#THE SHOW'S REBOOTING APPARANTLY

[ninja-knox-ur-sox-off]

I miss writing 

[richardsphere]

Leverage Redemption Log: The Too Many Rembrants Job

Ok so guy is running around, scenes are flashing everywhere. He's apparantly not too great a person ("whole life i have prided myself on never taking a side"... ) Im gonna say he looks like a little grey man type. Seems like he's feeling rather conflicted about whatever situation he's stuck in. Like this is not his lifestyle. --- Three days earlier, Sophie wakes up to an empty bed. (god... It hits me a little but i cant imagine how this must've hit people who watched it originally and sat through years before it un-cancelled)

The revival seems intend to do the "sherlock-graphics text conversation" thing that has become popular in the intervening years (i dont love that style, but i understand the economy of it. Only 1 shot can now show text and reaction rather then having to cut from a shot of a phone held in someone's hands to a shot of the face. I dont love it but i understand the utility of it.)

I Notice during the toast that Hardison's actor is credited as a "special guest star" (makes sense, i understand his career really took off between the original show and the revival so that makes sense) As far as excuses to write Hardison out of the story (outside of cameo's) are concerned, saying "Leverage International has over a dozen teams, all of whom need supervision and the research has always been his thing even in the OG run" is a pretty good and natural flowing explanation for it.

First heist of the new run: Distracting a grieving widow. Time to steal ourselves some therapy. --- I dont like the Big Text Transition Cut-in. BOSTON MUSEUM OF ART printed in such a big font you cant see the museum is a waste of an establishing shot.

I assume this "Harry" is the same guy that i have been told is the reboots mythical "lawyer" role. (a role that feels out of place in the line-up. Even if I remember the Cheerleading episode and the way that Nate's job was mostly knowing which crimes he could trick the bad guys into getting arrested for it still feels weird.)

Phoenix Wright points out that our prospective mark (opioid crisis billionaire) cant actually remove the painting halfway through but that they could cancel future donations.

But it seems Sophie has made her decision, she follows the lawyer till he admits which painting it is. Then all-but openly admits she's stolen it before. (guess we needed to tip our new castmember off somehow. Still feels clunky, but i'll respect it as a "Sophie's been out of the game for 8 years" thing)

In shock: Parker is getting therapy something i've been strongly opinionated on since the 12 step job. Sure its a child psychologist rather then an adult psychologist but its good. (different things work for different people, and the list of people to whom she could honestly admit to her life without risking arrest is slim. Take what you can get Sophie.) ---

"this is not what it looks like" "cause it looks like you're stealing a Rembrandt, and you've got a 2 minute window, tops... Hurry on" real "Uncle Iroh correcting his muggers knife-stance" energy here. Just the look on his face when he says "you want me to keep..." like i dont know what the Opiodbaron has on him to make him do this but he's so out of his depth. "is that my wallet?" "sure hope so, it has all your creditcards in it" this guy just knows his life is ruined now, the look on his face that all sensibility and reason has left the universe as these 3 people just casually chat with him mid-burglary.

Parker the cartwheel was entirely unneccesary. This is not an acrobatics job this is a "walk there and put the thing on the camera" job. No need to show off.

"where did you learn to do that" "youtube" absolute Timmy Turner"I inherited the internet" level of answer right there.

"So right now they're busting down the firedoors and an enterprising employee is coming in through your escaperoute" (i mean it was pretty well thought out for a complete amateur... that sounds more insulting then i meant it but i meant it as a compliment) --- Further flashback to him first starting to work for MarkyMcMarkface. "im not an anybodies side, im a lawyer" Ah i can see im gonna get really sick of the "evil lawyers are scum of the earth" jokes really quickly with this sequel series arent I? "not my medication, im the one who convinced him to pay out, you just need to put down the shovel... so to speak". Those are definitly the words of a man balancing his desire to do good, with his ability to be in position to do anything at all. (i like when characters have that dynamic. Its much more interesting then "cackling villain or heroig paragon"). Im giving this line a full on 9.8/10 for establishing this guy.

"my name will live on in these museums forever" well that is a line that definitly cant get twisted into "this is the famous art-thief who stole all this art" after Leverage Inc-ternational is done with framing him he'll realise the downside of herostratic fame. --- "are we taking him as a client or wiping his ID and dumping him in Venezuela" "I'd like to vote no on that"

"wait, i think i've deduced you are thieves. And you were there not to steal the Rembrandt? And now that you know the owner is vermin you want to help me ruin him?" yeah that is the premise, good deductive skills, absolutely love how fish-out-of-water he is. (the hell is going on?) That is the voice of a man speedrunning his way through the 5 phases to acceptance that his world will never make sense again. --- I like how Sophie mentions a theft and parker just reviews the heist. Good way to show the runners still understand her character, she doesnt care about the painting she cares about the swagger of the theft itself.

"well, he's already an inside man" "and we can bonk him on the head later, if we have to", " thank you... that did not sound right". --- "a month is a long time when you're the one not doing the stabbing". Ok i think we're overplaying the stabbing. That happened one time in season 1 of the original series, i think this is a bit of flanderisation. (still a great line, if i knew anyone who did throwpillows i'd get it done on one) --- I like the acknowledgement that art forgery is intense. With the need to duplicate materials as well as colours. And i like that Elliot still is Mr. Know A Guy, --- Ok so they realise they cant sell it (cause they didnt think to fake a Rodin) and use it to double down his reputational insecurities "cant sell it to you, owner wont sell to someone who might lose it due to future lawsuits".

Mark is calling a security check on sophie and it cuts to break (as if anything he could find isnt hidden by Hardison)

--- Lovely story, irish mob, father operated in the place they stole the painting, looking to offset it. Passes inspection (especially when the inspector is on your side) definitly written for Nate not Elliot but it'll work. --- "do i even want to ask who this actually belongs to?.. Thought so." at least he's quick on the uptake.

So it is at this point in the episode that i felt a need to I google wether the actor is dead. (he isnt, he got accused of SA but was cleared by the court in the end. Still public opinion being fickle and him never having been a Pirates of the Caribean level famous actor. I understand that is definitely a career killer.)

Bunch of eulogies for Nathan, "at least he burned" 8.8/10 --- Elliot taking the role as an excuse to rough the guy up a little bit before "losing" the negotiations. (note: they've clearly learned some lessons. Elliot made sure to check what the mark plans to do with the painting. No "oh shit the fiddle-purchaser thinks he's the fiddle here." Thats what 5 christmass specials and an 8 year interlude's worth of experience gets you) --- Lucille is a foodtruck now, (well, its more "air force 1" rules. Any plane with a US president is airforce one, any foodtruck with a Hardison is Lucille) --- Looks like Mark has decided to just kill elliot and take the painting. Also looks like this scary woman (RIZ security) is gonna be a recurring antagonist. (she has too much "presence" to be a one-off)

Ah the old "let me explain the fight choreography, then work my way through the choreography and look like a WarProphet-eer" stint. (Guy Ritchie Holmes did it better, but it gets a passing grade) I do like the little compliment RIZ woman gave. Elliot Spencer: "The Rembrandt of Violence". --- "smart thing to do would be to run" Smart thing yeah, but you guys dont do the smart thing, you guys do the Cunning Genious Bastard thing. Parker is notably absent in this scene, or anything that has been happenign in this part of the plot. (she's off doing the plan this is a distraction/back up for)

Elliot coming in like a rhinocerous. Lawyerman Flashback. "If i cant give them anything, and I cant be forgiven, I need to take something from him."

Back-to-present Lawyerman walks into the museum (sirens blaring), puts gasoline/kerosine/alcohol/other chemical accelerant on the painting and burns it. (the alarm is already blaring, which means something already set it off. The paintins already been swapped for a fake, as have all the others probably. We're framing our Mark for an Insurance scam again cause we cant beat the classics, especially if we're doing a Revival Series Pilot) --- Lawyer walks up to Mark and gets gutpunched. Mark is on the phone talking his secire and secret Maltese bank details (Sophie or Hardison? Place your bets. I think its Sophie, usually this would be a Hardison thing but it would show her as being "back" as an actress) --- "I said one job... The job's not done". Good line (7.6/10), and i like the subversion of the expectation that just 1 heist would be enough to get her "back in the game". making it a two parter helps divy up the load a little on selling both the grieving process and Harry's joining with the crew.

[tumblunni]

Aaaaagh i feel so sad that i'm too late to the yokai watch fandom... Like man i had NO CLUE that its popularity was declining?? I finally got into the thing and now its dying and maybe i could have helped if i bought all the things back when it first came out??

And it sucks that apparantly its declining popularity is ALMOST ENTIRELY due to badly handled localization efforts. Not the translation itself, but more about the PR stuff behind it. The really long delays between games being released and localized, features being removed in the localization, awkwardly timed release dates, giving an innacurate impression of what youre gonna get, lack of merchandise beibg sold anywhere except america, even america getting barely anything compared to japan, putting the anime on a bad timeslot on unpopular channels, not dubbing spinoff games, dubbing spinoff games and then cancelling them as soon as they started getting a goddamn fandom, a bad downloadable demo of the first game that contained zero sassy humour despite that being the whole point of the series, and still going ahead with selling yw2 in two versions even though that strategy only works in an atmosphere of high fandom and turns people away when its a new growing fandom.

Aaaand it all sucks cos yokai watch is already like.. Pre-biased against Western audiences. I mean the whole premise is a cute version of local mythology, and when they decided to add "american appeal" in the third game they just made up a bunch of monsters based on american food and stuff instead of having even one based on a real american cryptid/mythology/folk hero/etc..

AND it sucks that the goddamn response to the decline has been really realy stupid, in my opinion. They decided to cancel the goddamn anime aka the most popular part of the series, and replace it with a Dark And Edgy Sequel that bombed completely. This was their response to people asking for more story driven stuff like in the games, and how all the story driven movies were the most successful thing ever. Why didnt you just adapt the goddamn stories from the games and/or continue doing story stuff with the existing anime characters!! And now despite yokai watch 3 being super fuckin awesome and finally perfecting the awkward battle system, theyre gonna throw it all out and take a giant risk with a whole new battle system on nintendo switch. TAKING RISKS WHEN THINGS ARE ALREADY RISKY IS BAD, YO

And not to mention how badly they handled the female characters as soon as things got risky! Like wtf why were they the thing that had to go first?? Removing the katie option on yw3 was universally hated by everyone, and biased audiences against the new character hailey cos the way the game was framed made it seem like she was the reason katie is gone. And the damage control they tried was really stupid and pointless?? Now there's just ONE SIDEQUEST very late in the game where you get to go thru a mirror to an alternate world where katie is the protagonist. Which only cements the whole 'she is not canon' thing and doesnt do anything but rub it in that we cant play as her. And i mean you do technically play as her during that segment, so if they had all the models and animations and shit done then why not just actually make a katie mode??? Even if it had less features than the usual option and was just an appearance switch with no changed dialogue aside from pronouns, thats basically what the gender option is in pokemon so its better than nothing. Even if yeah the lil bit of different personality in older games was neat and gave me an actual reason to wanna play again with Nate. AND THEN even more annoying is the fact they also threw Hailey under the bus, removing her shortly after she appeared in the anime and doing the whole sequel reboot where she doesnt exist. And she gets basically no merchandise and its like theyre trying to forget her. Which SUCKS because she is POPULAR! She was only preemptively hated before the game came out, for replacing katie. But then everyone loved her when they saw how hilarious awesome she is, and ESPECIALLY she was super popular in america aka the exact thing they were trying to do with making yw3. Which they friggin didnt dub for 4 years!! The america game for america!! Delayed in america!! Seriously so many bad decisions!!

And whats super extra weird is that apparantly europe saved it so that yw3 actually came out? Yw1 and yw2 had better sales over here despite being less promoted, having less merchandise, and it being awkward to catch new episodes of the show unless you can stream american tv. Apparantly the third version of yw2 straight up wasnt released in america except as digital download, so thats why id never heard of it until i saw it in the shops. And what does nintendo do with this knowledge? Continue focusing on america! Aaaagh i feel so sad cos its clearly not the team actually making the damn game thats making these shitty decisions, its just pr businessmen ruining their hard work at the last minute...

Seriously every yokai watch game is a labour of love, filled with so much damn STUFF and CHARM and EMOTION and SILLY LIL MONSTER DUDES and friggin OPEN WORLD MONSTER HUNTING IN TRASHCANS which is still the best goddamn idea ever. Oh and DR MADDIMAN'S INCREDIBLY TEARFUL PLOT AND INCREDIBLY HUGGABLE FACE

So yeah man im so sad im only getting here when the damn franchise is dying and i hope my fandom rambling maybe helps some of you guys get interested too! You can pick up the first game suuuuper cheap now! Please embrace the cute ghosts with me!!! DONT PASS ON TO THE AFTERLIFE, YOKAI WATCH

[bibliotheksbewohnerin]

hipsterbrigadier replied to your post:it seems to me that the americans’ obsession with...

didn’t fuller work on voyager and ds9?, I still trust that he gets it’s not star wars

apparantly he wrote 81 episodes for Voyager...so this is even more confusing to me. but i mean he’s not the only one making the show. maybe their budget’s just too high, idk. i guess it’s more of a general trend that has most scifi getting very alike and the show is trying to be like the reboots? I do think that might change with future episodes though

it’s not that I don’t like it, I’m more trying to figure what’s bugging me about it

[sparkistories]

18/04/20

The bus was taking me somewhere. My sister sat two seats behind me. I kept my bag with her. We were waiting at a checkpoint but I couldn't see out of the fog on the windows. None of the faces were ones I knew.

I was told to get off, me specifically, and I tried asking for my bag. But I was told there was no need. I got outside and found myself in a 3 tier shooting obstacle course. I was told to follow the ropes that scrambled through each tier. I was told I would be timed. I didnt know what was going on. Then they said I needed to re-string the rope and that someone would be with me to do the shooting. I was still confused and scared.

M appeared. He was the shooter they referred to. I recognized him but didn't know if this was where he was friendly or not so I didn't say hello. At this point I thought he was supposed to shoot me if I failed.

The buzzer sounded and they screamed at me to go. I fumbled to untie the ropes, noticing they were woven as they stretched across the platforms on the lower tier. He stood next to me, glancing back between me and the surroundings. Then he was suddenly firing at the ground. I heard screams but couldn't see anyone. He just told me keep going and don't stop. I fumbled the ropes and jumped off the platform to run to the other side. He didn't follow. I wondered if he would shoot me next, feeling dread setting in. I managed to continue and finished the course while the bus was still there waiting.

When I finished they took me in a control room with cameras to show me what was going on. They showed me stringing the ropes across, and him shooting at creatures I did not see before. He was there to protect me, they said. The creatures were for him to practice on, but he had run the course many times and never failed. The timer was just used to get my mind off of what he was shooting, because they screamed like humans.

They said the bus would take me on my way. M said he would see me soon then left.

I got on the bus and nothing had changed. Conversations still flowed, and nobody seemed to notice what happened.

The bus drove forward until it got to an intersection and stopped. Everyone started getting off, but I didn't know this was the stop. I waited to grab my bag as people shuffled passed. When I got outside, the road was covered in ice and the bell was going off. I had to cross the icy intersection and be inside before the last bell. Then I heard why. It wasnt just some school policy. It's when the power was cut to lower the emergency lockdown gates from more creatures held outside the perimeter. The checkpoint guarded the entrance.

I slid across the road and slid under the gate as it came down. The fence outside shut off and they climbed over, running at the building. Zombie creature dream.

I wandered the hallways, since I didnt see where anyone went or know where I was supposed to be in what I thought was a school. I wandered but found only dark rooms until I came across a single door cracked open with light pouring through. I walked to it and looked through the window. There was an examination table set in the room like a doctors office. Nobody inside. Just harsh flourescent lighting.

I walked in and sat on the table. Not knowing if I was supposed to be here or not. Matt came in (not M). Dont know why Matt Damon was in my dream, just was.

Apparantly he was setting up the pods. I didn't know what the pods were. He explained we were being and held here as test subjects for a cure. The creatures outside were infected people. Zombies were no joke. A little harrier than I imagined though. He said he was there to start the pods to preserve us in case they broke through. But I would have to wait because my pod was having difficulty and the power generators shutting off made it harder for it to reboot. M came in, saying his failed too.

The gates outside were breached and the screaming came down the hall. They both pulled out pistols and told me to run down the hall and open the security control room with a code. I ran. It opened and they came in behind me shooting and closed the door, barricading it with a shelving unit.

There were two pods in the room and three of us. Matt said he didn't need one but I knew he was lying. M punched a code in for a reset to what I assumed was his. They hooked me up to mine. Matt said he had to make sure the generators ran and that the startup was a success, otherwise we would be like them soon.

I asked where my sister was. He said she was a success and she was in her own pod. So I left my bag beside me and got in, got hooked up. M was doing the same. The door was breached and they slammed the lid on me. The lights went dark. I couldn't hear or see anything. I kept quiet so I wouldn't lead them to me. Then I heard a tap on the window. Still could not see. Just a tapping.

I woke.