or good, but it’s interesting to note that in DS she first used “魔王アスラさま (Overlord Asura)”, where in R she only uses “アスラさま (Lord Asura)”. Her second line was also changed from “thinking of Lord Asura” to “yearning for Lord Asura”.

Onto Luca’s part, where the biggest changes were... R completely removes Luca’s talk about betrayal, even Asura’s (his own, as he sees it). He says it doesn’t matter, but it’s quite clear they were a huge shock factor to him in the revelation. That he doesn’t say “Inanna and Durandal”, but “Iria and Spada” shows that at the time, Luca is viewing past and current selves as one. That he was betrayed by the two people closest to him in his past life, who are his current best friends, was just as much of a shock as the fact that Asura himself destroyed Devaloka in his rage. His meltdown had more impact in the DS version.

Next is everything after, where things get downright messy. They remove Hermana realizing that what Luca is doing right now is the same as what Asura did when he was betrayed--when his rage destroyed Devaloka. They don’t even make the comparison between Asura and Luca’s actions in R. Giving Spada a line was nice, but using Kongwai and QQ to knock them out when they’re in a hurry to get out is more of a liability than anything. Carrying unconscious bodies in a sky dungeon that’s falling apart--real smart. The sentiment of caring for Luca was a nice touch, but in the end they waste more time getting out of there. DS!Ricardo was very strict and left no question with his words, and so they booked it. R!Ricardo has a lot of unnecessary actions and additions, and including Kongwai and QQ, while removing Hermana’s part, leaves questions to be asked about the script.

This scene however, the changes are quite minor compared to the disaster that is the ending and everything involving Chitose in it.

Here’s the pre-final boss speech in DS here, and the pre-final boss speech in R here.

Here’s the visual comparison for the pre-final boss speech here.

Remove all personality from the character’s lines? Check. Remove all sympathy Luca and Hermana have towards Mathias/Asura? Check. Remove Spada’s cute line about being a shield that PROTECTS them? Check. I can’t think of a thing in this scene R didn’t mess up.

This doesn’t even cover the lead up to the lines, in which DS was about Mathias losing all rationality and wanting to just destroy the world. In R, they lectured her on how the Manifest can only be activated by love, and that there’s no way the Manifest would demand for a sacrifice. They chastise her for lacking friends and the ability to love.

Yes Spada actually said 守る(mamoru--to protect) in the DS. They also removed his connections to Hartman and Vulcan in R. Hermana/Vtra always felt like a mother to Asura, so naturally, even in this case she will sympathize. Even though it’s too late to stop Mathias, she wishes she had been kinder. In R, it becomes about the future and for the sake of her kids (the orphans). All personal connection to Mathias and Asura is removed. Ange is one of the big eaters of Tales, and her line about food was a cute touch about what she looked forward to most after ending everything. Instead, it’s now about ending the sad, drawn out war.

Here’s the aftermath, covering Chitose’s death here for DS, and here for R.

And here’s the visual comparison here

R removed everything about Chitose’s character and purpose. They took away her sole desire, just to fulfill the stuffed in plotline for Kongwai. In DS, Chitose chose death by her own hands so that she could stay by Asura’s side forever. She stabs herself and dies dramatically over Mathias’ dead body, fulfilling her own wish.

R takes it all away from her. She instead bursts dramatically into a ball of light, and a body was left for neither Mathias or her. There’s no tragically symbolic scene with their dead bodies together. Luca absorbed Mathias soul, and Kongwai took Chitose’s to “free” her.

There’s absolutely no talk about Chitose’s fate in R. No one sympathizes with her, or tries to understand her. Kongwai fulfilled his purpose, and the rest is shoved under a rug. R takes away all sympathy Luca towards her. They only ask Kongwai what the cycle of reincarnation is, then move onto the next topic: what do we do about the Manifest. Chitose’s character arc comes to an abrupt end in R with no closure.

These are only a few scenes out of a 25 hour game (40 in R). Kongwai often takes away other character’s agency to fulfill his own, inserted plotline. Many characters traits are taken away or dumbed down, and a lot of scenes lose personalized touches.

Some minor but noteworthy changes: 

In DS, Ricardo calls everyone by their last name, because he’s too embarrassed to call kids by their first name. In R, they had him call everyone by their first name, for a sense of “closeness”. This undermines how relationships actually play out in the game; what name Ricardo chooses to call them by is not the sole factor in how close or not close he is with the party members. He’s just an awkward uncle.

The famous hotdog scene is another one. In the DS version, you can’t prank Eddie and Nino by putting mustard on it. This was added to R. While it may be funny, it’s also really out of character for Luca at the start of the game, who has no strong will of his own.

R also removes Luca’s angry outburst in early game. Luca and Chitose suffered the worst characterization changes in R. The rewriting is just, at its core, unfaithful to essence of the game.

They remove the character specific endings in R. In DS, you could activate the Manifest with whoever you had the highest affection with, and you got about 5 extra lines of dialogue with that character. It wasn’t much, but they were quite cute additions.

Not all changes were bad; dungeon design was better, and they did flesh out the past life a lot better. There’s far more character interaction since the script is doubled. But for me, the things it did change, are game-breaking to me. The characters just weren’t handled with care when rewrites happened, and this is why I still prefer DS, despite its dungeons, and despite how others feel about the battle system (I find it a lot of fun).

I love Innocence, and R just didn’t do it justice.

[thesportssoundoff]

“Pitcher X brings Y” A look at 10 options for the Yankees in the upcoming off season

Joey

October 28th

The Yankees have plenty of reasons for not playing games into the final week of October. Unfortunately for them, it boils down to not being able to hit more so than any serious pitching deficiency. Unfortunately x2  there's not a lot of options for them in terms of upgrading their offense (You've got maybe one infield position open, maybe one outfield spot available, no real room for a full time DH) so chasing the mythical ace will be at the top of the agenda. The Yankees have implied that they're ill-prepared to spend beyond their means but let's say they DO drift into the starter pool. I'm going to take a peek at ten different starters and discuss what they would offer the Yankees in 2020 and maybe even going forward.

Gerrit Cole- Peace Of Mind

Simply put, you can pick whatever metric you want and Gerrit Cole tops any Yankees pitcher. There's maybe 4-5 guys better than Cole at this point in his career as he finally has taken the step up from where he was in Pittsburgh. There's really no point in writing an endless wall of words to descibe how special of a player Gerrit Cole is. He's likely to comfortably blow by the contract that David Price got (7 year, 215 mil) after a superb season where he outdueled his own teammate to become the ace of the Astros staff. Cole is the best player on the market, arguably the best pitcher to hit the open market since Cliff Lee did it in 2010 and is the youngest proven no flaws ace to hit the free agent market since a 29 year old CC Sabathia did in 2009. The Yankees got that guy and got 10 years of superb production including a World Series ring so why not do the same with Gerrit Cole? Cole gives the Yankees the no questions asked #1 starter they seem to be dying for. He would give this team (or any team really) a set it and forget it ace who you can rely on given his stuff, mental makeup and durability. For the Yankees, Cole + Severino + Tanaka + Paxton gives you the workhouse anchor who allows the Yankees to take some of the pressure off of Tanaka (a stud in the postseason but a guy who has struggled with injuries and inconsistency), Severino (coming off an injury marred season and poor in the playoffs with a small sample size) and James Paxton (struggled with injuries throughout his career). For 235 to 250 million dollars, the Yankees can buy peace of mind.

Stephen Strasburg- The prototypical Yankee arm

I'd like to imagine every team would want a Stephen Strasburg. For the Yankees though, Strasburg is pretty much what they draw up a starting pitcher to look like. The Yankees historically like big tall pitchers and Strasburg fits that bill. Knowing the dimensions of their park, they prefer guys who can go out there and pitch as close to no contact as possible. Strasburg led the ML with strikeouts in 2019. They aim to amass pitchers who if they DO get hit can pitch to soft contact. Strasburg does that as well. When healthy (and that's a serious maybe) with Strasburg, he's got Cole-esque properties. The Yankees have gotten to watch him pitch deep into the playoffs as a capable #2 (and at times #1) behind Max Scherzer. One of the bigger philosophies inside the organization is that pitchers throw less fastballs  (the Yankees were last in 2017 and 2018 in fast balls thrown as a staff) and Strasburg throws his fastball less than 50% of the time. There's a lot to love here if you can overlook the age with Strasburg being 31 and the injury history. Strasburg fits the current Yankees mindset despite having two serious flaws that traditionally has not worked out well with this team. This feels less like a marriage of love a la Cole and more a marriage of convenience but those can absolutely work too.

Hyun Jin Ryu- A potential ace IF

It would take a tremendous lying effort to convince people that the options after Cole and Strasburg are sure things. That said there's plenty to like about the names going forward. If you start with Hyun Jin-Ryu, you're talking about a guy with ace like qualities. The three times where Ryu has had an extended opportunity to show his stuff, he's been pretty much everything you'd want a pitcher to be. In his first year in the majors, he put up a 14-8 with a 3.00 ERA and 1.20 WHIP across 192 innings. In his sophomore campaign over 152 innings he pulled up a 14-7 and 3.38 follow up. The problem is that from 2014 to 2018, there's a lot of dead space within that resume. A lot of injuries and so-so production taint Ryu's overall free agent profile. In 2019 he returned to form as pretty much the same guy he was when he showed up; relying on a lot of ground ball outs, minimal walks and minimal hard contact to cruise in with a 14-5 record and a 2.32 ERA. Behind Walker Buehler and the resume of Clayton Kershaw, Ryu saw the mound in game three of the NDLS and cooked up a 5 inning start (a rare start where he didn't give the Dodgers length) with only 2 runs on his ledger when he left. Ryu is a potential ace IF you can overlook the injury concerns, the advanced age and are willing to err on the side of optimism that switching leagues will not lead to you regretting the deal two years down the line. A lot of ifs but a supremely talented arm to consider as your potential #2 behind Severino.

Madison Bumgarner- An October Answer

No pitcher figures to have a weirder stock than Madison Bumgarner. From 2013 to 2017, he was among the the premier arms in major league baseball. We're talking about a four time All Star who garnered Cy Young votes with an ERA+ that never fell under 115. Even in 2018, considered the start of the decline, he was a pretty damn solid arm. Since 2018 though, the years and the innings have begun to rack up and Bumgarner has entered into this weird Verlander in Detroit-y "I'm not sure if he's done but he's not who he once was" middle ground. That said the Yankees wouldn't be bringing in Bumgarner for what he does from March to September. If they sign him, they're probably going to carry his elevated HR rate and declining stuff to a mid 4-ish ERA and they'll probably tolerate him shouting at home run hitters who aren't jettisoning it out of the box because a Bumgarner signing is entirely about postseason prestige. We ARE talking about a pitcher who pitched to a 5+ ERA on the road with middling stuff who would be going from San Francisco to a park with arguably the worst dimensions possible for his skill set. It's not about that though. If Bumgarner is pretty damn good in the summer, he's insane in the fall when the games count a hell of a lot more. We're talking about a career 2.11 ERA in the post season and an era UNDER 1 in World Series play. The Yankees would be getting Bumgarner almost for the same reason they'd be getting Cole; there's a peace of mind in having a guy like that in big games. There's something to be said for the Yankees to slot him in as a game 2 or game 3 starter knowing full well that the history of the player indicates he's going to handle business. Even if Bumgarner is an innings eating #4 from April to September, he would step in and inspire insane confidence in October just on the years and years of work he put in already. In many ways, he's another Masahiro Tanaka. Is one month of greatness with five months of meh worth 15 mil or so?

Zack Wheeler- An Illusion?

I'm already getting tired of the takes about Gerrit Cole and Zack Wheeler having enough similarities that Wheeler is a poor man's Cole. I'll let MLB do the hard work there (https://www.mlb.com/news/zack-wheeler-has-potential-comp-in-gerrit-cole) and you can read for yourself all of the comparisons. Zack Wheeler has been in the Mets rotation in some form or fashion since 2013. Despite that, he's been historically a pretty okay-ish pitcher who is more of a tease than a sure thing. He's an illusion of what may be; electric stuff, stretches of inconsistency, stretches of #1 type performance and the reputation of being a guy who gets better as the year goes along. It's believed the Yankees had some interest in Wheeler (even if at this point, it feels like their focus was more on Bumgarner, Minor and Boyd) and the general rule of thumb is if Cashman wants you once, he'll do what he can to get you eventually. For me though Zack Wheeler represents another AJ Burnett. He's about to turn 30 years old and has been in the majors longer than Gerrit Cole has. He just might be what he is but teams are going to pay for what he may be. It's an illusion of a cost controlled (in theory) ace with elite stuff that can work anywhere. He's the most overly reliant of all the names mentioned so far and has the worst injury history as well. There's always going to be a belief that if you get a guy like him out of a bad spot, he'll wind up achieving his potential. That's the illusion. What you can pay for the illusion is the debate. 

Jake Odorizzi- Familiarity

Odorizzi figures to be the favorite fallback option for teams who don't want to pay/miss out on Cole, Strasburg and Wheeler. Like Wheeler, he's another pseudo what if guy. He was a prized arm who moved around as the key piece in trades for a while before landing with the Rays who got some good burn out of him before he just fell apart. He struggled in the famed failed free agent class of 2018 and then found himself this year as probably the 2nd best Twins pitcher going into this loaded pitching class. Odorizzi gives the Yankees some familiarity. He's pitched against their team (nearly 100 innings to a 4.71 era) and in their stadium before (an unsightly 5.4 ERA) and thrice against them in 2019. He started game 3 of the ALDS against them and gave the Twins a shot to do something had they been able to score any runs. He's pitched in the AL East before with the Rays (4.70 ERA vs the Red Sox). Odorizzi may be a bit too fastball and line drive happy for the Yankees but familiarity + upside tends to win out when desperate measures come into play.

Jose Quintana- Potential stability at a moderate price

Once the ultimate chest thump for Cashman detractors, former Yankee Jose Quintana has been pretty solid since leaving the organization. He was an under the radar great arm for the White Sox and the Cubs jumped the Yankees in 2017, snagging him when the Yankees were trying to make a determination between Quintana and Sonny Gray. Since going to the Cubs, Quintana has been....alright I guess. His peripherals are basically the same, he was still a pretty reliable innings eater but the results haven't matched up well in the end. As the Cubs are teetering between going all in and going into a soft rebuild, Quintana may be on the market. In his worst pro season ever, Quintana was probably just a smidge behind Masahiro Tanaka overall. He had a slightly higher whip due to elevated walks, struck out batters at a slightly better clip and ceded a few innings to Tanaka overall.  At 11 million dollars, Jose Quintana may not be a sure bet to rebound but he's still got plenty of value if he can get his walks under control. He's never been a big strike out guy but again, neither has Tanaka recently. Maybe having two Tanakas isn't a bad thing.

Dallas Keuchel-  A Sabathia replacement

Listening to Brian Cashman speak throughout the year, you get the feeling he really thought the Yankees had Dallas Keuchel in the bag. On a number of occasions, he made implications that he felt like he had a deal in place and somebody (either Boras or Keuchel) needed to step up and get it done. In his post season presser, he said they just missed out on Keuchel with a deal that was barely above theres IE: he would've topped it had he known. Keuchel wasn't great with the Braves but he was more than solid enough as a back end of the rotation guy with playoff experience. He wasn't great shakes at the beginning of his hyphenated season but once he got his sea legs under him in August, he had a 3.68 ERA which includes a game where he gave up 8 runs. Remove that game up and he has a 3.33 and remove the game before that where he went 5 IP/3 ER and it drops to a 2.55. He was absolutely what the Braves needed and then folded in the playoffs. The Yankees JUST lost their Dallas Keuchel; a soft tossing lefty who had a bevy of playoff experience and was reliable and durable for a playoff team. I don't know if Keuchel has the same leadership qualities that CC Sabathia has but he'd be a worthy enough successor as the heir to the crusty lefty throne.

Tanner Roark/Michael Wacha/Kyle Gibson/Gio Gonzales- Innings

Long story short; this would be all about depth and amassing names and faces. None of these guys pitch a meaningful inning in a playoff rotation. They're there to eat innings and prevent your team from having to use a bullpen game. The Yankees could've used that when they were trudging out the likes of Nestor Cortes, Johnny Lasagna and Chance Adams hoping like hell they had something to offer for 3-4 innings a clip.

[tenjouu]

revolvere (3/?)

facetious plot summary: Lancelot loses his magic upon traveling back in time to the day of Alice the Second’s arrival. How will he save the world equipped with only his winning looks and charisma? Read on to find out!

Featured in this chapter: an unusual matchup—Lancelot vs Fenrir! 

1  |  2  |  3 : fenrir goodpace

Harr confronts him, but more importantly—before that, Alice comes as the giver of good news.

“King Lancelot!” she exclaims. She saw him before he even saw her, and comes hurrying down the hallway. She’s doing a fantastic job of making this look like a one-sided Beauty and the Beast spinoff, but Lancelot can’t fault her for it; he’s quite content to see her too.

“Don’t run in the hallways,” Lancelot chastises. “It’s dangerous.”

“Yes, my king,” she obliges (sounding put-out) as she skids to a halt, and then she perks up. “Oh, King Lancelot, you shouldn’t have.”

Alice reaches out to take the tray of madeleines and eclairs from him, but Lancelot raises them out of reach. She lowers her arms, looking confused.

“I can do this much. Why not open the door instead?” he says. People always treat kings like they can’t do anything for themselves. And besides, if he lets her take the tray now, he won’t be able to eat a single one.

Alice holds open the door, and Lancelot enters first with a hum of gratitude. When she closes the door behind her, he doesn’t even have time to turn around before she takes off.

“Sirius is so happy,” she gushes. “And I think Ray’s glad that the two armies won’t actually be going to war. They’re the only two who know right now, but when will it be okay to bring more people into the fold?”

“Hello to you too, Alice,” Lancelot says wryly, taking a seat at his desk, folding his hands under his chin. He gives her a pointed look. “I’m doing fine. I missed you as well.”

Her cheeks flush red. “I get it, I get it,” she says, sidling over. “Sorry, King Lancelot. Are you well?”

He smiles. “Good,” he says, and if she dared to, she probably would’ve rolled her eyes. “Now, your message from Sirius and Blackwell?”

“Sirius said that he told Harr Silver what was going on,” she reports. “And Ray says that he wants to meet at the Civic Center as a show of confidence, and to touch base with you. And he says that it’s not a good idea to keep secrets from one’s officers, and that he’s going to tell them eventually.”

“I plan to do the same. Things are coming along nicely,” he muses. “Amon will try to contact me likely tomorrow or the day after about pacing his plans. I’ll let everyone know how to proceed after then.”

Alice hums around a mouthful of pastry when Lancelot finally sweeps his gaze back over to her. She pauses in chewing when they make direct eye contact.

“Would you like some tea with that?” he asks.

She swallows guiltily, mistaking his sincerity for reproach. “Sorry—the desserts here are really good... Please continue, King Lancelot.”

“No, I was being serious,” he says. “I’m not angry—I realized that I forgot the tea.” He pauses. “And I thought of this just now, but did you not come with a guard today?”

“Oh, Fenrir came with me again today,” she explains, “but I think he’s with Zero right now.”

He knows that Zero is meticulous and disciplined. Lancelot has complete faith in him. But that’s such a stark contrast from the first time Alice came over, where he stayed sentinel by Lancelot’s office’s door until it was time for her to leave. He points this out curiously.

Alice shifts a little under his scrutiny. “I may have...given them the...impression that you’ve been nothing but a respectful gentleman to me. Fenrir has his doubts, but he respects that I trust you.”

“Alice,” Lancelot sighs.

“It’s true!” she protests. “You’re very nice to me, King Lancelot.”

Who in their right mind would be mean? Lancelot doesn’t say. He places his hand in his chin and contemplates her. “You’re very chipper and enthusiastic about this whole thing. Though I appreciate and trust your easy cooperation, I’m curious why.”

Alice leans close and whispers conspiratorially, “I know lives are at stake, but it’s kind of exciting. And I’m just glad to help. I want to do anything I can.”

Lancelot doesn’t want to be Alice’s reason for developing a danger-loving streak. Edgar from his world would have come close to treason if he found out Lancelot had. So Lancelot simply accepts her reason for what it is and hopes to dear god that Harr will keep her away from all of the fighting, when Harr finally decides to come out of hiding.

A knock sounds at the door.

“Come in,” Lancelot calls. Just as well, he’ll ask the person to send for tea.

It’s Edgar, speak of the devil. Lancelot thinks that the universe never aligns stars in his favor. Edgar smiles as he enters.

“My king, just to confirm,” Edgar says. “Did your majesty invite the Black Ace to spar with our own?”

They’re what? How did Zero end up indulging Godspeed?

“No,” Lancelot says. He cannot be arsed to deal with it. He’s spending time with Alice right now, damn it! The Black Army gets to have her damn near 24/7; he’ll be damned if goddamn Fenrir Godspeed cuts his meager allotment in half.

Then he pauses, looking between Alice and Edgar. Alice stares back inquisitively. Edgar’s smile is impenetrable. Well, the best plans are flexible, after all. He trusts Alice to hold her own against Edgar.

“Edgar, accompany our guest on a tour around headquarters,” Lancelot declares. “I will go handle this myself.”

“My lord?” Edgar asks, still smiling. This is his version of bafflement.

“She’s easily bribed with sweets,” Lancelot supplies helpfully as he passes Edgar on his way to the door, and whooshes out the room with his cape.

/

It seems that Godspeed wasn’t actually the only one who instigated this, because Zero is tending to an unconscious man as the Ace of Spades holds his own against other soldiers.

The brawling style of Sirius never fails to impress. It’s clear he’s taught his men well. But Godspeed fights with a technique that is unmistakably his own. Wild, swift punches that shatter an enemy’s guard rather than get around, nimble sidesteps that keep him on the enemy’s non-dominant side. Lancelot gets the feeling that the man’s ambidextrous, because he watches him face off two of his soldiers and come out victorious.

“Why are you fighting my men?” Lancelot intones, finally stepping forward.

Godspeed turns to him, fists up and ready.

“Jealous?” Godspeed prompts cockily. “I’ll fight you too, Red King.”

“Interesting,” Lancelot replies. “But I must decline. I’m here to cut this short. I’m to be spending time with Alice right now, after all.”

“Then why aren’t you with her?” the man retorts. He relaxes his lean, muscled form. “If you’re afraid to bite...”

“Did you defeat Zero?” Lancelot asks.

Godspeed shrugs. “Your men have bad defense because your army relies on crystals,” he shoots back. “At least your Ace put up a good fight, but I’ve been fighting with these hands before I even picked up a sword.”

“You fight with guns. You don’t even use a sword.”

“Before I even picked up a gun,” Godspeed amends. “Anyway, it came close to a tie. You’ve got good men.” He shrugs. “But it seems like the Black Army just might be stronger in an honest fight, fist-to-fist.” He opens an eye and arches a brow at Lancelot. “Since we don’t rely on magic.”

Lancelot may be at the point in his life where he’d let a few things go because he’s got a limited supply of fucks to give, but he still has his pride as a king and warrior. Godspeed is an amateur at trash talk; instead, he brings genuinely good criticism, but one thing he’s got wrong is the magic. Lancelot doesn’t mind teaching him a lesson. If he loses to this upstart, he’ll abdicate the throne and retire straight to the graveyard, effectively immediately.

“You seem strong,” Lancelot says, shedding his cape, and then coat.

Godspeed’s amber eyes light up impossibly bright, almost feral as he grins. “No magic, Red King. No unfair advantages.”

“No magic,” Lancelot agrees.

Fenrir Godspeed puts up his fists and charges in.

Lancelot, even though he’s taller and less fluid in his movements, makes up for agility with unyielding defense. Godspeed keeps his battle calm, refusing to let frustration get the best of him. Some hits land where they would hurt, but Lancelot has fought Sirius a few times, and these blows are like taps in comparison.

“You’re not bad,” Godspeed grunts. “Rusty, but solid.”

Lancelot doesn’t answer. The man is the type to talk during a fight, it seems. He breaks past Lancelot’s guard with a well-aimed jab and lands a blow across his jaw—before Lancelot can even blink, he pivots back, like an acrobat. He raises his leg and sends Lancelot back with a sharp kick to the chest. Lancelot emits a sound of pain.

“Seems like I’ve got you beat in agility, old man,” Godspeed crows on his follow-through with another uppercut, thinking he’s sure to win with this last move.

“You might,” Lancelot agrees, letting gravity pull him down. He folds into himself, ducking from the swing, catching himself on his hands.

He lifts his lower half and uses his legs to sweep Godspeed’s feet from under him. A loud squawk follows as his back hits the grass. Lancelot keeps his legs constricted around his own. Godspeed’s tiny frame can’t win against Lancelot’s brute strength.

“But I’m not stiff,” Lancelot says, twisting his body up, and presses his arm against Godspeed’s neck. “Your loss.”

Godspeed’s furious glare tempers itself to a good-natured resentment. The fight fades from his eyes, and he sighs, letting his head fall against the ground. His eyes close, and the wind ruffles their hair as their breathing comes under control.

The battle was over in five minutes, but Godspeed had been fighting before Lancelot joined the fray, after all. He doubts that a fresh Ace of Spades would lose so quickly.

And he’s still young, after all. He’ll take this loss gamely and get over it. He’s a century too early trying to pick a fight with a king.

Speaking of age—

When Lancelot unentangles their limbs and pulls Godspeed up, he arches an authoritative brow.

“Old man?” he repeats.

To his surprise, Godspeed looks abashed. “Oh...did I say that? Sorry,” he says awkwardly, face scrunched up. “It slipped out. Whenever Sir—the queen—agrees to spar...uh, he’s—um—easy to rile up...” He grimaces. “I realize that was out of line, King of Hearts.”

Lancelot snorts. Godspeed gives him an incredulous double take.

“I’m younger than Sirius is, so I’m quite secure in my vigor,” Lancelot replies. “This ‘old man’ just beat you, after all.”

Godspeed makes a sour face but ducks his head, accepting his loss.

“Infirmary, I think. For my men, and for me,” says Lancelot. “I don’t particularly care for bruising on my face.”

Something must have changed between before the fight and after, because Godspeed grumbles, “Sorry,” under his breath as Lancelot turns to Zero.

“Don’t be,” Lancelot says simply. “Don’t do things that you don’t mean.”

[charmingturkeysandwich]

On Series Finales

(I need to get this out of my head)

(I have so much to say about narrative structure vs. audience opinion)

People always have very strong opinions on series finales. Obviously. It’s the culmination of years of investment in something. Because of this you’re never going to make 100% of people happy. Each of us is invested for different reasons; we connect with different characters. What we “like” is always going to differ. 

That doesn’t mean that calling something a “bad” finale is all about taste or who you ship or stan or what have you. Sometimes the episode simply fails the narrative it built. Being disappointed in something because of a narrative failure can’t be written off as “you just wanted a happy ending and that was never going to happen.” Especially with modern dramas, bittersweet is the happiest we can really hope for. Even comedies usually have some painful episodes leading to the end. I don’t think anyone is expecting TV shows these days to end like Disney movies. Hell, Disney movies sometimes don’t end like Disney movies anymore.

Anyway, enough babbling. Here’s the thing: in fiction - as in life - expectations are everything. Many writing choices the writers, directors, and producers make will set up these expectations. When they’re not met, people are cranky. And for valid reasons.

1. Where you start a story is important. 

An often ridiculed series finale is How I Met Your Mother. The pilot focuses on Ted falling immediately in love with Robin. And the “twist” is all “oh, that’s not your mom; that’s Aunt Robin!” But there’s a reason it started there. Yes, technically, you can argue the reason is because Ted ran into the mother at Robin’s wedding, so meeting Robin was important. But they chose to continue to focus on Robin/Ted the whole fucking series. So technically it made sense narratively for him to come back to her in the end. Somewhere along the way I tweeted the show and said it should be called How I Met Your Aunt Robin, because it truly was more about her than the mother. So, yes, people were pissed when she died and it was “all for nothing.” But despite the title... it was never really her story. So in this way, I defend the ending. It fit the story that they told. They began with Robin. They continued to focus on Robin. Why wouldn’t he “end up with” Robin?

2. Pacing matters - and heavily influences expectations

In How I Met Your Mother, you have a day-to-day, usual kind of sitcom for 7 seasons. Then all of a sudden, a 48-hour span of time is spread out for an entire season! This was jarring and I found it to be tedious. Jack Bauer is not here; the world is not at risk. We do not need a minute by minute account of these two days. In this way, I think the whole last season is a disappointment. 

It also served to adjust our expectations. OK I just watched 20 episodes of how much Barney loves Robin - this must mean something. NOPE! Divorced in one episode. An episode, mind you, where they flew through years of their lives. After drawing out two days. For a whole season. They put a couple decades in, like, a half hour. In this way, How I Met Your Mother failed narratively. The pacing sucked and it made us expect something different from the finale. In this regard, I fucking hated that show and want my time back.

Pacing is super important to Game of Thrones, AKA the reason I can’t get series finale essays from running through my head. You’re set up in a world that is medieval-esque. There are no airplanes and Ubers and the magic doesn’t seem to have evolved into teleportation or the like. Everything was slow in the beginning, for many seasons. Conversations were at the forefront. It was  a social game. It was about the people, first and foremost, even though the stupid sword-y chair was important, too. That was the plot. Likewise, in the beginning, people weren’t protected by plot armor. Remember, GoT so fantastically shattered our collective expectations for a show, but in the most organic, realistic way. We were carrying the expectations of other dramas with us and projecting them on this show, assuming Ned was “safe” because he was our lens - at least, more so than anyone else. He was the protagonist! He might be tortured, but he surely wasn’t going to be beheaded. Wrong! He was. That and its fallout allowed us as viewers to fully commit to a whole new set of expectations.

But then as time went on, travel just kind of... happened. Things that should have taken a whole season happened in a scene! And with no kind of acknowledgement. Additionally, that initial slowness built us up to have HUGE payoffs. Think of all the tiny things that led to the disaster/amazing episode that included the Red Wedding. They built us up and they met that slow burn hype. In later seasons, they have ridiculous outward hype over the white walkers and Night King, over confrontations between Cercei and her potential killers (Jamie, Arya, etc.) The pacing led us to believe that these things would conclude in a deep and meaningful way that justifies the time we spend watching and theorizing on our own. When you suddenly hit fast forward through the good stuff, it’s jarring! And you lose character development.

And, oh, the plot armor thing. We were led to believe this show wasn’t like other shows. No one was safe. So someone please explain to me how exactly half (or more) of the named characters survived the battle with the undead?! Sam was basically crying in a pile of bodies. Jon was hiding behind a rock from the Ice Dragon who had just blue-flamed down a giant fucking wall. Brienne and Jamie had been on the front lines of that second wave. But their (and others’) plot armor was simply too strong. We were betrayed by the “new” expectations that I, for one, deeply respected. Gore is not my thing - I often had to look away and hum through certain scenes over the seasons - but to know that there were always consequences and that the stakes were always high and unpredictable... that’s what made this titty-fest bloodbath worth it! Take away its uniqueness from all other shows, and you’re just left with some really violent almost-porn. 

3. We watch your show for characters, not shock value

OK, yes, some people enjoy the big reveals and that’s kind of why they signed up to begin with. My brother cannot get over some of the CGI scenes and battles, so I get it. But for the most part, every story is rooted in the characters. You could take the most exciting story on the planet, in the most intricate world, but if you put boring ass people in it, no one will care. We’re invested in the characters and we want them to be consistent. And if they change... well they better change slowly, the way that actual people usually do. Redemption arcs are common in fiction - more common than in real life, sadly - and they can really pay off. As can whatever you call the opposite of that. Falls from grace? I’m not sure. Either way - slow is key here. Drop hints. Build it into their character. It’s a gruesome comparison, but if a frog jumps into boiling water, he jumps back out; if he’s in cool water and you gradually heat it up he will eventually boil to death. This is how falls from grace should occur. The character doesn’t just jump into boiling water. It doesn’t hold up.

Dany is obviously the big one here. I’m not arguing that it would be possible for her to become the Mad Queen and torch King’s Landing. But I’m saying that maybe at least a time or two before her little tolling bells meltdown we should see her saying “fuck the innocent people.” We should have seen her violence spreading beyond people who deserved it. The writers should have presented us with more moments that signaled she cared more about power than actually breaking the wheel. Her character was too consistent for too long (go back to pacing and expectations and where the story began) for her to have a turn like that and for it to be satisfying and accepted.

Similarly, Jamie’s abandoned redemption arc didn’t make sense to me. Drop us some hints that he’s still hateful above all else, maybe, before you have him just up and revert at the mention of Cercei dying... a thing he clearly had to realize was coming well before that moment.

There were complaints about this same thing with Barney from HIMYM, along the lines of “seriously we sat through a season of him redeeming himself (and truly, he started before that) just to watch him go back to banging any under 30 with daddy issues an episode later?” Honestly, that one makes a little more sense. He was problematic even at his best! And they did show that he tried to not be that guy - he and Robin were married for a year or two (offscreen, of course) before the divorce. The biggest problem with HIMYM wasn’t the characters - it was the pacing! It changed our expectations and left many disappointed. 

And finally, For God’s sake you don’t always need a crazy twist.

And maybe this falls to the producers and not the writers. They want viewers. They want coverage. They want listicles on Buzzfeed. And both HIMYM and GoT got them! But at what cost? The reason we didn’t get any lead up to Dany turning is because they wanted to shock us. The reason that they didn’t have some of the strongest theories come true is because they wanted to shock us. Shock has been used well in this series to this point. Masterfully, even! But this wasn’t masterful. This was the showrunners playing God instead of letting things happen organically. Some twists make sense after you look back and notice the buried hints. Some twists make sense because there were things that you as the audience didn’t know yet. But other twists are only shocking because they’re out of character, unrealistic, or just plain dumb. We didn’t get much after the twists except some speeches that honestly sounded like the showrunners themselves speaking to defend their choices. Awkward.

Another series finale that disappointed many fans with its twist was Lost. I never watched, but, I mean, if I watched a whole series just to have it never have been real, I would have been pissed. I was terrified that OUaT was going to do that - that in the finale we’d find out it had all been a dream little Emma was having at a group home or some shit. Fans are invested in long-running series - especially those with supernatural/sci-fi words - and to pull the rug out from under them like that is just... rude. And massively disappointing. You mean we speculated ourselves to death for nothing?! 

What people want from a series finale is an ending of this chapter of the characters’ lives that honors the past and acknowledges the future. There’s a reason that series finales often do something to bring it “back to the beginning.” It’s satisfying! I love that the last thing that we saw the Friends do is go get coffee together. That’s how it started! But after that coffee, they were off to the next part of their lives. I love when they get a little self-aware/meta in the last episode, like when Cory says, “Boy Meets World, now I get it.” And then he and Topanga were moving to New York City. Back to the beginning/the roots... but also going somewhere new.

My point in all this is simple: usually when there’s a massive uproar over a series finale, it’s not just petty people being mad their fave didn’t get the ending they wanted. It’s usually a sign of a problem in the writing, whether it be the writing of that last episode or of the series in general. 

Everyone’s opinions are valid and their feelings are real. But when the writing is bad/lazy/shoddy/too focused on a few scenes they’d clearly imagined before writing the finale/clearly leaving certain plot holes or opportunities for spinoffs even when it doesn’t necessarily make sense... people notice.

(And, oh, do they let you know it.)

[frostiifae]

fehs problems vs fate go's problems? ive always seen fgo as the superior gacha because its writing is actually decent/sometimes VERY good (camelot!) but i know it has problems so like... which is worse in your humble opinion

well i mean you know already i think fgo is a dramatically better game overall… but idk it’s like, fate grand order isn’t an amazing game probably 85% of the time, 15% of the time it’s Camelot or Babylon or the Kara no Kyoukai collab event (which is fucking awesome, by the way), but the other 85% it’s just a pretty decent gacha game, and that makes it really tragic how short heroes still manages to fall comparatively 

being real fgo has two really serious weaknesses, one is the really inconsistent character design where some of them are awesome but a lot of them are just really gross and awful; the other is the inconsistent writing, which shows in grossness in characters like blackbeard etc and just the general cishet Bad Anime Fan pandering

and then, lesser weaknesses: 

 - the gacha in fgo is really unforgiving with no pity rates and with spirit origins being really hard to get for even big whales - i think you’ve already talked about the good ol’ Sold My Car For Jalter horror story, and others like it - the battle system isn’t super deep and also has some kind of weird idiosyncrasies, like the fact that you can’t see ‘star absorption’ as a stat on servants even though it’s a VERY important stat to understand, or needing to press ‘attack’ to see crit star distribution but not being able to go back to use skills afterward… but some of those things get fixed later in the game’s lifecycle, thankfully 

but compared with heroes… it’s easy to say that heroes has “bad writing” (and it does) but that doesn’t really tell the complete story. like… in my case, marisa was a character i had been looking forward to for a LONG time, even saying i might try to pull for her +10 when she was released (she’s a tempest trial unit, so of course i CAN’T do that, but oh well). once i finally got her, though, i really couldn’t do much with her. just… level her up, give her a skillset that sounded good, and then try to use her in any situation where it felt like she might work. that’s kind of all. it was honestly a let down, and that feeling repeating itself across a few characters contributed a lot to my decision to drop the game.

heroes has a lot of mechanics that compare straight across to grand order; tempest trials are like grand order events, complete with bonus servants vs. bonus heroes - but grand order events have a lot of writing and storytelling, commemorative CEs with charming character art in silly situations/costumes, and give away free welfare servants that are almost universally amazing - ryougi shiki, santa arturia alter, kintoki rider, scathach assassin, even chloe einzbern are all AMAZING top-tier servants that they just GIVE to you for free with max ascension/NP level materials. tempest trials tend to give you lackluster units and you have to spend a lot of materials just to get a +1 merge, meaning they’ll never really reach their full potential compared to a gacha hero. 

hero merit is basically the same as bond xp, except hero merit gives you feathers, but bond xp gives you new dialogue, expanded profile information, saint quartz, and a commemorative Craft Essence for a servant when you max it out. heroes has the accessory system now, which allows you to decorate your heroes with little trinkets you earn from events, while grand order has new arts for every ascension plus there will be event outfits later that you can earn and put onto your servants permanently, and while there are a more limited number of them, they’re designed specifically for that servant. 

there’s a pattern here - heroes just doesn’t really… do anything exciting. it has a lot of the same ideas as grand order, but it doesn’t seem to understand what makes those ideas fun or why players want to play their game at all. there’s no heart to fire emblem heroes. it’s empty and soulless by comparison. 

i worked really hard on my eirika, on my lachesis, on my kagero and my marisa, because they were characters that i really loved. the game only really provided my one way to show that love to them: leveling them and burning very expensive skills through inheritance to make them better. pulling for duplicate copies. it’s unfulfilling. i don’t get anything and the game doesn’t really change to reflect the love i have put into the characters that i care about. 

you can take one look at my support lineup in grand order and understand who my favorite servant is right away. same for ellie. same for you. 

i’m so excited to get jeanne alter’s bond CE. i know exactly who i’m going to Bond 10 after jeanne alter, too! tamamo! i’m gonna grail tamamo to 100, too! because i have that option. i can just pick characters i love and break the game’s rules to make them more powerful. the game gives us mechanics to demonstrate how much we love our favorite servants, and then the ability to show off how devoted we are to them and how much we are willing to invest into them. it fosters a community of celebration and excitement that heroes does not and probably never will have.

yeah, heroes is riddled with problems; pvp is a bad idea for gacha games, the power creep is literally ridiculous, event hero design is bad especially when children are involved, gross pandering dialogue, event heroes almost ALWAYS remark about how uncomfortable they are in their event outfits and people apparently LIKE that, the writing is forgettable at best… but all of those things are secondary to the core failure of fire emblem heroes, which is: it’s heartless. it’s a black hole for you to throw money into in the vain hope of feeling like you’ve done something for your favorite characters. 

maybe they’ll get better at that over time, but honestly, i don’t think it will make much of a difference, and i just don’t think they care enough.

[sansadaynes]

Hey, so I've been watching dsor for a very long time and I'm really curious. Why do you like Catarina so much? Don't get me wrong, I do agree that she has an amazingly interesting story thoughtout the novela and her character in general is interesting to watch; but how can you genuinely like her and root for her to have a happy ending? Perhaps it's just my Brazilian heart speaking, since our novela's villains are expected to make the audience hate them by, at least, the second chapter.

this is going to be long as fuck, sorry about it

to start off i’m going to talk about active versus passive characters. as someone studying screenwriting we’re told that our protagonist doesn’t have to be nice to be someone the audience cares about, they just have to be active characters. an active character is one that makes decisions, that (duh) takes action and does things. they can be bad things or good things but if your character is taking action and making decisions that drive the plot, the audience will care about them because they’re not just sitting around, letting the plot happen to them, they’re doing something to achieve their goals whether their goals or actions be morally good or bad. 

passive characters, characters that don’t take action and don’t make decisions that drive the plot rather the plot just happens to them, tend to be boring to watch because they really aren’t doing anything and they’re not really doing anything to deserve a happy ending. also the more organic way to present to the audience a character and develop them is by having them make actions and choices. when you have a passive character that doesn’t take action/make choices you resort to inorganic methods of characterisation like having other characters describe the character, telling us instead of showing us. for example, another character may describe your protagonist as, “the nicest most generous person they’ve ever met!” but if we don’t see your protagonist make any specific actions/choices that shows that they are nice and generous, it’s not believable to us because as a visual medium, we don’t see any evidence that they are nice.

so back to dsor. i started this show because i saw people describing it as “brazil’s game of thrones” and saw gifsets of catarina and tbh i thought she was super beautiful. then i started it and even though amalia was “nicer” (more on that later) catarina was the one who really intrigued me because of her schemes and her political nature. also her initial storylines didn’t translate to villain to me, rather a character that was complex but had understandable and reasonable goals and motivations. she didn’t want to marry lute dude and disagreed with her father on how best to rule artena. she didn’t want to marry him because not only did she not love him nor feel any attraction or interest in him, but he wasn’t politically advantageous for her or artena, her dad literally admits he wants cat to marry him cus he thinks his daughter is mean and needs a man to “tame” her. and she disagrees with her dad on how to rule artena and how to negotiate with other kingdoms because she justifiably points out that while montemors queen is a kind and just ruler, her grandkids alfonso and especially rodolfo might not be the same so they should take advantage of montemors struggles to find water in order to demand more iron to better arm their military. augusto acts like this is a despicable thing but it’s actually the smart thing and look what happens later: rodolfo becomes king of montemor and decides to invade artena and due to montemor’s superior military strength, is able to defeat artena’s army and invades artena. had augusto listened to cat earlier, demanded/requested more iron in exchange for water and armed their troops, maybe artena wouldn’t have been invaded. cat’s actions and decisions show that she a cunning, intelligent, and political character. and some of her crueler more unreasonable actions like tricking her cousin in order to get rid of lute dude, trying to stop lute dude recovering, and trashing her room when he didn’t die made me look forward to her storylines because i couldn’t predict what choices she might make and how far she might go. catarina drove forward most of the plots/storyline of the show for the most part even though halfway through i felt that the writer changed her from occasionally hot headed yet cold and politically cunning whose ambitions meant she would always have artena’s best interests in mind to a character that was evil for the sake of it and yet obsessed with afonso even when her obsession led her to make decisions that directly contradicted her previous characterisation/motivations. unlike cersei these decisions didn’t seem to come organically as a result of continuous struggles and traumas, but rather in order to make sure the audience didn’t like her and to give amalia a villain to look like a good person in comparison to. you could say that i love cat in spite of what the writer chose because her initial storylines were good and bruna’s acting was the best. even when cat was making choices that were dumb but EVIL because she’s a “bad guy” bruna always made cat human and understandable and her emotional scenes were captivating; her speech to artena’s army gave me goosebumps.

on the other hand i found amalia to be a passive character who we’re told is super kind but aside from her healing afonso, we don’t really see her make decisions that show she’s a good person. in addition, the plot seems to just happen to her, rather than her drive the plot. afonso just shows up in a field in front of her. yes she chooses to heal him but since then she rarely makes choices of her own volition, and most of her “choices” are simply reactions to other characters choices. even amalia vs cat is just cat taking action against amalia and something in her plan going wrong or another character coming to save amalia. when amalia got angry at the people of montemor for not liking her and even printing pamphlets spreading rumours about her, instead of trying to get the people on her side by being kind to them she found the person making the pamphlets and played good cop to afonso’s bad cop threatening to imprison them. you know who did try (and succeeded) to change the people’s perception of them by treating them kindly? catarina. amalia just expects that people will think she’s nice because?? their king chose her?? there’s no reason or them to trust or like amalia because afonso choosing to marry her and no one else is actually costing the people dearly.

also it’s a medieval style fantasy tv show that deals with the politics of these various fictional kingdoms that is obviously inspired by game of thrones. whilst i have MANY gripes with game of thrones, what it consistently has done is show that a good man doesn’t necessarily make a good king. afonso may be a good man by amalia for refusing to put her aside and marry someone else but he’s a bad king for putting his feelings ahead of his nations security/wellbeing. i think afonso was meant to be a sort of jon snow type character but instead he’s more robb. and robb’s decision to put aside his betrothal in order to marry jeyne westerling cost him and the north. catarina on the other hand has shown herself to be a politically shrewd and cunning character. maybe she doesn’t deserve to be queen because of her good heart like afonso, but she’s shown she deserves to be queen because she’s the best person for the job. but yeah like you said telenovela’s typically have the bad guy get their just deserts but i think that for a show that’s specifically described itself as being inspired by game of thrones it never made any shocking and surprising choices that got/asoiaf became known for. i think the show started out really good when catarina wasn’t so much an antagonist rather an antagonistic character in an ensemble cast, but when cat changed from a character in her own right to amalia’s antagonist, i think the show’s quality went down.

tl;dr: cat is an active character who drives the plot and is a complex character and even at her cruelest bruna’s acting humanised cat and elevated the writing and she was the most interesting character by far

[ceruleanmusings]

“It’s really not that complicated.” for Wynn and Riya pls 😇

Wynn’s doc martens clomped with every step she took up the bleachers until she reached the row that her friend occupied. Her arms crossed over her chest and her head cocked to the side as she took in the stretched out form along one of the benches. Riya lay sprawled against the wooden seat, her forlorn faced aimed up at the ceiling. Wynn’s head dropped backwards, checking to see if there were anything interesting on the ceiling before approaching. Her stride was quick and precise, like she was on a mission. Which, in this case, she was.

“You know, this is getting a little old,” Wynn stated, holding her hand in front of Riya’s face. Riya reached up and grasped Wynn’s hand, allowing herself to be pulled up into a sitting position. “You’ve been through worse but this is what makes my Rose wilt?”

Riya cracked a smile. “That was a good one.”

Wynn dropped unceremoniously onto the bench next to her, clasping her hands together and leveling Riya with her signature no-nonsense look that she weaponized a little too much. “Riya, come on, this is supposed to be fun.”

“Oh really? I didn’t realize that was the overall goal,” Riya grumbled. Her eyes shifted from Wynn to the set of boys dribbling basketballs on the courts below. Half of them wearing Riverdale High athletic shirts and half without. The boys tended to play a shirts vs skins game during their free period whenever they had the chance. A fact Wynn knew Riya was privy to.

Wynn sighed. “You’re being a chicken shit. What’s Sweet Pea gonna do, say no?“

Riya’s lips pursed as they watched Archie dribble around Reggie and take a shot. Her smile widened a little when the ball made it through the hoop. “He could. Or he could laugh.”

“Orrr”—Wynn dug her finger into Riya’s side, “you could stop being a baby and grab some balls.” Shrugging she added with a natural nonchalance, “His or yours, either would work.”

Despite it starting out as a groan, Riya could help but laugh at Wynn’s brazen idea.. “You need to stop talking.”

“And you need to relax. It’s a dance! Not a marriage proposal. It’s really not that complicated.” Wynn dug into her bag and pulled out her trusty camera. She rose it to her eye, adjusted the lenses, and took a few quick shots in rapid succession. As she glanced at the screen to check her shots she added, “I get the feeling he hasn’t been asked to these things before.”

“I’m not even sure that Southside High had dances,” Riya said.

“Exactly. Why not go to his first one with a friend? You’re guaranteed to have a good time.” Wynn lifted her camera back up to her face and took more shots. “I mean, it’s just the gym with cheap decorations, store brand punch, and Top 40 at night. Lunch time would be the same thing with the light’s off.”

“Okay, okay, I get your point,” Riya conceded, rolling her eyes at Wynn’s comparison.

“So?” Wynn lifted her eyebrows and tilted her head down towards the basketball court. Just then a burst of raucous noise drifted up to the stands as they congratulated Sweet Pea for his shot with pats on the back and slaps to his palm.

“Wha—you want me to ask now?”

“Better time than any, right? What’s that saying? ‘There’s no time like the present’?”

Riya lifted her elbows onto her knees and dropped her chin into her palms. “I think a better time is tomorrow.”

“Yeah but, as I’m sure you’ve noticed, it’s always a day away.” Wynn wagged her finger in Riya’s face while making a tsking noise. “Nice try, though.”

“Do you always have some annoying quote at the ready?”

“When it comes to dealing with you, yes.”

Riya stuck out her tongue. “Well, what about the others? Have they asked anyone yet.”

“Yep. Reggie’s going with Josie—and no, it doesn’t bother me,” Wynn said, shooting Riya a look. Riya held up her hands, as if blocking Wynn’s words. “Moose is going with Midge, of course. Veronica and Archie. Betty and Jughead—”

“What about Toni?” Riya asked, nudging Wynn with her shoulder.

“She already asked Cheryl,” Wynn replied. “I’m surprised you haven’t heard. Something to do with tying cherry stems with her tongue? The boys won’t shut up about it.”

Riya shook her head. “Why’m I not surprised?” She tucked her short hair behind her ear, now drumming her fingers against the bench next to her. “Well, what about you? Have you asked anyone yet?”

“I didn’t plan on it. Figured Kevin and I could just roll up in style and blow everyone out of the water,” Wynn said with a wink and a finger-gun aimed Riya’s way.

“Well, you can’t come in here and say all that if you’re not going to ask anyone!”

“Yes I can. Asking someone to a dance is not a big deal. If they say no it’s their loss, not mine.” Wynn reached out and took Riya’s hand, giving it a squeeze. “Sweet Pea would be a massive idiot if he turned you down.”

Riya grunted. “That’s true but…”

“What if I asked Fangs?”

“What do you mean? Do you even talk to him?”

“Kind of. We hit it off working on the musical. He liked my ideas for the audio and sound effects. If I ask him, you have to ask Sweet Pea. Would that take the pressure off?”

“Sure, but I don’t think you’re…and, you’re actually going to do it. You’re actually doing this.” Riya watched as Wynn jumped up from her seat and bounded down the bleachers. She reached the barrier at the bottom, stuck her finger and thumb into her mouth, and let out a shrill whistle, effectively stopping the game.

“Like what you see, Tate?” Reggie asked, a cocky smile stretching on his face as he made a show of stretching his muscles that were on display. He lifted his chin at the camera that hung around her neck. “Souvenirs?”

“Target for my dartboard, it’s the only action you’ll be getting anytime soon” Wynn immediately shot back. Amid the following chorus of oohs she continued, “Anyway, I don’t need you, I need Fangs.”

“Yeah?” Fangs asked, walking forward as he lifted the hem of his shirt to wipe his sweaty face.

“Wanna go to the dance with me?”

Riya’s lifting eyebrows mimicked Fangs’s and then a second later he shrugged. “Sure, why not?”

“Great. I was thinking of a champagne red color, if you want to match. But a little more muted so Cheryl doesn’t think I’m stealing her thunder.”

“I’m good with that. But I think a navy blue would work with your skin-tone as well, if you want another option.”

“I’ll keep that in mind. I was going to forego heels. Is that alright with you?”

“Whatever you’re comfortable in.”

“Great! Pick me up at Pop’s around six-thirty. We can all eat beforehand and head over together.”

Fangs smiled. “Sounds like a plan. Can’t wait.”

“Groovy!” Wynn turned her back to the chatting boys and turned an expecting smile in Riya’s direction. She waved her hand, motioning towards the floor. “Your turn.”

Riya made a face. She should’ve known she was making a deal with the devil.

[beneaththeweirwoodtree-blog]

They were children, now they’re not: or Why the Stark sisters’ season seven arc makes no sense

Below are spoilers for season seven of Game of Thrones. I also quote the books because they reveal some of the characters’ inner thoughts that occur during the same time frame covered in the show. This is a Game of Thrones critical, book-to-show comparison post. You’ve been warned. 

During season seven of Game of Thrones, I was really looking forward to the promised Stark sibling reunions. The reunion between Sansa and Jon brought me to tears and I had high hopes for the others. Sadly, I was left wanting, particularly the reunion and subsequent tension between Sansa and Arya. I think that season seven served neither character well (nor Bran, either, for that matter), and the tension between the Stark sisters--created by an ever-scheming Littlefinger--makes very little sense. 

Point 1: They were children

When Arya and Sansa were younger, they didn’t get along. Typically this is when people bring up the fact that Sansa called Arya “Horseface” or that Arya thinks that Sansa is stupid. I’m not disagreeing with either of these facts.  However, when these disagreements occurred, Sansa was 13 (11 in the books) and Arya was 11 (9 in the books). Arya shows some jealousy towards her sister because Sansa is praised for doing all the things that Arya is not good at. Sansa is annoyed with her sister for doing all the things that they’ve been taught girls are not supposed to do. Furthermore, Sansa doesn’t understand why her parents indulge Arya’s behavior when she’s been taught that those sorts of things (getting dirty, sword fighting, etc) are not appropriate for a lady. They may be living in medieval Westeros, but the Stark sisters are having a moment that most people with siblings are familiar with. They each believe that they’re being treated unfairly. Arya believes that she’s forced to do things she doesn’t like and then is compared to her sister, who is much better at those things; Sansa believes it’s unfair that Arya doesn’t follows the rules and gets away with it. 

To a child, both of these complaints feel legitimate. However, these are clearly the thoughts of children and when the sister reunite in Winterfell, they’ve got years of growth behind them. They aren’t the same people they were when they left, so why would they have the same grievances? Their time apart and their experiences (as evidenced in the books) gives us reason to believe that both sisters think fondly on each other when they’re apart.

Just a few quotes from Arya’s chapters: 

“She wished the Rush would rise and wash the whole city away...everything, and everyone too, espeically Prince Joffrey and his mother. But she knew it wouldn’t, and anyhow Sansa was still in the city and would wash away too.”  A Clase of Kings, Arya I

“When she thought of seeing Robb’s face again Arya had to bite her lip. And I want to see Jon too, and Bran and Rickon, and Mother. Even Sansa...I’ll kiss her and beg her pardons like a proper lady, she’ll like that.” A Clash of Kings, Arya VII

“Needle was Robb and Bran and Rickon, her mother and her father, even Sansa.” A Feast for Crows, Arya II

And now from Sansa’s:

“Once in a while, Sansa even missed her sister. By now Arya was safe back in Winterfell, dancing and sewing, playing with Bran and baby Rikcon, even riding through the winter town if she liked.” A Clash of Kings, Sansa II

“She sang for mercy, for the living and the dead alike, for Bran and Rickon and Robb, for her sister Arya and her bastard brother Jon Snow...” A Clash of Kings, Sansa V

“In Sansa’s dreams, her children looked just like the brothers she had lost. Sometimes there was a girl who looked just like Arya,” A Storm of Swoards, Sansa II

“ Sansa had chased Arya through the stables and around the kitchen until both of them were breathless. She  might even have caught her, but she’d slipped on some ice. Her sister came back to see if she was hurt. When she said she wasn’t, Arya hit her in the face with another snowball, but Sansa grabbed her leg and pulled her down and was rubbing snow in her hair when Jory came along and pulled them apart, laughing,” A Storm of Swords, Sansa VII   

In the books, we are given textual evidence that once separated and exposed to the trauma of the world, each sister begins to reflect on the other. Yes, they’re still noted towards the end of each list of people they would like to see, but it is obvious that there is affection in their thoughts of one another. Now that they have matured (through horrific circumstances), they appreciate one another more. They recognize a fondness for one another that they couldn’t see as children. Given this, it doesn’t make sense that they would be reunited at home in Winterfell and immediately begin to dislike one another and hold petty grudges a la “You always liked pretty things because it made you feel better than everyone else.” They’re not gonna braid each other’s hair and exchange trauma stories, but they’re not going to cling to old grudges, either. 

On a side note: I know that these quotes are from the book and not directly referenced in the show. However, they are pulled from moments/situations that are very similar between book and show, so it makes sense that the show versions of the characters would still think them. 

Point 2: Previously, on Game of Thrones

Just a little recap on Arya: Before she comes back to Westeros, she was in Braavos at the House of Black and White, where she trained as a faceless man. She was trained in multiple ways to kill people and to be pretty sneaky about it. She was also trained to essentially be a human lie detector.  Having decided that she is not willing to give up her identity, she declares that she’s Arya Stark of Winterfell and she’s going home. At home, she runs into some Lannister soldiers, chills with them, actually seems happy for the first time in a few seasons, and then heads to Winterfell after hearing from Hot Pie that the Starks have reclaimed it. 

Recap on Sansa: She has helped her brother Jon Snow reclaim the North and was present when he was declared King in the North. She also expressed to him that “only a fool would trust Littlefinger,” the very same Littlefinger that she looks concerned about when her brother is declared King in the North. 

So, why is the reunion between the sisters so frosty? Arya manages to be kind to strangers who fight for the opposing side in a war, but is less than enthused about seeing the sister that she was violently separated from? Sansa is the first family that Arya has seen in literally years and her reaction is flat as hell. 

Sansa seems a little more enthused until she notices how odd Arya’s acting. Of course, then we fall into the mess of finding a letter that Sansa wrote (under duress!) when she was a child trying to save her father’s life. Now, if Arya were still a child, it would make sense that she was skeptical about the letter and confronts her sister. However, she is no longer a child and she’s been trained to spot a lie by a professional assassin death cult. It makes no sense that she would fall for Littlefinger’s tricks. Also, Sansa has been on the most horrific downside of one of Littlefinger’s plots gone wrong (see marriage to Ramsay Bolton, show only); she has confronted him about it; she doesn’t trust him. 

So how does it make sense that two women who should be able to see through Littlefinger’s scheming get caught up in it again? 

It doesn’t. the writers planned to kill Littlefinger at the end of the season and needed plot filler until then so we got stuck with a ridiculous sister-vs-sister plot that largely ignores Bran and only uses him as a plot device (which, if employed sooner, could have also avoided the entire fiasco). Arya’s faceless man training is available for use to threaten her sister but not to see through Littlefinger. Sansa’s political skills are available for use when she’s trying to appease the Northern lords, but she somehow conveniently trusts the man who confessed to killing the king and selling her to a brutal husband? Makes. No. Sense. 

I’m not saying that the sisters would get along swimmingly from the get-go. The one moment of tension that didn’t feel completely manufactured was their difference of opinion in how to handle the Northern lords getting restless about Jon. It makes sense that Arya would want to chop heads because violence has been her story arc. It makes sense that Sansa would want to use a diplomatic solution because her arc has been more court-centered. However, the moment the argument tips into childhood bickering and not actually being about the issue at hand, it feels manufactured and ridiculous. 

Conclusion: The writers giveth, the writers taketh away 

If Sansa and Arya were still the exact same girls from season one, this tension would make sense. But they aren’t. The writers have spent the five seasons since their separation trying to convince us that they have grown into strong, capable young women with differing areas of expertise. But with the plot of season seven, they manage to undo all of that character development and fall right into the trap of pitting the sisters against one another because the writers can’t think of anything else better to do while they waste time until Littlefinger can be killed. 

[junker-town]

Western Illinois’ NCAA tournament run in Year 26, continued

The Leathernecks enter the 2033 NCAA tournament looking to become back-to-back national champs for the first time in our College Hoops 2K8 sim dynasty.

Welcome back to our simulated dynasty with the Western Illinois Leathernecks in College Hoops 2K8. You can find a full explanation of this project + spoiler-free links to previous seasons here. Check out the introduction to this series from early April for full context. As a reminder, we simulate every game in this series and only control the recruiting and coaching strategies.

Before we pick up with the Leathernecks in the first round of the NCAA tournament, here’s a recap of everything that has happened so far this season:

Coming off our fifth national title in program history, the Leathernecks set out to try to become back-to-back champs for the first time ever. We enter the new year ranked No. 16 in the preseason polls and rated as a 99 overall.

We had a strong non-conference season, losing only two games and earning a signature victory over No. 1 BYU. After going undefeated in Summit League play and winning the conference tournament, we were named a No. 4 seed in the NCAA tournament.

We recruited for four scholarships and still haven’t landed anyone.

Read: Western Illinois, Year 26, 2032-2033

Here’s a look at our roster entering the 2033 NCAA tournament:

The mission for this season has been clear from the start: win back-to-back national championships for the first time in program history. We’ll have to buck our dubious history as defending champions to get it done. In the previous four times we’ve entered the NCAA tournament looking to defend our national championship, we haven’t made it further than the round of 32.

This team absolutely has the talent to repeat. We only lost one player from last year, starting big man Dick Copeland, who left after his redshirt junior year as a projected top pick in the NBA draft. Everyone else is back with another year of experience under their belt. There’s a strong case to be made that this is our best team yet since I took over as head coach at Western Illinois ahead of the 2007-2008 season.

All five of our starters are projected first round NBA draft picks. True junior 7-foot center Cecil Sinville and 6’4 redshirt junior shooting guard Albert Jagla are each projected as top picks. They are joined by a trio of standout redshirt seniors who played a vital role off the bench in our Year 23 national championship team, and then helped power another national title winer last year. Those players: 6’5 point guard Alexis Willingham, 6’9, 260-pound wing Skip Clemmons, and 6’8 do-it-all forward J.J. Bracy. I also reintroduced the starters in the regular season post if you’re new here.

How good is this group? On our subreddit, reader Kyle made the case that all five starters are top five players at their position in Leathernecks history. Bracy’s game is so multi-faceted at power forward that he often draws comparisons to Draymond Green and had reader 808s and Milkshakes writing a case for why we should play him at point guard.

Western Illinois enters the 2033 NCAA tournament rated as a 100 overall in every category but head coach. Our opponent is Stanford, the rare power-five squad to sneak into the dance as a No. 13 seed. Here’s how the two teams matchup:

This really feels like the last dance for this particular core knowing that we’re going to lose all five starters to graduation/the league when this run is over. We have some nice talent on the bench in the form of wing duo Nic Cummings and Neil Modrovich, but it’s possible this is our last title shot for a long time. We want to go back-to-back with perhaps our greatest core ever. We need to go back-to-back while they’re still here. But first, we must beat Stanford.

We streamed this game on Twitch on Sunday night. As always, I’m not controlling Western Illinois; we’re watching a simulated game. Let’s go!

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Win, 125-74! That was one of the most dominant offensive performances I’ve ever seen from our ‘Necks.

This game was actually close for the opening minutes. We were tied at 20-20 midway through the first half before we went on a run to break the game open. Despite struggling to shoot from three in the first half (3-of-12 as a team), we found an offensive rhythm by working the ball inside. Cecil Sinville was an absolute monster, finishing with all 19 of his points in the first half. The only reason he didn’t score after halftime is because we pulled our starters two minutes into the second half when the game had already turned into a blowout.

We kept hunting for the mismatch to get Sinville the ball in position to score, and he delivered time and time again:

Bracy was also excellent, finishing with 14 points, eight rebounds, and three stocks in 21 minutes. The bench took over from there. We had a 23-point lead when the starters were pulled. All we did was win by 51. It shows just how deep this team is, and perhaps how I’m underrating our future even after we lose all five starters following this tournament run.

Every member of the bench scored in double-figures, led by true sophomore shooting guard Neil Modrovich’s 17 points. This was also our first extended look at our two redshirt freshmen in the front court, 7’3 center Daron Coulter, and center-turned-power forward C.J. Cesar. I thought each provided a nice presence in the paint and on the glass on both ends of the floor. When the game was over, we had eight different players score in double-figures, and also scored 125 points as a team without anyone even scoring 20. This was truly egalitarian basketball, which is always the vision for the ‘Necks.

The win sets up a second round matchup with No. 5 seed Georgetown.

No. 4 Western Illinois vs. No. 5 Georgetown, round of 32, 2033 NCAA tournament

Georgetown enters the second round as knocking off Ivy champion Dartmouth in round one. The Hoyas are rated as a 96 overall, which is three points higher than Stanford.

Not going to lie, I’m a little worried about this game. Georgetown has some good looking bigs who might be able to bother Sinville a little bit, and they have a superstar senior shooting guard. More than anything, I’m worried because we always lose in this round during our repeat bids. Just getting to the Sweet 16 for the first time as defending champions would be such a relief.

We looked amazing in round one against Stanford; I’m just hoping we can keep up that level of play. We watched the simulated game against Georgetown on Twitch on Sunday night. Let’s go!

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Win, 95-75! WE’RE GOING TO THE SWEET 16.

Credit Georgetown for hanging tight with us throughout the first half. This was a much more competitive game than our tournament opener, but eventually our distinct talent advantage led us to a pretty easy win.

We could use this space to talk about the all-around brilliance of Alexis Willingham, who finished with 19 points and 11 assists and was the best player on the floor all game long. We could talk about Sinville, who scored 19 points for the second game in a row and made it look effortless. We could talk about Modrovich stepping up off the bench with a couple big threes to finish with 12 points, or we could talk how the rest of the team picked up Albert Jagla as he again struggled to get going offensively.

Instead, I just want to talk about dunks. We seemingly went like 3-4 seasons in a row without seeing a Leathernecks player dunk the ball in a stream game, but we had two sick dunks in this one.

First, here’s a nasty alley-oop slam by Nic Cummings in the first half.

Fun fact: Cummings has what I believe is the highest dunk rating in program history at 95 overall. We finally got to see what that looked like during a game.

And after we had pretty much wrapped up the win, J.J. Bracy decided to one-up Cummings with a ridiculous alley-oop slam of his own late in the second left. I have never seen anything like this during my time at Western Illinois:

The skyward point! The skyward point after the dunk really got me.

Western Illinois is running into the Sweet 16 with the dream of back-to-back national championships still alive. Our win over Georgetown sets up a Sweet 16 matchup with No. 1 seed Florida State.

No. 4 Western Illinois vs. No. 1 Florida State, Sweet 16, 2033 NCAA tournament

The Seminoles are legit: they enter at 25-6 on the season, they’re rated as a 98 overall, and they were No. 1 in the country in the RPI.

Florida State has three players rated in the 90s, and they’re deep at every position. The matchups just keep getting a little tougher after every win so far on this tournament run, and this will be our biggest test yet.

We really need to get Jagla going. You might remember he averaged more than 24 points per game on our run to the national title last year. He’s averaging only six points per game through our first two wins this year. I don’t think we can keep winning without him as a major part of our offense. I’m also interested in how our team defense will survive against a really good FSU squad.

We streamed this game on Twitch on Sunday night. A trip to the Elite Eight is on the line. Let’s gooooooo.

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Win 116-95. We’re one win away from the Final Four!

Oh my, Skip Clemmons. We had lacked a signature individual performance throughout this tournament run so far, but Clemmons just delivered it. He scored 25 of his 30 points in the first half, and finished 9-of-14 shooting from the floor and 5-of-10 shooting from three-point range. I had a good feeling about his performance from the very start of the game: he scored our first eight points, including a three-pointer immediately off the opening tip:

I think we truly forget just how huge Skip is. This man is 6’9, 260 pounds as a natural shooting guard. He weighs one (1) pound less than our center Sinville, who is the heaviest guy on the team. We moved Clemmons to the three when we landed Jagla in the next recruiting class, but it’s wild to see someone with this combination of size and ball skills.

Clemmons has struggled a bit when we put him at the four, but there’s no denying how beneficial his strength is against smaller wings. This looked like a ‘96 MJ move:

Skip was so locked in throughout the first half that I honestly thought he was going to score 50. Instead, it was his backup at small forward who did some serious damage out of halftime.

Nic Cummings is a redshirt sophomore wing out of San Jose. He’s developed nicely over the years and is now our sixth man rated as an 89 overall. Cummings is going to be the future of this team, but because our starting lineup is both so talented and so experienced, we haven’t needed him too much yet. Against Florida State, he finally showed what he can do.

Cummings finished with 19 points on 7-of-10 shooting from the floor and 4-of-6 shooting from three to help key the win. He’s not a great shooter (77 rating from three-point range), but his size and athleticism are really a plus. His performance has me more excited for next year. We also needed it during a game when Sinville struggled (six points on 2-of-8 shooting) and our backup bigs didn’t give us anything either.

We’re on to the Elite Eight, where our opponent will be No. 6 seed Vanderbilt.

No. 4 Western Illinois vs. No. 6 Vanderbilt, Elite Eight, 2033 NCAA tournament

Vanderbilt’s run to this point is pretty incredible: they beat three really good teams in Wisconsin, Maryland, and Arizona to reach the Elite Eight.

While it seems like we caught a break here because Vandy is only a No. 6 seed, they enter with the same overall rating as top-seed Florida State: 98. This team has a superstar shooting guard and a really talented two-way center who looks like Cliff Robinson (RIP). I have a feeling this isn’t going to be an easy game.

Western Illinois has been the Final Four seven times in my first 25 years. We have five national titles, but we still haven’t gone back-to-back. We’re been working all year for this moment, and we think we have the team to get it done. We just know we can’t afford to have an off night on a stage this big.

We streamed this game on Twitch on Sunday night. Because of a technical error, the game is split up into two videos. Final Four on the line. Let’s go!

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Win, 97-78! Western Illinois is back in the Final Four!

Oh my, Vandy gave us all we can handle. After a relatively stress-free road to get to this point, Vanderbilt had us sweating in the final five minutes. For the first time on this tournament run, I made manual subs. For the first time on this tournament run, I made an in-game coaching adjustment. I’m not sure if win this one without those moves.

Up four points with 3:52 left, I re-inserted the starting lineup back in the game after a brief rest to make sure they weren’t gassed in crunch time. We also went with a 1-2-1-1 full court press with the hope of stringing together a few stops to turn a close game into a blowout. That’s exactly what happened.

Skip Clemmons — who was incredible defensively all night, finishing with six steals — swiped this pass to kick-start the break for an impressive Albert Jagla layup. Then J.J. Bracy stole the inbounds pass and finished with the layup:

It was a wrap from there. We played far from a perfect game, but we did achieve a pretty much ideal balance throughout the starting lineup.

I thought Cecil Sinville was excellent again, finishing with 22 points and 12 rebounds on 8-of-12 shooting from the field. He’s moving up the list of all-time great centers in program history. Just the fact that a) he’s our only No. 1-rated center recruit in program history, b) he’s poised to leave as a top pick after only three years on campus, c) he helped win us one national title already, puts him in the running. But he’s also arguably been our best player on another potential title run. I can’t say for certain that we’ve had a better natural talent in the middle.

Clemmons is another all-timer, and he turned in another masterful performance on both ends. Jagla finally had his best offensive game, and Willingham was very good again, too. While Draymond Bracy did have a rough night, we’ll let him make it up to us in the Final Four.

Here’s a bonus Willingham three-pointer, just because I clipped it:

Western Illinois has won the national title in Year 8, Year 13, Year 20, Year 23, and Year 25. If we want title No. 6 in Year 26, we’re going to have to beat No. 1 seed BYU to get there.

No. 4 seed Western Illinois vs. No. 1 seed BYU, Final Four, 2033 NCAA tournament

Our opponent in the Final Four is BYU. Yes, you will remember we beat the Cougars in a true road game during this regular season when they were ranked No. 1 in the polls. That game was close throughout and I think this is going to be another battle.

BYU enters the game rated as a 100 overall. Here’s how the two teams matchup.

On the other side of the bracket, No. 10 seed Georgia Tech defeated No. 9 seed UNC. The Yellow Jackets await the winner in the national title game.

We’re going to stream this game on Sunday, Nov. 15 at 8:30 p.m. ET on Twitch. We have a dedicated community that comes out to watch and comment on the games, and we’re always looking for new fans. Here’s how you can join us:

No. 4 seed Western Illinois vs. No. 1 seed BYU, Final Four, 2033 NCAA tournament

Game: No. 4 seed Western Illinois vs. No. 1 seed BYU, Final Four, 2033 NCAA tournament

How to watch: My Twitch channel. You don’t need to sign up for anything to watch, but you do need to register for an account to comment. Do it, it’s fun.

Date: Sunday, Nov. 15 at 8:30 p.m. ET on Twitch

Tip-off time: 8:30 p.m. ET

IF we win: We’ll play the national title game against .

Come hang on Sunday. Go ‘Necks!

[aion-rsa]

How Xbox One Shaped the Future of Console Gaming

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I never owned an Xbox One, and to be honest, I’ve never really regretted that decision, even as I prepare to get my hands on the Xbox Series X.

In some ways, the legacy of the Xbox One is defined by shortcomings. Microsoft’s infamously botched reveal of the console was lowlighted by the console’s investment in the now-defunct Kinect peripheral as well as its apparent dependence on a constant internet connection. And even though Microsoft addressed most of these issues over time, the tech company faced one problem it never entirely solved: an inability to consistently deliver compelling exclusives.

From Sunset Overdrive to Forza Horizon 4, there are definitely Xbox games from the last generation that you need to play that you can’t on a PlayStation 4 or Nintendo Switch. The problem is that there just never seemed to be enough Xbox One exclusives released in any given year. The GameCube suffered from a similar problem, but that console is at least fondly remembered for gifting the world with some all-time great games. It’s highly debatable whether there are any Xbox One console exclusives worthy of that honor.

All of these problems — and other factors, such as Microsoft’s continued struggles in certain international markets — led to what many see as a sound defeat for the Xbox One in the console war against the PS4. The numbers are never quite as bad in that area as some fans would lead you to believe, but the fact remains that current tallies suggest that PlayStation outsold Xbox in the last console generation at an almost a 2:1 ratio. When you’re talking about a margin as substantial as that, it’s easy to argue that something went wrong.

That’s the fascinating thing about the Xbox One’s legacy, though. It’s the rare video game console that deserves to be remembered as much for how it benefited those who owned it as it benefited those who did not.

The reason I can tell you about the Xbox One’s great exclusives despite never owning an Xbox One is that I got to play most of them on PC. While Microsoft has always had a closer relationship with PC gaming than other console manufacturers, the Xbox One was the console that broke down nearly every barrier that kept certain titles on consoles in the apparent hope of tempting PC gamers to purchase a new device for just a handful of games. It’s not a stretch to suggest that Microsoft’s success in the current PC market is a big part of the reason why studios like Sega and even the PlayStation team are supporting PC gaming in ways they never did before.

Remarkably, Microsoft’s continued support of the PC platform may be the least impressive example of the company’s two greatest virtues during the Xbox One generation: accessibility and consumer-friendly ways to play on the platform. 

When I say accessibility, I’m of course talking about the Xbox team’s initiative to develop devices, such as the Adaptive Controller, that allow gamers with various disabilities to enjoy the titles they love with as few restrictions as possible. This is something that Microsoft doesn’t always get enough credit for (likely because it’s another measure of success that can’t be measured in sales figures alone), but it’s arguably a big part of the reason why we’re seeing so many developers work to include expanded accessibility options in their games. 

But I also want to use the word in a broader sense. The fact remains that Microsoft championed accessibility during the Xbox One generation in ways that Nintendo and Sony often did not. 

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Microsoft began supporting cross-play at a time when Sony was arguing that the feature wasn’t good for its userbase. Sony eventually relented, especially as cross-play games like Fortnite and Call of Duty Warzone grew more popular, and gamers now expect nearly every multi-platform multiplayer title to have some kind of cross-play functionality.

The Xbox team also began developing cloud gaming technology when many still rightfully believed it was a pipe dream. But with services like Google Stadia, Amazon Luna, and NVIDIA GeForce Now, it’s clear Microsoft was ahead of the curve on this one. Even Sony confirmed in 2019 that it has partnered with Microsoft to further the advancement of cloud gaming on the PlayStation platform.

Microsoft also championed the importance of backward compatibility at a time when players had surrendered to the idea that the only way to play classic games on modern consoles was to purchase remastered re-releases. The company’s efforts in that field may be part of the reason why the PS5 will feature a (comparatively limited) backward compatibility system that the PS4 infamously lacked. With extensive backward compatibility options on Xbox Series X, Microsoft remains at the forefront of innovation in terms of finding new ways for more people to play more games than ever before. 

Of course, you can’t talk about Microsoft’s consumer-friendly innovations without mentioning Xbox Game Pass. A “Netflix for gaming” has always been a hollow talking point, but Microsoft has made great strides in offering a service that almost replicates the streaming functionality of Netflix, especially with the cloud-based Xbox Game Pass app on mobile devices. Game Pass has cleared many of the hurdles of starting a gaming subscription service while also proving their growing necessity. Thanks to Game Pass, the idea of buying one $60 (or more) game at a time is beginning to feel archaic.

Game Pass wasn’t the first video game subscription service, but it was one of the first to feature the right combination of features and compromises. No, it doesn’t let you stream game on consoles, but it does let you download them with the option of purchasing them later at a reduced price. It even debuted for under $10 a month even though similar services proved that Microsoft could have easily charged more and few would have batted an eye, which is still a highly competitive price point when compared to other services.

From the very beginning, Game Pass was designed to be functional and accessible. Microsoft’s philosophy was that if you got people to try it, they wouldn’t want to go back. From there, the company grew Game Pass in ways that nobody anticipated. Who would have thought that Game Pass would eventually include day one Xbox exclusives at no additional cost? Who would have thought that Game Pass would grow to feature titles from EA’s own subscription program? It’s no wonder the service now boasts 15 million subscribers across all compatible platforms. The service is simply one of the best deals in gaming, even if you don’t own an Xbox and want to use it on PC.

If you break down all the ways that Game Pass eventually grew into the greatest subscription service in gaming, you’ll find that nearly every milestone was something that was ultimately good for Game Pass subscribers. Game Pass has proven to be valuable for Microsoft in ways that the Xbox One hardware never really was. It’s a big part of the reason why the next-gen console wars likely won’t be measured purely in terms of hardware sales. As the industry becomes increasingly reliant on engagement as its primary metric, it becomes harder to deny the long-term value of a service such as Xbox Game Pass. Even PlayStation Now has struggled to compete, largely due to Sony’s hesitance to port day one exclusives to the service. 

That isn’t to say that Microsoft has been perfect or that it’s making all the right moves across the board. The Xbox Series X’s limited launch library shows that Microsoft hasn’t quite remedied its software shortcomings. And while the company’s acquisition of Bethesda might seriously beef up the next-gen console’s first-party lineup, the deal has also left gamers with serious questions regarding whether Microsoft will do the “consumer-friendly” and make future Bethesda titles available on competing platforms. When it comes to the games, Microsoft has to figure out how its going to balance accessibility and exclusivity in a way that makes sense for the fans and (let’s be honest) the shareholders.

When I think back on the legacy of the Xbox, it’s difficult not to view the mistakes Microsoft made through the lens of how it learned from those same mistakes. You could argue that the early version of the Xbox One was a little too forward-thinking for its own good, but I’d say that the biggest problem with the early days of the Xbox One was Microsoft’s inability to convey what it was trying to achieve. With its eyes on the future, Team Xbox overlooked what people wanted in the present. It would have been easy for Microsoft to stubbornly stay the course, but the company instead opted to admit what it did wrong, take a step back, and make sure the issues were addressed before it tried to take a bold leap forward again.

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You may not have owned an Xbox One, either. You may have no real desire to purchase an Xbox Series X based on its current library of games. Yet, when we look back on the evolution of console gaming, it’s going to be hard to deny that the Xbox One paved the way for a more exciting path forward that will continue to unfold in the next generation. 

The post How Xbox One Shaped the Future of Console Gaming appeared first on Den of Geek.

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