#and critical role the eps are just WAY too long

[sea-buns]

I understand not wanting your party members to walk into a lake and drown themselves but also Laudna has the fuckin WORST bedside manner lol. Yes, your much-needed long rest was just interrupted in a creepy abandoned town where you know weird charm-shit happened and the LAST thing you need right now is for anyone to lose focus. But also "Can you not wait? You can wait 5 minutes." talking to someone who has waited months and doesn't know if their loved one is even ALIVE and has confessed to you how much he misses them and how much it hurts and they could be outside breathing alive right now—

And on the surface, it looks like Chet is enabling a bad decision when he says "You probably heard Dorian. He's probably outside." and yeahh, okay, maybe he is a little bit. But right after that he's about to protest with something about Orym and it's like yeah. ORYM said he heard something. When has there been a time when ORYM heard something, and it wasn't real? How many times has Orym heard something and it's saved our asses? Before Chet is being hit with his own need to check out the lake, he's giving Orym the benefit of the doubt. And while he is an enabler by nature, he's keeping his voice soft rather than his usual, over-the-top "let's fuck around and find out" energy that he brings to dangerous situations like this.

You can't have everyone in the group treating a dilemma with the same amount of sympathy and care. What makes the BH so fascinating to watch is the variation in responses and different ways they interact with each other. You need a balance of someone who will take the cold, unyielding stance against something that is so obviously a trap, and someone that is aware of the risks but willing to speak up for that person and humor them when they're so clearly struggling.

I have a lot of feelings about Laudna and Chetney's instinctual responses and I think both stances are fascinating and they've both shattered my heart to pieces

[utilitycaster]

…so I decided to check out Polygon’s D20 coverage, and frankly I think you were entirely too kind to them. Good. GOD, some of that stuff read like they’ve never watched AP that *wasn’t* CR, D20 or the first season of TAZ. And have somehow made it thru the 2010s without encountering urban fantasy…

Anyway, to further nudge you towards your destiny of AP journalism (and with the understanding that you have a Real Job and a life outside TTRPGs and the internet); can you please expand on what you think D20 brings to the table?(pun unintended, but I stand by it) Because speaking as someone who has watched a handful of eps and enjoys the concepts, the praise PG were offering was damningly faint.

Hi! Thank you, and for what it's worth I don't think most of them have listened to the first season of TAZ either, given the way they talk about WBN as inventing the actual play longform podcast. I do want to note: I like writing longform stuff about actual play but I am adamantly not a journalist. I am not investigating or interviewing or reporting; I'm doing analysis and editorial. Amateur critic is the most I can claim to and that's a stretch (and even there I have a particular privilege in that I'm writing all this for free, anonymously, by choice, and don't need be be nice or maintain relationships with actual play performers within the space because I could burn every bridge and still make rent.)

Anyway. I think a major flaw of Polygon is that it's so focused on novelty and subversion that it forgets a well-worn concept, executed with skill, is actually great and for many people, preferable. Brennan, from everything I have heard him say and from how he actually runs games, has a deep respect for fantasy as a genre, and the stories he tells in D20 are ones he is clearly familiar with and loves. I also think to subvert things you must be a fan, and when D20 does successfully subvert or twist a genre, it's coming from a place of respect and understanding.

Anyway, just covering a few Intrepid Heroes seasons: I think Fantasy High (and I haven't gotten to the latest episode of Junior Year) is actually increasingly a brilliant deconstruction of D&D as a game by making the world aware that it's in a D&D game. What does it mean to be in a D&D party and be an adventurer and have that be a significant part of who you are? What does it mean to be a commoner in this world? What do you do when you're sort of a broke teen in generic suburbia but also you need the loot that an adventurer would theoretically get from dragon hoards? Why do you have to know what your life's calling will be when you're 14? One of my personal favorite things, as a lover of mechanics and TTRPGs as a system of storytelling and more generally as someone who believes that your medium of choice should be informing the story you tell, is when people engage with character roles and classes instead of treating them as just a set of cool things you can do, and Fantasy High very much pushes the players to do this. I also mentioned elsewhere that the downtime stress mechanics are a brilliant addition to one of the genuine gaps in D&D, namely, while downtime is a time for open RP, there's not a good way to handle things like stress or crafting or prioritizing well.

The Unsleeping City is one I like, honestly, just because I lived in New York for a few years and Brennan lived there far longer (as did much of the cast, though not all) and his love for it is apparent. I don't think it's groundbreaking; I just think it's really good. The characters are excellent and the story is fun. It's true that, for example, it allows you the satisfaction of making Amazon's and its attempted move into Long Island City the BBEG and smiting its ass instead of having to harangue your senators and councilpeople (as I did, and I wasn't even living in Queens) but really it's just a good story. It doesn't need to be more than that. It did not invent urban fantasy or the idea of a secret magical version of a real city or "most myths are real"; it's just a good story!

I think A Crown of Candy is also just a fun setting and, by making everyone food, emphasizes how petty and arbitrary the alliances in a Game of Thrones-esque milieu can be. It casts a scathing eye on religious interpretation as a tool for conquest without clumsily proclaiming the mere concept of religion is the problem. It has one of the best explorations of character death I've seen and Brennan's acting as Caramelinda remains a tour de force for him. Bringing the entire story of succession and war down to a final choice between two half-sisters remains a brilliant decision, the setting is supported by the mechanical limits Brennan imposed upon character creation, and it's overall beautifully done.

Even Neverafter, which I think have openly said didn't live up to its initial promise, had that promise with the fantastic handling of the TPK; I have a love for metanarrative and honestly my issue is that it was the wrong place to do metanarrative, but it was a bold choice to do in the unpredictable medium of actual play.

That's really only covering a fraction - I think some other standouts are Mentopolis, A Court of Fey and Flowers, Coffin Run, and Escape from the Bloodkeep, and while Shriek Week is just not a genre I'm personally super drawn to, I think the Mythic system is a great system for the story being told and Hicks does a great job running it.

Really what it comes down to is that D20 falls in between what a lot of shows are. It doesn't have the freedom but also the burden of a very long-running campaign (indeed, WBN exists because its performers, all of whom have featured in D20, wanted to be able to do longform actual play), nor is it quite as rushed as an all-miniseries or one-shot show. It has space to explore one or two things really well without having to carry a thousand different threads (and believe me, Brennan tries to put in as many as he can in that space - I actually wonder if the reason Fantasy High Junior Year feels a little more streamlined to me is that WBN was by that time in full swing). But it's not the first edited actual play, it mostly uses very widespread systems, the production values are high but not unheard of elsewhere (and I think that production values in AP beyond the basic 'can you hear and, if relevant, see things clearly and does the set look nice' are overrated though that's a personal preference), the cast is strong but not the first group of professionals or even comedians, and they didn't invent the concept of filming remotely or scrims or having an anticapitalist message.

My issue with the journalists, to reiterate that, is that they're not really doing much journalism, actually; and that their bias is horribly apparent. There's little analysis - just shallow reviews that show little understanding of actual play as a medium, fantasy as a genre, or TTRPGs as a system. And while being entirely free of bias is unavoidable - we are people, and we will bring our own interpretations and experiences in, and there are people who will love D20 and dislike Critical Role without doing so in bad faith - the fact that several of the journalists have openly crowed and preened about their special access to the D20 cast really makes it apparent that they like D20 because Dropout gives them early access and says nice things about them. And it's a feedback loop; Critical Role is going to keep saying "well, you constantly shit on us, so no, you don't get early access" and they'll keep writing bad reviews because they don't get early access.

But to return to the point, D20 is legitimately great and yeah the bias in my mind is only hurting them because, speaking only for myself, if there's two things I like and people heap fawning and inaccurate praise on one and nitpick the other? I'm going to start looking into that praise and find more flaws, and I'm going to start defending the nitpicked one. I really love Fantasy High Junior Year but the Polygon article is so bad I have to remind myself that it's just because the person who wrote it is an idiot. I probably would have gone into Kollok much more neutrally if people didn't act like it was the fucking invention of television. Do give D20 a try if you can! Don't read the articles.

[comradekatara]

hello! I’m rewatching atla atm, and I’m on the s1 finale. I was wondering if you’ve ever imagined what an extra northern water tribe ep could look like? personally I feel like they could’ve easily scrapped the great divide and added another ep to this mini arc, after the ep where katara slays paku. I’m just not sure what the conflict would be. a sokka ep would be great, maybe some of his warrior training & socializing with the average nwt man. the way this could contribute to sokka & masculinity & protection I would Die. ofc more time with yue. but anyway, I’m interested in your thoughts

oh this SUCH a good question!! the nwt is my favorite mini-arc in the show (yue being the absolute scene-stealer that she is) and i have always secretly wanted an extra episode set there, whether by removing “the great divide” (objectively bad episode apart from the aang lying stuff which is great) or by simply adding one extra episode to s1 at no cost.

if i could rework those episodes as self indulgently as possible, i would make “the waterbending master” more katara (and kanna) focused and then make the extra episode more sokka (and yue) focused. yue could still be introduced to us and sokka in that episode, but time spent on sokka’s subplot could instead be afforded to flashbacks of kanna in the nwt. we only get very limited glimpses of kanna, in flashbacks or otherwise, and i think seeing more of her, especially in an episode that sheds so much illuminating light onto her character & thematic role as she informs katara, would have been really cool to see. kanna as a child, giggling with baby yugoda as she would later do with hama. kanna at age 16, looking like a slightly older katara, hesitating over her marriage to a younger pakku, ultimately making a difficult choice. katara’s arc in that episode wouldn’t change (i mean, it’s already so perfect), but for the audience, seeing kanna would help contextualize that chiasmus and further move us.

a common criticism i see from detractors of sokka/yue’s relationship is that it feels too rushed, and i agree to an extent, but we also know that they did develop a sincere friendship during the timeskip between “the waterbending master” and “the siege of the north.” we simply do not know for how long that timeskip actually lasted. we can assume that it was a not insignificant amount of time, considering that katara basically mastered waterbending in that interim, but we never actually see that friendship develop, so to some, it can feel cliched and insincere (because they simply do not understand the power of uhaul lesbianism). so on a very self-indulgent level, i would love to see more of sokka and yue’s relationship development, since we are only privy to the most essential beats (which, granted, we can extrapolate from, but im being selfish rn shut up).

an episode where sokka and yue (both separately and together) comprise the a and b plots (and the c plot can be katara and aang adorable training montage) would be really nice to see, especially, as you said, wrt the gender politics of the nwt. it would be cool to see yue directly interact with arnook and/or hahn to provide a starker contrast between the burdens placed on her as a girl/daughter/wife/princess versus how sokka treats her (because that implication is already crucial, but framing it more overtly would be nice). and then seeing sokka in the throes of his “warrior training” being like “i don’t think any of these dudes have ever actually seen battle…” and having to deal with the tension of being denigrated and disrespected as a southerner, but also clearly having more experience than them and being frustrated by their myopia (realizing that not too long ago, he also had no experience, and oh god is that what he sounded like??????? yes.) .. and then of course sokka and yue together, flirting as “just friends” (over pai sho perhaps????) and being in their own little totally platonic rom com world. but sokka and yue’s relationship is obviously very thematically significant on top of just being lovely and adorable, so using that extra space to explore their parallel commitments to their (patriarchal) Duty, the burdens and expectations placed on them, and how it reflects their societies and the role colonialism plays in shaping them. would love to see it!!!!

[sonicskullsalt]

(be ye warned, long personal ramble ahead)

I found buzzfeed unsolved during the pandemic. I found it weirdly comforting, especially Shane's relaxed and fun way on location. While I don't believe in ghosts, I surely wouldn't enjoy walking through large, dark, and empty buildings at night. So, watching Shane enjoy 'bathing in that darkness and silence' was really cool.

I heard they had started their own yt channel (following the try guys' example) with a third guy called Steven Lim whom I had never heard of before. I started watching Watcher for Shane and Ryan and their fun back and forth.

I loved the Unsolved stuff they still did with Watcher, I loooved Puppet History, I loved Weird and Wonderful World, I loved Ghost Files and Mystery Files, I looooved Too many Spirits.

I really liked the first season of Dish Granted when Steven was trying to create the dishes. When he changed the concept, I was less interested. I've never seen Worth It but I would have given their new version of it a chance. I'm not going to pay a subscription for it.

I could technically afford their subscription, but then there would also be exchange rates for me since I'mwatching from Germany, and when I looked it up, the only payment option is credit card. I only have a prepaid credit card that I only use when I'm travelling or for ONE-TIME payments online when there's no other option. I don't want to keep remembering to put money on the card to pay the subscription.

I also don't want to. I don't have a netflix or amazon subscription, not even a Spotify subscription. I paid Netflix whenever there was a new season of The Crown, because I enjoyed watching it with my parents, and they need the German dub. When we were done watching, I always cancelled netflix again.

(there's a bit more of my rambling after the break)

I also pay amazon for a month whenever the Legend of Vox Machina has a new season. I want to show amazon that it was a great idea to give CR money, and I also enjoy rewatching the eps in several dubs (German, French, Italian). After that, I cancel again.

The only thing I have a regular subscription for is Critical Role. I like watching their stuff on Fridays and over the weekend, and on my own terms. By paying, I'm not bound to the rerun times, I can start and pause and restart and rewatch whenever I want. But the thing is, should I ever stop paying, it would still be available to me. On Fridays with the reruns, and then Monday on , wait for it, Youtube. I'd have to get better at avoiding spoilers, though.

Watcher doesn't give me that option, of watching for free later.

Keith Habersberger over at Try Guys has also recently started eating at Michelin Star Restaurants (in LA). I love watching his content, and to be frank, I like him better than Steven Lim, but that's just my personal taste in people. Keith is another one of my comfort people. And I can (still) watch that for free.

[jajanvm-imbi]

Hazbin Hotel 4 episode premiere review Part 3

Part 1 | Part 2

I got my main criticisms out of the way so now I get to have fun and gush about the stuff I enjoyed and hopefully will continue to enjoy! Because honestly even though I think the writing and pacing are objectively bad, I'm still having fun with this series like I do with Helluva Boss, and its mainly for one reason:

The voice cast is singlehandedly carrying the show.

Viv may not be great at character design or storytelling, but if she's good at one thing she is damn good at casting.

The voice cast is perfect, they all understood the assignment. Like everyone who was saying the new cast was gonna be worse than the pilot cast for the sole reason that they weren't the pilot cast were just flat out wrong. They all ate and are all easily the most enjoyable part of the series.

Erika Henningsen was the perfect choice for Charlie, she fits the role of "Disney Princess in Hell" like a glove. She's bubbly and sweet and excitable and kind! She fits this role way better than she fit the role of Cady in the Mean Girls musical (I said what I said) She sounds so much like Mandy Moore as Rapunzel, another favorite character of mine!

Blake Roman's performance???? As Angel??? Hello sir???? My jaw was on the floor during Angel's scene with Valentino because I was absolutely blown away by his performance. It was heartbreaking and raw and impactful, a stellar performance. I have a good feeling Blake Roman is gonna get the Alex Brightman treatment after this winning combination of his performance as Angel Dust and his Broadway debut in "Harmony: A New Musical". Blake Roman is a STAR

Speaking of Alex Brightman, man do I love his voice. I've been on the Alex Brightman stan train for years now, waaaaaaaaay before Helluva Boss. I've loved Alex Brightman since his performance as Dewy Finn in the School of Rock Musical (which is criminally underrated. There could not have been a better casting decision for Dewy) Hearing Alex Brightman sing a more rock style song for the first time since his School of Rock days was so so wonderful. "Hell is Forever" was the best part of ep 1 there I said it. Not to mention his performance as Sir Pentious is also quite enjoyable. All of his voice work has gotten him so much positive exposure too! I'm so glad he's getting all the love and attention he deserves after being so underrated for so long. Its like the universe is apologizing for kicking Beetlejuice out of the Winter Garden Theater and replacing it with the Music Man and also robbing him of his Tony back in 2019. (Alex Brightman deserved Best Male Lead in a Musical at the 2019 Tony's argue with the wall)

Christian Borle as Vox was such a fun choice! I've also been a Christian Borle stan for many years now, since I listened to the "Legally Blonde" musical for the first time back in 2017 where he played Emmett Forrest. I'm always happy to hear one of my Broadway faves perform in something, and I was thrilled to find out he was going to be part of the cast!

Lili Cooper as Velvette was also a pleasant surprise! She killed it. She's brash and loud and confident and the accent was a nice touch too! Loved her as Sandy in the Spongebob musical, love her as Velvette.

I don't really have much to say about the rest of the main and supporting cast, they all sound great! I can't wait to hear Jeremy Jordan as Lucifer, Leslie Kritzer as Roise and Darren Criss as St. Peter!

And last but not least, Amir Talai as Alastor. Holy shit is he fun! Amir Talai was the voice that inspired Alastor in the first place, so I'm glad they got him in the cast! I kept seeing people say that he wasn't "intimidating enough" as a Alastor and that he was much weaker than Edward Bosco and all I have to say is:

How does it feel to be wrong?

Because Amir Talai ATE THIS UP. He devoured. Not a CRUMB IN SIGHT. I get all giggly when I hear him sing "let's begin", its so playfully sinister and perfect and lovely. Every single line delivery is perfect.

But even with such a spectacularly talented Broadway cast, the decision to make Hazbin a full on musical was.....interesting. Helluva Boss is similar because they have at least one song per episode, but Hazbin has two, and sometimes they're kind of shoehorned in with no buildup. Ep 3 is the biggest offender of this. I enjoyed Lili Cooper singing "Respectless" but the song was unnecessary. Neither one of the songs in ep 3 made any sense and honestly felt like they were there to fill the quota of "two songs per episode". "It Starts With Sorry" in ep 2 was also kinda weird, but not unforgivable.

The best songs so far are easily "Stayed Gone", "Poison" and "Losers, Baby". All three are bangers and everyone slayed. "Happy Day in Hell" is fun, feels like a typical Disney song, and "Hell is Forever" also slaps, but both songs have a lot of unnecessary swearing that throws them off course.

So yep that's pretty much it for my positives about Hazbin! I'll happily keep watching Hazbin just to hear the cast continuing to slay.

[helluvapurf]

-Oop, almost forgot about today being the debut of the newest HB episode "Unhappy Campers" lol Lets talk about it!~ :>

*Spoiler warning ahead for those who didn't see the ep yet-*

Soooo to start things off, lets get to the Positives!

*-M&M get to stand out more in the main A-story for a change, yay! 👏👏And even including a bit of drama for the couple to deal with as they started to clash over their roles in this "mystery"-solving; especially with Millie revealing to carry some insecurities over not feeling "appreciated" outside of a supportive role/killing-machine… poor girl :c Glad to see she was able to have her moment to shine on stage by the end while Moxxie "took care" of their suspect, the gal deserved that time to just let loose on her own, yknow? 🥺

*-The summer camp aesthetic was a fun change of scenery for the story here, and I liked the designs for characters like the blue demon client at the start, alongside Millie & Moxxie's human disguises ("Moxxine" & "Millard"), they were cute~ :3

*-While Blitz didn't play too big of a role here in the long run, his gentle coaxing to his sister Barbie Wire at the end to try and amend things was rather touching to see (not really seeming to mind her pronouncing the "O" in his name either, unlike with other characters)… even if ultimately tragic given her rejection at the end :(. I really hope we get more insight of their family background later, 'cause there's alot of story potential for Blitz to try and face the "shadows" of his past (outside of just general exes-drama), in a meaningful character building way imo 👍

*-Not quiiiite as strong on the humor aspect (which I'll get into in a sec-), but I'll admit there's still some good chuckle-worthy moments like the "kid-stuck-in-a-crater" gag, along with this one still-shot during the Blitz & Moxxie VS Barbie fight lol

*-Nice to see a return of those Asmodean crystals, ever since their cameo in "The Circus" I've always been curious to see them in-action given their role as another portal-making item :o the crystalline-looking portals made from them look so pretty too~

As far as the Negatives of this ep are concerned? …Ehhhh-

*-As much as I enjoyed the M&M spotlight… I'd be lying if I said I didn't find the execution a bit… "clunky" at certain points ^^; Mainly on Moxxie's end 'cause… oof did he feel rather cringey at times, getting randomly hung up about some camp kids not liking him over Millie? :| Like… okay sure, its one thing to criticize her not prioritizing the "investigation" mystery as seriously as she should've… but I mean, you're basically doing the same thing trying to win over everyone as this ditzy teen girl, Moxx so like… who are you to talk? :/ Thankfully he got over that by the end and made things right by his wife but still… smh, dude >>

*-For a character as hyped up as Barbie Wire's been by the fandom since the pilot… I'm surprised that her first-ever reveal is only in the last few minutes of a B-plot? .-. Like… this is the long-lost sister of our main character, mind you, and her presence alone through that one photo in "Ozzie's" was enough to shake up Blitz to the core… so, why wasn't she given more of a major story to come back into her brother's life? 🤷‍♀️ I don't even mind that she's not interested in making amends with him atm (esp. with his stalkerish behavior here I can't really blame her tbh, as much as I love the guy- ^^;), but still…more additional context in-general could've helped make her debut a lil more interesting imo (same with Stella's brother Andrealphus).

*-Humor wise… ehhhhh yeah, some of it didn't really sit right with me tbh :/ Like, okay I get HB's always been a rather "raunchy" show since its inception, and I'm all for some clever adult humor when done right…

…But I mean, did we really need bits like M&M pretending to be "siblings" while disguised (when… idk why they couldn't have just pretended to be a regular teen couple tbh? .-.), only to then having that big "steamy" moment in front of a crowd of campers…? :| Idk, humor IS subjective at the end of the day so, I guess your mileage may vary on some of these joke executions… 🤷‍♀️

*-Pacing felt a bit imbalanced (again), with moments like the big ending fight scene feeling rather… "stiff", in some parts? : o Idk, probably could've benefitted from adding in a few more minutes or something to make it flow a lil better .3.

*-Fun as it was seeing Millie getting her own song for a change (that's not just another love duet with Moxxie)… idk, it admittedly wasn't the most memorable compared to some previous HB songs (minus the lil lyrics popping underneath like a cheesy music video, that was funny lol) 🤷‍♀️That and Moxxie's own "solo" attempt at the campfire scene was… again, cringey (though I think that was the point lol) :P.

-----

…Aaaaand yeah, that about covers my initial first impression thoughts of the ep! If I had to give my own rating again… prooobably somewhere around a C-rank? Again, I still enjoyed the M&M (+mainly Millie's) spotlight overall, but with the rushed-over Barbie Wire addition & some of the cringier humor bits… Iiii just don't know if I'd consider it among my fave eps anytime soon, imho ^^;

[pocketgalaxies]

Hey, you’ve might of already answered this and I missed it, apologies for that, but what is your opinion on the whole Yu and Birdie fight? And how Bells Hells reacted to it? I’ve seen some harsh takes,like, harsh ass takes. And I am wondering what yours is. Again, sorry if you have already answered this.

hello! nobody has asked me this so you're all good!

idk what the harsh takes are but i personally thought it was totally in line with the characters as we know them so far, so i have no complaints dkfjskdf like?? idk i think critical role would not be as successful as it is if these people weren't extremely masterful character creators, and as long as things are in-character there's very little for me to complain about

all this to say i feel pretty neutrally positive about it, kind of just "that happened the way it happened!" and looking forward to seeing more extensive fall-out in upcoming eps, honestly not sure if i have much else to say at this point. i don't have any TAKES per se, just really hoping we get some RP-heavy stuff this week to get a better idea of how everyone is Feeling™? but some rambly thoughts about what happened in general:

in general i think the death wish run did a LOT of work to make bells hells trust yu. she repeatedly showed that she was willing to take huge risks to help bells hells succeed, and i think this ultimately played a big part in preventing the party from immediately turning on them once they revealed their true form (especially imogen and orym)

ashley did such a wonderful job walking the line between "you're my mom, i trust you above all else" and "you're a stranger i haven't seen in 90 years." i made a liveblog post about this too but i think it's interesting to see how fearne was p much paralyzed with indecision, but as soon as she got something out of birdie (read: that she is ruidusborn) that explained her behavior as anything other than intentionally hurtful, she was ready to turn on yu, but she needed that answer first.

imogen's prioritization of information-gathering makes a lot of sense considering that she knows better than most how emotions can bias your actions and perceptions, as well as how your feelings may not always be accurate or fair to the situation. imogen explicitly wanted fearne to have a happy reunion with her mother, and she also had some level of persistent suspicion of yu (from jealousy sure but also from the mind shielding), but she used detect thoughts to get all the info she could first, and that ended up defining her course of action

ashton was very very quiet. but mad at yu for sure. not sure what to make of it yet aside from being very very pissed at a traitor

fcg...i'd have to rewatch to rly confirm this but my initial impression was that fcg did a pretty terrible job picking up on the social subtext of everything that was going on DKFJSDF. sam has been v consistent in showing that there is just Something lacking in fcg's social instincts. everything is a little bit too objective, a little bit too black and white

chetney is consistently morally questionable and willing to make deals with the (proverbial) devil. i still feel like i don't understand this man at all so that's all i have to say at this time

i'm getting tired and i think ppl have written much better meta about orym than i have. something something he feels like he failed himself and will and keyleth 6 years ago and he was not willing to let it happen again

i wrote a little about laudna in yesterday's gifset but basically she just made me Sad. the use of bane to de-escalate was really interesting on marisha's part and in general i think laudna is extraordinarily non-confrontational and also was completely panicking. the helpless confused "agh!"s as she presses her hands into her eyes and summons the shadows onto a person that she loves. it made me very sad.

anyway hope this was fun to read i'm not going to proofread it so sorry if it's nonsense but long story short i don't have any particular takes about it at all, let alone harsh ones dkdkfjskdjfs

if you want to read more smarter neutrally positive analyses you can go in my #cr meta tag! there are some posts about yu and birdie in there too since i am too tired to put them here rn lmaooo

[valkyrieandstrangeridingaragorn]

For record I am not think that mcu women phase 4 writing as Angel that can't be blamed or do wrong.

My problem that a few of them look like replacing man for future projects, I meant beside Wanda, layla (moon knight) , yelena, Ms marvel. The rest look likely will replacing the men like Hawkeye, ant man, hulk, thor (well not really because Jane is dead), loki, black panther, iron man and from phase 1-3.

Now before you saying I overreaching or whatever , I am a women myself and as I like heroine, I more like if they make themselves new name for them and not taking from men.

Well it's more like I sick heard some toxic feminism that saying 'we no need man and men are useless' yet they so happy female characters replacing male characters that mens bulid from zero.

Sorry for rant it's just so far next gen hero from phase 1-3 are domains by women, while I like many female hero I want to new young male hero, so far only spider-man that male hero

I see what you mean but as long as they write those women as interesting and compelling characters I can look past it. Take Kate Bishop for instance, the Hawkeye series was meant to introduce her as Clint's replacement but her character was interesting enough that her role as a "female Hawkeye" wasn't a problem, she was her own person and she just happened to be really good with a bow and arrow.

I can't speak for Cassie or Jen as I haven't seen Quantumania or She-Hulk, but Jane's role in Thor was super weird to me: she wasn't a female Thor at all no matter how much Taika insisted on it. Sylvie's problem is that she's bland and entirely one-dimensional but I have to say I disagree about Black Panther, Shuri is not just T'Challa's replacement, she's her own character and she's absolutely amazing in WF. And Riri was nice too but she was on screen for a short period of time, we're gonna need more time with her.

But truth be told, when I hear the idea that women are replacing the men now I can't help but think, well... maybe the men were replacing the women in previous phases too. In the OG Avengers and Guardians we only had one woman respectively and it took the MCU 10 years to let a woman lead a film.

That toxic feminism you mention is definitely a problem but I really don't see it taking over the MCU at all. We saw that in the Loki series but I can't remember any other movie or series doing that same thing except for that scene in the first ep of She-Hulk but I only ever saw gifs of that scene so I don't have the context. Either way, even if they handled that wrong in that show as well, that's just two series out of 18 movies/series/specials in Phase Four. It helps put things into perspective, don't you think?

I'm not trying to defend the Phase, you know I'm extremely critical of it and the quality went down so quickly after Phase 3 that it almost feels like they suddenly forgot how to write characters. But the problem is not feminism or the female characters, it's more of a general issue of disdain and apathy coming from Feige and the execs. The whole "Phase Four is all about representation" is no more than a shield to defend themselves from criticism and a way to convince their fanboys that anyone who doesn't like what they're releasing is a bigot.

[tuiyla]

NATLA Ep. 1 "Aang" thoughts

It might not be the Avatar but it's still an Avatar show which means I'm giving it the respect of not doing anything else while watching, so I'm not gonna liveblog, as such. BUT, I do have many many thoughts after just episode 1 so before I proceed I'm gonna digest a bit and do a word vomit of those thoughts. Maybe I'll get around to a more in-depth and critical examination later after watching the whole thing but for now, a few thoughts here and there. Spoilers inbound.

The opening

The first huge difference is of course how the whole thing kicks off. Trust me, despite having been a huge ATLA fan for over 15 years I'm not trying to approach this in a way where I automatically shit on everything the new show changes. It's a different era, different medium, different audience. Well, in a way. So some changes are outright necessary and, in some cases, even good! Therefore I don't automatically roll my eyes because we don't open with Katara's narration and the Southern Water Tribe. Modern audiences, Netflix audiences are more fantasy savvy than Nick's target audience in 2005 so it makes sense to open with the war's beginning. I'll even take the Sozin scene, though it feels a bit wrong, in a way, to introduce a character like him so early on. I wanted to say, without much sense of threat, too, but it's not live action movie Ozai levels bad and we do get our arguably most brutal scene when Sozin straight up burns an earthbender from pretty much inside out. This level of violence is something I'll perhaps get into more in another post but long story short, I think it's the right amount. This ain't a Nick cartoon anymore but it's also not gratuitous. What it is, is war.

Part of the opening is the intro, of sorts, a twist on the beloved opening sequence as narrated by Katara. The twist itself, I'm okay with, but I have Feelings on Kyoshi being our narrator that are again for a more in-depth look. In short, it makes no thematic sense for it to be the Avatar from before the last to narrate this. I know Kyoshi is the fan favourite, pun intended, but that's all the justification they have. If anyone other than Katara, who is done dirty by taking her narration away btw, it should be Roku. You know, the actual last Avatar? Having it be Kyoshi is fan service as much fans are symbolic of her. Bad pun, I know. I haven't seen ep 2 yet but do tell me we're shifting to Katara, pls pls pls. Another gripe I have is the title, "Aang", since the OG show has such beautiful symmetry with its first and last ep titles but this is a nitpick. Also, nothing to indicate that this is the season of water? Titling the seasons after the elements matters very much.

And then, just when I think we're jumping to 100 years later, we meet Aang. I'm already going into more detail with thoughts here than I intended but I just do not like how we drag this on and on. Show Aang's backstory and the details of the attack later, mid-season. Yes, like the original did it, because the original did it for a reason and that's to not info dump in the very first episode and have sloppy exposition that would have felt more natural had it been delayed for later. We don't need to know everything about the world and the role of the Avatar right away. I do like how the Aang and Gyatso relationship was established but we didn't need All That, and we could have had the vast majority if not all of this as a flashback later on. Random idea, but maybe even in the episode where Zuko's backstory is covered. I'm really innovating here, I know. I'll explain why this was too much in another post, maybe, but for now I'll say the positive that I do think these scenes are done well, I just don't like their placement. And I don't like what we're doing to Aang's ch in terms of his responsibility and role so far, such as him not actually wanting to Run Away run away, but I'll wait and see where they take him for the rest of the season.

Wolf Cove

Omg what, the Southern Water Tribe? Finally. The ch who started off the whole thing in the OG appears 21 minutes into this episode, almost the length of an entire ATLA ep. So far, the sibling dynamic is Fine. Again a bit too heavy on the exposition but what can you do when you cut Katara's opening narration about their family and tribe. Some things I take issue with include the way Katara breaks the iceberg open, i.e. lack of feminist rage and in general her lack of strong presence in this first installment. It feels like they're trying to give Sokka more but you can showcase Sokka without making it feel like Katara is less of a presence, less of a driving force, and frankly more of a kid than she is in the OG. I do like her and the actress, her interactions with Aang and role in the story just feel lacking so far. And then they actually include her intro word for word, just said by Gran Gran! Like yeah we know Katara tells the story like Gran Gran told her but damn, straight up theft.

I'm also not satisfied with Kanna's place in the story. Her breaking the news to Aang feels flat and devoid of the tension that was present in the OG where Aang and Katara put two and two together on their own. Also no goodbye to Gran Gran? No big sendoff to her grandkids? No speech about destiny? Disappointing. What is done well is the sense of dread when the Fire Nation ship arrives at the village and Zuko's whole entrance, that's good. But again, he and Iroh give away way too much way too early about his mission and banishment and such. You guys, you have a whole season to get into it, why rush. I have a fear as to why they're rushing but we'll see. It just feels like a rookie mistake to try and shove so much into the first ep. We get it, the world is so much bigger and these chs so much richer than they first seem but that's the point, the audience will watch and learn as the season goes on. Just because Avatar has all this lore way beyond the first installment doesn't mean we have to go back to Wan and explain everything before we can head to the North Pole. I joke and exaggerate, but there were times I rolled my eyes at the dialogue. Again, not Shymalan levels bad but that is not where the bar should be.

Overall

I have less to say about the Southern Air Temple as it is quite brief, all things considered and because we already got so much of it before even making it to the present. I do think it's funny people thought the live action would let the story breathe more just because the eps are longer because look, here we are, three 23 minutes eps shoved into less than an hour with expanded stuff from the very beginning. This is not it breathing more because there aren't 20 eps to work with. They have a lot of content to get through and as a viewer you can feel it, which doesn't bode well. The whole script does have this first/second draft smell which is sus, when this thing has been in development since at least the end of 2018 and the OG eps it's based on just turned 19. Yeah, that's right, nineteen.

As for things like the visuals, the costumes, the acting, the score, bending, I think it'll make more sense to pass a judgement at the end of the season. Besides, what I'm most interested in is the script and I don't pretend to know much about things like costuming. First impression, it looks good. CG is a bit stifled at times but I like how oversaturated it often is, especially with the nations' colours. It's probably the closest we'll ever get to Avatar in live action and I'm okay with that, since I still believe they should stick to animation anyway. But yeah, good. Nothing mindblowing and bending so far but I'd also rather it didn't try to razzle dazzle with just flashy CGI and no substance. As is, there's not too much substance so far anyway so I'm waiting for subsequent eps to be more confident in what they're doing, whether that's building on or steering from the source material.

[thatbitchsimone]

I agree, the idol does not deserve the shit it’s getting. Like wtf why are we sooo sensitive to art these days. Art is supposed to bring up intense feelings and address difficult subjects. That’s literally it’s purpose! Just watched ep 2 and it was amazing. I think it depicts female trauma in such a raw, brutal and beautiful way. Lily is so good. Rachel sennott is too. Rlly excited to see where it goes.

havent watched ep 2 yet but like i do get why a lot of ppl might not like it like there are plenty of fair criticism of it imo like i get why ppl think its pretentious (it is) and i get why ppl think its lowkey annoying and cringy and tryhard to jam in as much nudity as possible just for some sort of edgyness factor (it is) and i totally get that ppl are getting sick of sam levinson and his style (we all have a bit of euphoria fatigue at this point lol) so like ofc i think there are very fair reasons behind thinking its trash. like ofc it wont be everyones cup of tea. and yeah sam levinson gives off sleazy pretentious asshole vibes. hes a man. in the film industry. duh. ofc we wont like him as a person lol but he can still make interesting shows

i just think the moral outrage is bizarre. like i dont understand the controversy. i dont understand how its more controversial and offensive then most other shows on HBO. like really what is the big deal like whats the actual issue? i rly feel like ive missed something tbh bc i cant figure it out. maybe theres been some inside drama within the production? idc about that tho as long as theres no abuse going on bc i know what its like to work with a crew and be part of film productions and the dynamics (nowhere near this huge level tho lol on a waaay smaller scale ofc since i was just a film student in school making school productions) and there is always head butting and conflict and stress and some disagreements like thats natural like ive had screaming matches with dudes in my class during filming for stupid little differences in how to go about certain scenes and shots etc but thats nothing imo as long as it works out in the end and no one gets harmed. but as a viewer i just focus on the end product aka the show/movie in itself not the production side of it like that very rarely plays a role in how i form an opinion on a show or movie or my enjoyment of it

also i have a huge crush on rachel sennott and i had no idea she was in the cast so i was very pleasantly surprised when i saw her lol like even if the show turns out to suck ill still watch just to get me some rachel time sorry not sorry

[grigori77]

Critical Role, Campaign 3 Episode 61

Nord VPN Again? Oh boy ... Sam once again trying to get a French accent to work ... MacBooks? Oh yeah ... XD ... actually that's fucking hilarious ... everybody rlse is dying at the poetic irony and I'm with them ... wait, was that a Holy Grail joke, Matt? And ... "Matt ... Mac to you." ROFL

Yup, I loved firs ep of Candela Obscura ... more to come end of month? Nice. Looking forward to it.

"The three moods of Matt" ... snort ...

Awwwww ... Travis wishing the others good luck before the titles ... that's so sweet ... :3

Oh ... the tension, the tension! Here we go ... so nervous ...

Already set up and ready to go ... ROLL FOR INITIATIVE!!! AAAAAAAAAAAHHH!!!

OF COURSE Orym is first out the gate ... this wee man and his ridiculous MIN-MAXED stats ... ACTION SURGE GO!!! Yeah ... wait ... TUG O WAR? How ... oh SWEET ROLL Liam! Kick that ass! And the Fancy Boots! Nice ...

Ashton going full Rainbow Dash ... scary and adorable both ... 23 to hit? Wow ... throwing knife ... 9 damage! First blood!

Indomitable? Oooooooh ... oh ... hmmm ... ouch ... wait, PARALYSED?!!! Gah!

Rage! Yes! Deni$e power in! Do it, girl! And she STILL can't hit? Hmmm ... hold action? Yes! Do that!

Form of Dread! Yeah, Laudna! I love that shit ... unhinged Jaws ... AH YEAH!!! HELLO BEES AGAIN!!! XD Damn right that guy starts screaming! Poisoned AND he falls down the stairs? Sweet ...

WHOA!!! Earth Elemental? Awesome! Oh and ... wow, AND it's being supercharged by the Solstice too! Crazy! BOOM!!! Trash that door! Yeah!

Yes! The way is open! GOOOOOOOO!!!

Fuck, this thing is doing unhinged amounts of wreckage all on its own ...

Prism! Oh yeah, this should be impressive in a scary way like always ... a SIMPLE Chromatic Orb? REALLY?!!! XD ... 23! Wow ... and now tome for MATH ... 25 Force Damage! Broken concentration ... YES!!! Our boys are FREE again!

Dinios hating being called "Daddy" ... XD ... especially a LEATHER Daddy ...

Gah! The soldiers! Hmmm ... how long before they start shitting themselves? Oh, and they're already freaking out, at least ...

NO!!! Not the nerdy girl! Back off, you asshat!

Ouch ... Orym takes a hit ... oh, Silvery Barbs! Nice one, Laudna!

Emily: "Damn, how many guards ARE THERE?"

The vial of blood? Hmmm ...

Bor'Dor's turn ... "I don't wanna ride an ox!" XD Wait ... he's seriously gonna climb onto the Elemental? Yeah ... that didn't work at all ... he has no more movement, so he just turns to the townsfolk and shouts: "STORM THE GATE!!!" instead ...

No! Not the Judicator! Aaaaaaaah!

GO OFF DENI$E!!! Nice! Way to Crit, Aimee! Second hit ... 18! Wait ... that DOESN'T HIT?!!! Seriously? Fucking magic ...

Oh fuck, and now it's gonna hit right back ... Ow! Fuck! Bonus action ... SMITE?!!! AHHHH!!! Oh fuck ... NICE SAVE, Aimee ... and then OW AGAIN!!! And the hits keep coming ... Condemnation? WHAT?!!! Fucking uppercut ... oh fuck that was AWFUL ... and now she's PARALYSED?!!! Fuck ...

Angry mob! Crowd crush! Do something, civilians! Wow, they really were largely useless ...

Yes, Orym can salvage this debacle! And the freakishly agile halfling is an acrobatic BADASS!!! Hit! Yes! POW! And his wisdom beats hers so NICE!!! And he gets to reroll that missed attack? Nice ... oh, and Orym is just OWNING this fight! Beautiful ...

Ashton powers through and uses the Elemental as a springboard ... 20! Yeah! Batter the soldier? Yeah, do it! Boom! Oh yeah ... FUCK!!! Fill Gallagher on the guard! Ouch ... znd now they have some murder blood! Nice! Znd now he just keeps on swinging ... "You are SO FUCKED!!!" Oh yeah, Taliesin is just throwing fucking ROCKS tonight!

What us she doing? Oh shit ... scary manifestation ... a Guardian of Faith? AAAAAAAAAAAHHH!!! Freaky glowing giant spectral guard! Ah!

Still frozen, Deni$e just curses them all out ...

Okay then ... is it Laudna to the rescue, then? Come on Marisha, do something awesome ... dos Eldritch Blasts at the Judicator! And ... well, at least the first one hits. Nuts ...

So ... Abbadina to the rescue then? Casts Blight in Kiro ... well OKAY!!! Yeah girl! Oh fuck, yeah ... that REALLY sounds PAINFUL!!!

Holt fuck ... Guardian versus Elemental! Boom! Utkarsh: "Let them fight!"

"Stand near for protection"? Hmmm ...

Wait ... "enlarge" Mother and have her carryDeni$e into the sky? Really? Matt: "You could TRY." Oh boy ... and so instead Emily has an even MADDER plan ... oh, this is gonna be fantastic or gods-awful ...

Shit roll for the first half ... oy ... and yet STILL 23 damage? Not bad, then ... and WOW that does some fucking DAMAGE ... but not on the Guardian ...

The pillars are protective? Oh ... is THAT what the Elemental meant?

The laxatives are kicking in! Yes! Nice! Shit yourselves into incapacity! Their armour is FILLED!!! Cue some truly vile and thoroughly hilarious diarrhoea humour ... XD

So they're poopy but still trying to attack? Hmmm ...but they're all poisoned do it's just PATHETIC ... wow, and they are just rolling shite (pun entirely intended).

Bor'Dor's turn again ... here we go at last, then? Let our boy kick some arse ... and so he's gonna try and STAB HER IN THE NECK and shoot her in the back WITH THE CFOSSBOW at the same time ... Luck? NAT 20!!! NICE!!! He crits so he gets to DOUBLE the damage ... fuck ... nice one, and Kiro us now FUCKED UP!!! And ANOTHER 20?!!! Holy shit ...and he gets the HDYWTDT!!! Beautiful! Oh yeah, she is SO dead ...

Prism: "You should have said - Dawnfather? More like GONE-Father."

Silvery Barbs TURNS THE HIT INTO A MISS!!! YES!!! Nice one, Laudna!

NOOOOOOO!!! Leave the Dead Girl alone! Oh thank fuck ...

And now Deni$e can move again ...

Oh crap ... and the mob are just running headlong into a slaughter ... oof ... Bor'Dor is horrified and i don't blame him.

Oh boy, when the whole table starts leaning in YOU KNOW it's getting heavy ...

Orym pulls Bait & Switch on Prism and protects her ... wow, and she just FALLS IN LOVE on the spot, clearly ... :3

Throat slash? Yeah, go for it ... botched roll? Crap ... and the second misses too ... yeah, she's Raging but she's still rattled ... oh, the whip? Okay ... 21 hits! Finally! Wait ... on, so she DID hit both times? Holy fuck ... love Ashton's sweet Dunamantic powers ... and that guy is DONE!!! Yesssssss ...

Wait ... is Laudna LOSING IT? Delilah? Oh fuck no ... whoa ... a Hound of Ill Omen? HOLY SHIT ... and that is TERRIFYING ... and BANE!!! Yessssss! Go off, girl! Cue Dark Knight Bane impressions around the table ... XD

The night mare Hound is gonna SHRED that Judicator 13 piercing damage! Yes! Fuck him up!

Mirror Image? Oh NICE SAVE Marisha!

Abbadina wants them ALIVE? Marisha: "Perhaps she should have clarified that before."

She tries to trash the Judicator ... damn, not quite ...

Elemental attacks the guard ... Nat20? Oh yeah he just gets PASTED ... ouch ... and now unconscious, he shits himself ... yup ...

And then the Elemental bitchslaps the Judicator ... Nice!

Oh shit, what's THIS?!!! Is that a fucking ANGEL?!!! Seriously, Matt? And it attacks Ashton AND Prism ... BOTH hit? NOOOOO!!!

Fuck that's a lot of Radiant damage ...

Fiery Castigation? What the FUCK?!!!

Orym is restrained AND taking Radiant damage? Fuck ...

Oh gods yes ... SUMMON THE DEMON!!! DO IT NOW!!!

Summon Greater Demon ... and she does it so it DROPS ON THE ANGEL ... holy shit ... AND Matt has the correct miniature too ...

Oh yeah, ten foot drop onto the angel and it's punching all the way ... this is gonna be hilarious and HORRIBLE and I'm all the way here for it ...

The demon has Initiative ... AND it's up next! Wow ... irony ...

Reckless Attack! Yeah! Big hit on the first, but the rest miss ... hmmm ... less spectacular than expected ...

Soldier attempts to intervene, sees what's happening, shits himself ON THE SPOT znc just HIDES. And then thd rest very much follow hid example ... oh yeah, they bolting ...

Bor'Dor casts Lightning Bolt on the Judicator. "You hurt my friend!" POW!!! Only half damage, but ... 7? Eh ... so unfair ...

He backs off. Smart move. Boy is FREAKED ...

Hound mauls the Judicator! It fudges the attack on Ashton at least, with an assist from Prism ...

NOW we're checking on how messed up we all are? Really?

The mob returns, cutting off retreat ... Best not do anything more, folks!

Second Wind! Nice ... Orym gets dome hit points back ... Seedling! Miss, miss ... HIT!!! Yes ... Goading Attack! Nice ...

Ashton charges the Judicator ... 30? Oh that DEFINITELY hits ... it's looking fucked up, at least it's STARTING to work ...

Deni$e flanks the Judicator for advantage ... sneak attacks? Nice ... 16 damage on the first ... 14 on the second ... and then she disengages ... smart ...

Eldritch Blasting the Judicator ... one hit ... 10 damage ... hmmm ... then she sets the Hound on it again ... NAT20?!!! SWEET!!!

Abbadina realising she's out of her depth ... wait, MASS CURE WOUNDS?!!! Holy shit! Unfortunately Deni$e is out of range ... bugger ...

Elemental blows its attacks on the Judicator ... crap ...

The Angel casts some freaky beam spell znd Matt rolls a SHITLOAD of dice ... Taliesin: "Oh, that is NOT a good sound!" Fuck! Abbadina takes a hit ... and now the Elemental is OUT OF CONTROL!!! Crap!

Like any good wizard, Prism I'd going to go big rather than go home ... the book turns into THE GLAIVE FROM KRULL!!! That is SO fucking sweet! Both the Angel AND the Judicator take serious hits. NICE!!!

Bloody hell, Emily is folling MAD nice right now ...

Yup, Demon is FUCKING THAT ANGEL UP!!!

Last soldier tries go shoot Prism but he is a MESS ... thank the gods for disadvantage right now ...

Bor'Dor using the pillars to enhance his abilities ... hmmmm ... "Fuck it, just GO!!!" Oh yeah, this is gonna be AWESOME, I just know it ... Lightning Bolt at 4th Level on the Angel ... NINE D6? Bloody hell ... 25 damage! Fuck ...

The Judicator attacks Ashton ... Dreadful Misfortune? Oh, that sounds NASTY ... bollocks ... it tries to attack ITSELF and MISSES!!! FUCK!!!

FOUR Attacks of Opportunity? TWO of them get the HDYWTDT on the Judicator ... oh thank FUCK, finally ... so the Hound and the Demon TRASH the fucker, and then they FISTBUMP!!! Awesome ... and then thd Hound dissipates ... awww ... znd now the Demon is CRYING over that bromantic bonding moment ...

Wait ... A MID COMBAT BREAK?!!! Are you KIDDING ME?!!!

Back into it, then...

Orym is OVERWHELMED ... so he just runs to the Demon and CLIMBS ONTO ITS BACK!!! Bloody hell, you mad Little Man ...

Ashton is TRYING TO COMMUNICATE WITH the Elemental ... oh boy ... and it grabs him ... and YEETS HIM AT THE ANGEL!!! VALIDATION!!! YES!!!

Taliesin was gonna go Reckless anyway so he does BOTH attacks ... and he rolls a CRITICAL HIT!!! Oh shit ... a BRUTAL Critical! Holy fuck ...

THIRTY POINTS OF DAMAGE!!! He fucking SMASHES those sings on the ascent! AND 26 TO HIT ON THE WAY BACK DOWN!!! Bloody hell ...

Fifty feet to the ground? Ouch ... yeah, Ashton just FACEPLANTS ... fucking hell ... he's conscious, but prone, and A MESS ...

Deni$e us now ON THE DEMON along with Orym ... wow ... and now they're BOTH holding their actions.

What the hell is Laudna doing ... oh THAT is NICE!!! I like that. And then she fireballs the ceiling above it? Okay ...

It's the Elemental's turn? Oh boy ... it's climbing the pillar! Okay, then ...

Counterspell! Nice save AGAIN Laudna! That was almost AWFUL ...

Prism giving the Demon a cute little pep talk is SENDING me ... and then she NAT1's the Chromatic Orb ... oof ...

Up the Demon goes ... all right, here we go ... ATTACK!!! YES!!! Fuck him up!

Orym hits on the first but misses the second ... Deni$e gets her first hit in ... BEAUTIFUL!!! Yeah ... here we go ... 25 damage ... one more attack ... misses! Argh ...

Demon is now trying to GRAPPLE the Angel! Roll good, Em! YES!!! THAT'S IT!!! And the Angel is DOWN!!! Sweet!

And now we're all singing SOAD's Chop Suey ... I'm living my best life tonight, I really am ...

Okay, so what is Bor'Dor gonna do THIS time? Oh my gods ... he marches up to the Angel, grabs its head and casts Inflict Wounds at 5th Level! Bloody hell ... dice maths ... 36 points of Necrotic damage and he gets the HDYWTDT!!! Oh my gods!

He kisses its forehead, whispers: "Enough." and KILLS IT. Badass, totally ...

So that's that ... okay ... and thd second Judicator just WALKS AWAY?!!! Holy fuck ... and then the Elemental just crushes the Demon into a little sphere! Nice and clean ...

Orym has a look at the dead Judicator's face under the mask ... or not. That is NOT coming off, clearly ...

Laudna trying to stare Abbadina down in her fading Form of Dread and she's just totally unfazed ...

Yup, as reckonings go this is actually pretty chill ...

Is there ANYTHING left to loot? Lots of coffers with a shitload of coin ...

Oh, the Angel's sword? Okay ... in the Hole with that then ...

Way to bring down the house, Abbadina. Nice little victory.

Ashton stops Prism short of starting to toss money out of the Hole to the people around them. Yeah, that's about right.

Orym is having something of a crisis right now, it seems ...

Okay ... so ... I'd this gonna turn ugly now? Oh no, they're just leaving. Thank fuck for that ... and yeah, this kid CLEARLY needs a good talking to.

Yes, come on, GET WITH THE HEALING already. Thank fuck ...

Ah, NOW it's a party. That's more like it.

Wow ... Bor'Dor's having MASSIVE PTSD from killing the Angel now ... yeah, reckon that WAS a bit much for him.

So they're giving the cash away, then? Yup. That's probably the right move. And Abbadina's totally making a big show of this too. Well, this is a pretty magnanimous gesture from our crew ...

Oh yeah, this old girl is TIRED.

Doesn't Orym ALWAYS look UP to Laudna? XD

Laudna really is just GOING THROUGH IT right now, and Orym gets it. Damn it guys, you're gonna make me cry if you keep this up ...

I love these two so much, I really do ...

Utkarsh: "Make a perception check ... SURE, I've got jerky." XD

So, what ... is this the start of some full-blown UPRISING?!!! Against Vasselheim? :/

Orym: "I don't know an Eidolon from eyeliner." Prism: "Oh, well I could show you how to do that, I think you'd look really fantastic in it."

Wait ... is Deni$e FLIRTING with Abbadina now? Ah ... no, she just doesn't want her disappearing on them. So she tucks her into her bed so much she turns the Goliath into a burrito ... XD

Ashton: "That was literally my worst nightmare." Laudna: "What? Pick a part of the evening. Yhe shi tin armour?" Ashton: "Weirdly, that wasn't my first shit in armour."

Bor'Dor goes looking for Orym, she's hiding in a tree. Utkarsh rolls BALLS. "Okay ... I THINK about going to look for Orym."

Does Orym believe in the gods? Of course he does, because they exist. He just doesn't CARE about them. He only cares about his family, and his friends.

Oh yeah, Bor'Dor is having a full on existential crisis over this whole situation ...

Go wash your hands, damn it! No pinkeye!

Old Magic. Old ANTI-Magic.

So it's basically some kind of religious land grab? That is fucked up ...

Ooh! Breakfast! Goody ...

Oh, does Abbadina maybe know something about Ashton's ... condition? No. Seems not. Hmmm ... the Spirits? What the hell's THAT all about ...

Marisha: "Marisha AND Laudna both chuckle at that."

Okay, getting to the Scrying! Here we go ...

Yeah, STRAIGHT to check on the rest of the Hells ... snow? Hmmm ... oh, is that Deanna? Okay, here we go, then ... and FRIDA ... znd there we go! There they are. Chetney, Imogen, Fearne, FCG ... everybody's alive ... but then we already KNEW that ... XD

And now they know they're on SEPARATE CONTINENTS right now ...

She knows who could help? Okay then ... Hevestro? An ARCH druid ... hmmm ...

Abbadina: "If you could somehow make everyone in Vasselheim shit their britches, there is no amount of gold we could offer that would make up for it." LOL

Pieces of hair? What's THAT all about?

Oh for the gods' ... is that dwarf who I think it is? Oh yeah, that is TOTALLY Dariax ... oh wow, is Deni$e PINING?!!! Wait ... oh my fucking ... DORIAN!!! Hey! OM-fucking-G!!!

Bor'Dor doesn't have anything of his brother's? Awwww ... trying his dagger then ... hmmm ... oh, so this is Bor'Dor's home? Cute ... but nothing more than a snapshot, really ... it's sad, really.

I vote for the canyon. Vasselheim sounds less than really overly wise. Especially after what they just did ...

An eidolon guide? Ooh, bonus! A cougar? Awesome! Cue jokes about sexually predatory older women. XD

Heading out into the day, then. And that's that. All for the night. Good place to call it, definitely ...

Gods know this was an EXHAUSTING episode. I'm glad we're in a good place now.

[mintywolf]

A Long Road Home - Author Notes

Page 4

As previously mentioned, I hope the desperation of her intent is clear enough here. There’s a limited number of things you can do in a river with your pockets full of rocks.

I’d intentionally meant to avoid the trope of Imogen hearing literal music in her head whenever Laudna is around but now because the order of events got shuffled around I have introduced her . . . singing, haha. D: It will come up again in conversation later so I’m not too bothered about it though.

From Imogen’s description (from Ep. 6: “It was there, she was there, but she was almost like a different pitch than everybody else. It was musical, it wasn't painful like everybody else.”) I’d always interpreted it as Laudna’s mind resonating at a slightly different frequency than everyone else’s, and in a way that happens to harmonize with Imogen’s own mind rather than clashing with it, so she finds it soothing rather than painful. Why this happens isn’t ever explained but I’m kind of feral about it because all of the possibilities have interesting implications. 

It could just be that she’s dead-ish and therefore there’s a kind of grave peace to her mind that fully alive people’s minds don’t have. It could also be that they’re soulmates, so naturally Laudna’s mind is the one that resonates with Imogen’s. And it could also be that Laudna is simply neuroatypical, so her mind just feels different than any Imogen had encountered before.

There is a lot of suggestion in Marisha’s portrayal of her (on top of Imogen’s implication that her brain is somehow fundamentally different than most) that Laudna is some unspecified flavor of neurodiverse: difficulty reading social situations and knowing how to behave accordingly (e.g. at a funeral), weird interests and hobbies, very fidgety, repetitive physical quirks, etc. And she mentions that she was the town weirdo even before she died so it wasn’t just the 30 years of solitude that made her That Way. It’s not said outright, but the Critical Role cast is really good about, rather than like stating up front “Here’s our token disabled/autistic/LGBT/other ‘trendy’ minority character, whose entire personality is that they are that thing!” (the Glee approach), having these traits be just facets of complex characters that are revealed naturally through roleplay.

So it’s not confirmed canon, but I really love the idea of Imogen coming in contact with a neurodivergent brain for the first time, and finding it beautiful and soothing rather than awkward or annoying or frightening (as everyone else has throughout Laudna’s entire life). It makes particular sense if you interpret Imogen as neurodiverse as well (there are some hints with her too), both of their brains are weird! That’s why they resonate together!

[laranjafox]

[en/pt]

(intro)

Halloween it's gone, but there's always time to horror 🤭

• Enigma (2023) [+13] [th] [4 eps]

[intro]

This series is impeccable, the story is excellently written, there are no holes, but there's mystery, all elements seems to be connected and were chosen because of their meaning, every pace is well thought out 🤌

Particularly is the kind of genre combo that I love: magic and mystery, it also includes horror, it isn't necessarily scary, but its goal is to horrify you, to scandalize and criticize aspects of society.

[comments; spoiler]

And I love how absurd is the students dying and the girls speculating about their lives, judging and condemning them as if what they said was true, like they just died? Instead of thinking about what lead them to attack the teacher, they blame on the ones who died, okay they're high schoolers, but even the ones considered adults weren't dealing with it in the proper way and as long as I know the students were most of legal age, so.. a critical thinking is good uh?! everyone was just concerned about tests, studying all day, inhumans, an insensible scholar society where only Fa and Ajin were aware, although having different purposes, so it's just them against the world, this world being the school, their battle field was there.

The scenes of exorcism are terrific, Prim and Win acting is excellent, the acting of eveyone is excellent, I love the Prigkhing's witch 🤭 Yiwha attacking Ajin 😂 and Namsine's actress Piploy, she was fantastic representing the hate and pain.

Of course, the crew is essential to the result too, one of the directors, Pat, made Why You... Y Me, the other, O Phat, made The Gifted and F4 Thailand, that involves fight and supernatural and he's the one listed as the director of the sequel, so I keep my hopes high that the quality will be kept the same or better, but I don't about the rest, if the producers will be the same, Namtan and Bright show up in the last episode indicating that they'd appear more times, buuut in mydramalist Toey is listed as main role, so it changes what I thought the sequel would be, before then I thought that Namtan character would be a main role and Fa would go after Ajin, since she knows where he is, but now that I know there's going to be another main character I think Fa won't appear, she's was a stage in Ajin path to find enigma, but in this part Namtan may be a kind of main role, the thing is that she's not listed in the second season, so I don't know. And what about Bright, that left GMMTV? Will he still participate? I just hope the sequel release before the middle of the year TT 🙏

[pt]

• Enigma (2023) [+13] [th] [4 eps]

[comentários]

O que tenho a dizer:

CA-RA-LHO, bom dimais, seloko!

Cinematografia impecável, sabe? Tudo! Ângulos ótimos, luzes e sombras de dar gosto, montagem dos cenários muito bem pensada, o tipo da filmagem, incrível, tudo incrível!

Eu senti arrepios algumas vezes assistindo essa série, os sentimentos que a série proporciona te põe junto da "aventura" delus, eu amei.

Eu amei a Fa, é uma personagem inteligentíssima, esperta, trunqueira, meio petulante, tipo a personagem da Prim em F4 Thailand, e a química dela com o Win é fantástica, grandes atories né 💁

Confesso que no começo eu fiquei "ah, não vai ter romance entre elus, Win vai ser professor e a Prim é estudante de ensino médio 😄 NÉ? 😀" Mas daí Ajin fala numa hora que Fa deve agir como adulta, já que é uma adulta, então entendi que ela seria maior de idade, o que acalmou meu coração.

[spoiler]

A cena do exorcismo de Fa foi assim in-tensa, minha respiração acompanhava a dela, impressionante, as transições extraordinárias 👌 afe, incrível demais. A cena do exorcismo de Ajin também foi fenomenal, aliás louco né? Eu entendo que o Ajin deve ter considerado ser a melhor opção ele absorver o treco, que não sei se era um espírito ou sei lá o quê, porque talvez a Namsine ia morrer quando entrasse nela, mas assim, o cara cheio dos truques no corpo dele, além de ter um corpo forte e resistente, acostumado com efeitos de magia e tals e a Fa nem tinha os conhecimentos exatos pra exorcizar, podia ter dado muito ruim.

Outras cenas que acho deslumbrantes são a do feitiço de cegueira, onde tudo fica escuro, a transição de cores acho muito legal. Também a cena delus voando pro edifício elefante ficou muito boa, as cores do céu belíssimas, o vento nos cabelos, a posição delus no ar pareceu natural até, é difícil parecer que está flutuando ou voando no ar sendo que na verdade você não tá, a força que tá agindo sobre teu corpo não é do ar e sim dos cintos que te prendem pra te levantar.

No fim eu senti demais pela Fa, eu senti que escalonou um pouco rápido demais, eu entendo a parte dela querer viver com Ajin para querer aprender mais sobre magia, que era algo que ela sonhava quando mais nova, mesmo sendo diferente e ela se deu muito bem com isso, ela podia ter ficado admirada com esses conhecimentos de um mundo paralelo ao qual ela vivia, mas daí ela falar que queria seguir com ele, porque tinha se apaixonado por ele e ele era a resposta para a falta de vontade dela em seguir uma profissão comum ao mundo em que ela estava vivendo, aí eu já fiquei "como assim? você não tá confundindo as coisas? será que foi um efeito da magia pra levar ela pro terraço do edifício, que foi algo íntimo? como que em tão pouco tempo surgiu esse sentimento que faz ela suplicar à ele?", eu estranho um pouco, mas não invalido, porque eu senti a dor dela, foi muito cruel Ajin fazer o que fez, que não sei o que foi exatamente, se ele mandou ela pra outro lugar, se fez parecer que era um sonho como tinha feito na noite que ela invadiu a escola, se ele fez ela desmaiar e levou ela pra onde ela morava, não importa, foi insensível, ele não quis lidar com os sentimentos dela, simplesmente foi embora 🤧

[bcacstuff]

If it's true Sam is now an EP of OL, all of the time off makes sense. He always begged for more time off. Fully now am certain S7 is the last and EP status is great cashout. Now, the rumor he is a producer and narrator for spinoff, looks more valid. OL, Tall Ships, Starz, Sony are giving him placce, income, so why hustle, look elsewhere when other projects have crashed and burned? As said by others, he will be nothing outside of anything far from OL, doesn't have what it takes.

It is true, it was announced in some of the articles along with the cast joining season 7 and S confirmed it thanking a fan who congratulated him and Caitriona on it.

I think it is not the first time that actors on a long time running tv show get involved, first as producers and then as exec producers. So nothing really surprising about. It wasn't announce in a huge way, just along the more prominent news of new and old cast members on the new season. So don't know why to make such a big deal about it and why to connect it to all kind of rumours about the prequel. Nothing really is known about it except that it will be about the parents of Jamie.

As already said above, I don't think it is abnormal or anything and can't blame anyone for perhaps negotiating (or shall we say earning) the role of EP.

I think the "everyone knows they are paid much more for doing nothing" is exaggerated much. Productions really don't get on your tv set while people get paid large sums of money doing nothing and others getting underpaid doing all the work. At least I don't believe so.

I did a little research what an exec producer is supposed to do, what the difference is between a producer and an exec producer and also found out there's a difference between an EP on a movie vs one on a TV show.

Google tells me:

A Producer will oversee all aspects of the project, including production, budgeting, personnel, and more. An Executive Producer usually oversees one or two specific areas such as casting or scriptwriting but may not be involved in other areas like location scouting or post-production.

This Organisational Chart shows how it all works too

And in another article I found this

I'm sure they get paid more than when they started out. No surprise, but I don't know where you got your numbers from, if you can verify it let me know. But I don't go with it for now, hope you don't mind.

I sometimes get Anons asking me how much money he has or what his businesses are worth etc. I've seen some crazy video's on YT about it, and a while back someone in my comments claimed he had 240M. Lol.... nope... these are all made up stories. I've seen some numbers created by his accountants of the yearly financial statements of his business in the UK (apart from GGC), and believe me, not even close.... (drop the 40). Together with the real estate he owns (around 2M), you can do the math.

Not that I encourage everyone to sponsor his life, I think people should decide for themselves what they want to do with their money. What I'm trying to say here is, despite my criticism about him from time to time, I do not like these kind of made up stories and don't support the idea that he's doing nothing... he does actually work!

[guideaus]

tristamp ep 12 thoughts

12 seconds in its... as heavy handed as always

wolfwood said im out

meryl miraculously got unstuck despite that being her excuse the last half ep for not doing anything (even tho she had a gun)

zazie's mask is strong

they sure did go hard on the impregnated plant stuff. im so blocking anyone who praises this lmao

also hate stampede's change of plants here? vash is Full Dependant plant, so humans mean nothing to him now? Orange really did make them soulless? and need the miraculous twin's "assistance" to not be soulless?

HATE them giving knives' line from trimax to vash. i think that scene was an illusion, but still

does tristamp knvies actually have mommy issues lol? like did Orange just put too many women in the motherly role, so it looks like that, or is it an intentional thing??

Orange said rem's one (1) personality trait is liking geraniums

are they actually going to acknowledge rem's influence on vash

i guess not

knives grew one wing like sephiroth, but they didnt exactly focus on it...

vash just got better for some reason

i dont really know why knives is attacking meryl tbh, she didnt do much. but ig they want the cliche "i heard her voice" thing

his hair sure is vertical

things sure are animated

also i fucking hate conrad now here. he's roberto's replacement for explaining information straight to the audience. come on

i guess they made wolfwood show up in some way. i was gonna say meryl is also useless except for the cliche "girl waking up bf in danger" thing, but whatever

i said this before, but tristamp really does have a stange placement of comedy

i also dont really know whats going on rn. tbh

vash has a typhon arm, but yet again they arent putting much focus on it for some reason...

how did these random ppl recognize vash flying through the air lol...

this scene also feels very contrived. vash flys low and towards soldiers, circles them, and theres the "mean humans hurting vash" scene bc of that

knives killing those ppl reminds me of omni-man's "that's your fault" hehe

also theyre now focusing on his wing. he does look a little strange floating in mid air but idk. who knows what a floating person would look like

there's smth off abt what vash just said but idk

wolfwood now cares

i was gonna say why does vash have his goth skin on, but now that theyre toussling in the sky, i see its like 98, maybe knives was super white in trimax too, who knows

i feel like tristamp messed up the plants or maybe knives? theres also smth Off abt this convo

they sure did animate him running, but that is not a good thing. that was literally my criticism of trimax's end. this feels just like when tristamp presented his rudolph ass as a good thing

i dont really get the significance of him declaring his name, but i cant say anything w/o comparing trimax

knives' va sure can scream, but i couldnt help but laugh at the scene

i also dont get why theyre going into space. do these plants not need oxygen

wtf was the point of going into space

that photo made me realize that is the only time vash promises for peace...

is zazie talking abt the humans. why did they see meryl as significant enough to tell that to

again the mention of humans from earth made me realize tristamp dropped gunsmoke attempting to reach them

i imagine mention of the insurance society and milly would excite fans, but it feels so ridiculous to me

nightow's other show reference. either wolfwood's been there or meryl smokes now??

we got eriks and the girl (i forgot her name sorry :( ). his hair better get long though. idk wtf kinda building theyre in though

i thought they were gonna show the hole in the moon :/

chronica.

[crackers4jenn]

Some Ted Lasso finale thoughts

I feel like I always have to preface my Ted Lasso opinions with the reminder that I haven't seen the series in full, but! I have watched all of s3, parts of s2, and the first few eps of s1. I realize I'm working with limited context though.

I think my fave character overall was Trent. His physical comedy was outstanding, plus I just love that his role this season was basically: fly on the wall/reaction shot. I feel pretty cheated we didn't get some meaningful voiceover from him, though. You know, a bit of narration of his book. Feels like something like that would've tied in nicely within the montage.

I feel bad for the shippers (those first few minutes were especially cruel to the Ted/Rebecca shippers) but I also feel like a lot of the reactions I've seen in the tags would be way less critical if the shipper goggles weren't fastened so tightly. There's something to be said about online fandom and getting caught up in the echo chamber of it, and how that sorta amplifies your confirmation bias. You look for the things you want to find, even when they're not textually there. Before the finale aired, I kept seeing people be SO SURE that Rebecca would go to Kansas with Ted and for the life of me I couldn't understand WHY. Those two characters, in the context of tumblr? You see enough "invisible string" gifsets paralleling some of their scenes, sure. Maybe those two versions of Ted and Rebecca end up together, but the actual characters on the show? Who barely spent time together outside of work? Who thought of each other so, so platonically? I don't get it. If I have to like, deep dive into symbolism and read into stares and decode their supposed body language and break out the tack board to connect the dots because of some color scheme of the clothes they wear, with nothing actually happening onscreen telling me these people care even a little bit romantically about each other? Surely that says something about canon. If I, a casual viewer who isn't mainlining gaze-count compilations or whatever, aren't seeing what the hyperfocused fanbase is seeing onscreen with my own eyeballs, doesn't that imply some of the interpretation is fanon and not canon? Just a little? Obviously that is just the universal shipping experience, I'm not trying to be condescending or judgmental, I'm just saying: be for real. BE FOR REAL, Y'ALL.

I liked seeing Rebecca's emotions for Ted spill over in all of their scenes together (semi-related: I feel like when Rebecca was grieving Ted so hard and he was... not giving the same energy back it's because their headspaces were so different in those moments: for Rebecca, it was about saying goodbye. For Ted, it was about saying hello... to his family. Rebecca was feeling loss, and Ted was too, but he was also gaining back something big. But anyway!!) I do wish they hadn't pulled the "you go, I go" trope. For so long, so much of Rebecca's arc was about her getting back her independence from Rupert. Why, at the last moment, try and anchor her to another man? Especially after that episode where she stood up against all those old rich dudes and reminded them why they love the game, why the fans love the game, why SHE loves the game? It felt weird. If it was a panicked reaction because she was losing a really good friend, then I wish the show would've had Ted, ya know, COMMUNICATE with her instead of staying so mute, to remind her that she loves what she does, that she's earned her place, and that she can do it alone. But she wouldn't even be alone! She has literally everyone else she's always had in her corner still in her corner.

If I had been super into either Roy/Keeley or Jamie/Keeley I would be SO BUMMED that the show pulled the last second third wheel card, just to give them an ambiguous "Keeley chooses neither" ending. But I can also appreciate that the show just threw its metaphorical hands in the air and refused to make a choice. I, too, see the appeal of all sides of the triangle and don't even know what my preference would be. Besides throuple, obviously, which I also think the open-ending left a little crumb trail to set up. I will say, overall, Roy was so reactive this season in his feelings for Keeley. He broke up with her, then really only started gravitating back to her when she was with Jack, or when he was jealous about the leaked video, or jealous about Jamie. That wasn't my favorite, but he also just pines really nicely so I get the otp of it all.

All of the "Ted is leaving all his friends behind! He's got nothing to live for in Kansas except his son!" online takes are SO BAFFLING. Y'all realize this character didn't apparate from the ether into Richmond as a fully grown, fully mustached man, right? He came from a place where he ALSO had friends and family he was leaving behind, with relationships that were likely just as important to him. And he will make friends after. Like????? You'd think Ted was returning to the gallows on a death sentence or something, just to wither away after Henry grows up.

I think I'll try and watch the show from the start and see if my opinions on anything change. I've heard that all of the prime Ted/Rebecca stuff happens early on in s1, and maybe seeing them in a classic enemies-to-friends situation might reveal to me what the shippers see. And maybe I'll care more about Nate's arc and Jamie's growth.

ps; dollsome, if you're reading this and you've made it this far, look away!!! Because, I'm sorry, I love that the Dutch boat guy came back. His and Rebecca's chemistry was just off-the-chart bananas. I think the psychic stuff was set up to red herring the crap out of the fandom from all sides, I don't think Rebecca and boat guy are like, psychically fated and meant to be, but! They were lovely, so I'm glad their montaged future had them together. And with a pilot in her life, hey. Rebecca can fly out to Kansas and visit her old bud, Ted, anytime, right?