#brawler enrichment

[a-lonely-dunedain]

I like that the fight club in the Splintered Shield wasn't shut down for Midsummer. Brawlers need enrichment too! (their friends might wish they had safer ways to entertain themselves tho)

Tossdir: *shows back up to the guest-house sporting a black eye* Ethedis and Corunir, in unison: "Toss are you ok?? what happened!?" Tossdir: "I had fun and made friends! :)"

[prof-peach]

what is the weirdest enrichment you do thats normal for the pokemon? i have a dreepy who likes to launch herself out of a modified tennis launcher. worst thing that happened is that she phased through a few house

Mud rolling for phanphy that never got that opportunity. As in, theyre nervous around their own species because of isolation, and so YOU THE PROFESSOR have to get in the mud and teach them how to phanphy. Messy but fun, no one else likes to do it weirdly, I always rather enjoyed it.

furret tube enrichment. Grey sets up a bunch of pipes all connected in weird and wild ways like a janky jungle gym, we put small treats in there, and tie "prey" ie, toys, to strings and pull them at speed through the maze to get the furrets to chase and learn that behaviour if they never got to prior.

Murkrow are VERY smart, and we have a lot of them, so theres regular scavenger hunts (with a few rules to save guests grief) that we hold for them specifically. everyone gets participation rewards, but also its a great chance for them to sharpen their problem solving skills individually and as a group.

Tug of war with guests. we got this set up that lets the bigger mons hold one end, and visitors or other pokemon are encouraged to engage with the game and try to out pull the island residents. sometimes the little pokemon all join in, but we originally set it up for the bigger ones.

Theres a couple of Tauros and girafarig that like to roll own hills with the wooloo and odd mareep, we've set up sturdier wire nets for this now the heavy mons like to partake too, to catch them all safely so they can run back up and do it again. You can imagine the chaos we had when they started doing this and didnt have that net in place, mons rolling too far towards sea cliffs.

Slugma races. This needs no explination. The staff love this one.

Movie nights, sport teams, dance sessions, story time, arts and crafts, and even band practice are clubs we hold, be it a professor or another group of staff, and many mons can come and go as they see fit, theyre all optional but we try to encourage each resident to find the thing that makes them tick, and so trying out a bunch of things is there for all. Some may not like team sport with the staff so I also offer just gym time, a personal best system in place more than a group effort and score.

It really varies from one to the next. some big mons like dainty hobbies, some of the little ones are brawlers, and everything in between. We just have to cater to it!

A nice example is a Hitmonchan that came in a while back missing a leg, they fight with me and others in the gym of course, but they also partake in a tea and stories night, a couple dozen pokemon, a few staff all cosying up in one of the event barns with readings from books, and plenty of snacks. its a firm favorite as autumn creeps in, numbers spike.

Pokemon can be complex, so offering lots is alwasy the best choice when you can, never know what they'll like until they try it!

[undercity-merc]

cont. @jynxd

Her fist made contact, and although she didn't have all of the nerve endings that used to enrich her fists from years of deadening the damn things, as punching concrete often did, she could feel how dense this beast was. The shock reverberated down her forearm and she barely budged the creature. She had a feeling this was going to go poorly in her favor. As soon as her strike rang true, the liquid in the tank boiled and surged, suddenly boiling into a strange orange that bathed her in its hue in the dark alley. The claws ripped back, ready to strike as Vi tries to duck-- but she hit the wall, as the strike never came. Instead, she felt something far more dangerous strike into her. A voice, of all things, that she hadn't heard in a lifetime. It was primal, perverted, but it sounded an awful lot like something she heard the day her life fell apart. Take care of Powder. She suddenly choked. Was this a hallucination? No, no, it's been so long since I've had Shimmer last. I shouldn't be withdrawing, it should be over--

But it was no hallucination. The monster backpedaled a step, and then two, it's massive hands clutching at its wolfish visage. Her hands suddenly shook like they hadn't in years. It was strike after strike to her vulnerable heart, her eyes almost shifting from cold steel to pale blue in the shimmering orange light as the shape of her eyes changed. Are you real? It was familiar, another fatal strike delivered and the beast hadn't even raised a claw to her.

"Va--Vander?" Violet whispered, as if her consciousness was about to be robbed away from her. Her trembling gaze flickered down to her fists; what had she done? Why did she just keep hurting her family?

No, no. This isn't right. What the hell is going on here? "What-- what the fuck happened to you? You can speak? Why-- Why do you sound like him." It was a blink of an eye as her tone shifted from vulnerable to anguished; then, to pure rage. "No. No. You're not allowed to sound like him. This is some sick fucking joke. There's only one fucking Hound now." Her hands came back up, but the brawler was no longer calculated. She was angry, reckless-- furious like she hadn't been in so many years. She didn't even lift her guard. She blindly charged the beast who dared to sound like a man she saw as her father.

[regnigt]

Sixth and final part of my series of characters that are important to Katsura! Earlier parts can be found through the tag “#katsura enrichment month” on my blog.

Sho-chan himself - Shigeshige Tokugawa. When they finally met, they had to test each other out, and grew into mutual respect. 18 & 19. Shoukaku and Shijaku - two Amanto fighters who started out as enemies. Pirate and mercenary, but with rather different personalities - Shoukaku is a born brawler, while Shijaku is open-minded enough to consider peaceful resolutions. And so they engaged different sides of Katsura as he interacted with them… but they were both won over in the end.

Soyo Tokugawa! Officially she and Katsura are political rivals by the endgame time. But they have many things in common - they both shoulder enormous responsibilities while also stepping away from the amount of powere they could have wielded, all to try to make life better for the people of Japan.

AND FINALLY - the men of Katsura's faction! No, we never learnt their names or personalities, but their wellbeing is clearly important to Katsura. So they belong here, too. (I picked six panels from chapter 552, 557 and 562 and just redrew characters from there.)

[wkbrl]

this might be a bit niche but i think the effects of time dilation and starr park's parent company being named supergiant corps merits some digging into, esp with the 24 hour (23 hours 59 minutes and 52 seconds if u wanna grump abt it) loop that the stream goes through

[bakubabes-and-ramble]

Headcanon: The Gundalian culture is based on individualism, the Neathian culture is based on collectivism

Race interpretation part one: Neathia

Summary: The Neathian culture is built on the core values of communities and collective thinking. While conformity within the society is of a high level, they pursue a 'closed gate' diplomacy towards other races - resulting in a 'bubble' phenomenon and becoming vulnerable to losing their sense of belonging. Centralised urban system, with regional reciprocity and redistribution, whereby the Queen plays a coordinator role, and exists as a unifying symbol along with the military.

(Wall-of-text warning ; with block-breaker illustrations, but a huge amount of information ahead.)

Okay, this topic is something I was thinking about for a long time, and I finally hit the point to collect my thoughts and write them down. I've seen a lot of people trying to build up/further and enrich the cultural and social-political features of the alien races we've seen in the series (namely Vestals, Neathians and Gundalians), and I felt some inspiration to put my take on these things into words.

It's not only intriguing to try one's hand on the world-further-building, but I felt, I have to explain how I imagine the build-up of the Neathian and Gundalian culture and society to make the story of the 'Neathian Special Squad' ('NSS') more understandable 'symbolically' and from the aspect of a 'cultural clash'. /For those, who follow the NSS: This is something that definitely happens later on, you just don't know about it yet./

I have to put a small disclaimer here: This entire piece of writing was conspired out of fun and passion towards the series. It was not meant to be a 100% professor approved scientific research, but a seemingly logical untangling of my personal train of thoughts concerning the fantasy creatures of the third season. And this means, there is going to be some personal opinion mixed in as well (especially at the rewriting parts).

I wish the readers to enjoy reading it regardless. You are always free to disagree or not to take it seriously. :) To me, headcanonizing and imagining things always meant to be fun.

Side note: I'll add canon elements as examples or refer to the events of Gundalian Invaders, although I have to admit, I'll do this mostly from memory. So If I get anything wrong, or just remember incorrectly, you are welcome to add-in or correct me! :)

Season: Bakugan: Gundalian Invaders (and Mechtanium Surge)

Language: English dub

Okay, let's go!

Gundalian Invaders - Slightly rewritten

The first and foremost reason I actually started writing this post, is because I had some issues with the characterisation of the Gundalians and Neathians in the third season. One side is depicted blatantly, purposelessly and one-dimensionally evil, while the other is portrayed to be the goodie-two-shoes victims with no backlashes. I wanted to swing over this simplicity and make an attempt at explaining, how I imagined these races to function. These interpretations were explored with the intention of both keeping the main features of the races, staying canon-compliant where possible, but change canon elements/propose ideas to turn the races into interesting (and on a theoretical level functioning) societies.

For these added or assumed ideas to work, some lore elements have to be changed or removed: For example the way Bakugan got to be on the planets. For this explanation see: a further point below.

This post discusses only Neathia for now. (Gundalia will probably get it's own post, as there is much more canon-divergence to be talked about.)

Neathians

1. The beginnings and core values

Due to the power of the Sacred Orb, almost the entire planet have relished in a lush fertility since the beginnings. (And this is why there are huge plants in their jungles. The wildlife also experienced a great upsurge by the life-force of the Orb.) This prosperity quickly enabled the Neathian race to organize into a peaceful and sharing society, because the wars over resources became redundant and unnecessary. The established racial mindset reallocated the focus from the individual needs to the communal efforts, and gives a ground for the Neathian values and collective thinking up to even the days of the season.

Neathians think mainly in groups: Let those be pairs (e.g. Fabia and Jin as fiancés; Linus and Neo Zipperator as brawling partners), teams (Neathian Special Squad; Friendship circles), communities (Castle Knights), and the biggest of them all, their entire race. These are all bigger or smaller communities within communities, and they play a major role in how Neathians perceive the world and themselves. Being in these relationship structures defines their place, grants them their basic mental frame, which they are able to think in, and not only their resources, but also their goals are shared with each other. This kind of goal assimilation is what makes them really efficient team players, and also provides them a strong social support from a mentalhygiene perspective. This important role of the sense of belonging makes Neathians both empowered while being in close social constructs , and extremely susceptible to losing these connections.

Thinking like this, when Fabia lost her fiancè or Linus lost Neo, their grief extended further than their deaths or the traumatic events. Losing strong bonds like these put Neathians in a technical identity crisis, as it is a part of their personal perception and mental frame which were dismantled through these events. We have seen Fabia going to extremes to retrieve Aranaut - and to retrieve that part of her, which was lost with Jin. Just as when Rubanoid was handed to Linus, a new connection was formed to either replace or continue the old one in a different form. Fabia's communal bonds were successfully restored, when she also became a member of the brawlers.

The Neathian society is based on caring and cooperation to achieve a collective well-being. This is why communities play such a major role in their self-perception and world-perception.

2. Open-sources, but enclosed diplomacy

For most part, I've always imagined the Neathian race as an although proud and generous, but closed society. They share commodities with each other - within their society -, but it is very important, that only within it. The outside world (meaning outside of their habited planet) is fundamentally shut out of these transactions.

I often refer to this phenomenon of enclosedeness as the 'Neathian bubble':

Not only their mindset operates in closed communities, but their diplomacy too. They are generally passive towards other races, missing trust and a reason to pick up the communication /Up until the Gundalians came and the war started/. This perspective could be applied to understand, why could they be more insistent on and better at operating defensive mechanisms (layered shield generator), than initiating communication with the rest of the universe (Unlike Gundalians, Neathians have no ships or bigger means of transportation. Yes, teleportation is accessible for them, but I don't think they use it that often outside of Neathia.)

I treat this as an explanation for why Neathia had only asked for outside help after the second shield generator went down - the situation became desperate and already being involved in the conflict, it was time to try and reach out for aid. According to these headcanons, I also think, Serena wasn't putting - or at least shouldn't have put - faith in the Brawlers so easily. The reason they weren't tested to prove their trustworthiness further than one question, is because she trusted Fabia's judgement. Without the support of a Neathian, outlanders are almost automatically dismissed. Their (or their Queen's) empathy and compassion may overwrite this code, but even by then they have to be made certain by proving the cause.

Just as when Fabia accepted Ren, because she had seen how much he tried to prove himself. Winning Neathians’ trust is supposed to be a big and determining moment, because they ‘internalise’ you into their scoiety.

Neathians are capable of empathy and kindness (this is something they actively practice among each other), even towards outsiders, they just need time and proof to accept them. Trust is just not automatic towards them, and even so they keep their distance until they get used to it.

3. Personal paralel counterparts - Night elves and the Highborne of WoW

When I think about Neathians, I often put them into paralel with the Night elves and the Highborne from World of Warcraft. For most part, I use their artistic motives, architecture, fashion and cultural approach as an inspiration for Neathians, as they are recognised as 'The pretty space elves' in my book too.

Beside the above mentioned, what could be imported from their WoW counterparts is a rather matriarchal social apparat. For example, Neathians traditionally having a Queen, and women being present in the military or in higher positions, playing important roles. //Just as by the Night elves leadership, religious and military roles being traditionally occupied by women (priestesses, wardens, sentinels).//

Another elven impression, which is more or less universal, is their sense of pride (I like to say it as the expression of 'Neathian pride '). Highborne in World of Warcraft are a quite prestigious race and are usually said to be a little 'aristocratic'. I can imagine the Neathians being lightly less, but somewhat similar on these terms, when it comes down to interacting with their own or other races: For example being proud of their appearance (Emphasizing their unique V-shaped forehead with adequate clothing and accessories), structuring buildings and constructs based on aesthetic instead of real functionality (using diamond as the main material of construction, structuring buildings with elegant but futuristic shapes), or being confident and showing immovable standing and opinion on things (towards outsiders).

As far as I know, the Warcraft elves used to be similarly passive and uninitiative - even mistrusting - towards other races too. And in this, it played part, that they also had exclusive access to a powerful source of power and prosperity, the Well of Eternity (an almost one-on-one counterpart to the Sacred Orb).

While the half-tribal connections of the Night elves derive from their ancient bonds with nature and druidism, the Neathian society feels more likely being based on a futuristic envisionment of these social relations. A civilisation that perfectly blends technology (teleportation technology, communication devices) with classic fantasy elements (knights), while still remaining tribal in the core (shared communality is just put into a modern environment). /Although I like to lean more into the fantasy setting, the technical advancement is undeniable there./

4. Overall economy

If we wanted to negotiate about their economy, I would say reciprocity and localised redistribution are the dominant mechanisms of it. The basic definition of economy builds on the premise of distribution of scarce resources. In this case, resources are not scarce, in fact, due to the Orb they are very much prosperous and renewing. This accessibility discounts the value of the traditional market trading, and supports the establishment of semi-centralised recollection and redistribution. The semi-centralisation here means regional production and consumption, whereby the accomodation of the population happens mainly territorialy, but these regional centres still have a connection to each other and the capitol. This economy is based on caring and well-being, and the high level of conformity and trust within the collective society results in a lack of currency usage (so, my headcanon is basically, that they don't use money).

5. Urbanisation and territorial layout

The reason we talk about a more physical apsect of the planets, is because the core values of the races both play a role, and mutually affect how I imagine their civilised hubs being developed. Communities form hubs and cities with strong connections - just like their society!

When I mentioned localised redistribution, I was also refering to the urban structure of the Neathian planet. Important to note, that Neathia is not just a city, or a country - just like Gundalia, it's the entire planet. What we've seen in the show is the capital of their urban system - which makes sense to be technically built around / in the immediate enclosure of the Sacred Orb, for it's the source of the relishing power. Assuming this, along the capital there could be a centralised territorial layout with rural areas (cities, villages), and untouched wilderness (due to the overflourishing flora and fauna; the urbanisation doesn't affect the entirety of the planet, there are a lot of uninhabited/uncharted areas).

Here is a simple schematic illustration of the above.

The rural hubs not having physical connection with other centres due to the dangerous and untamable wilderness (see: Giant plants in the show) could have lead to the advancement of the teleportation technology. The cities are connected through this port-system, and also with the capital, which serves as the centre of the network.

6. The role of the queen and the military

The main purpose of the current Queen is an overall governance with the direct help of a council consisting of the local leaders of the hubs. The queen bears not only a political, but a symbolical importance to the people. The concept of the Queen is a unifying symbol, someone who watches over the nation. The Neathians can stand behind her and being represented by her. But it's important to note, that her status is not as glorified as to be a despotic being, and her power is not extending much further than overall policies, diplomatic representation and helping the transactions of the local leaderships. There is much more power and independence shifted into the regional governance, rendering the Queen's position to be an effective coordinator between them and unifier, who keeps the nation together. /Still thinking about the way the queen is chosen/comes to the throne, but I had the idea of the next Queen being elected by the current Queen, so the order of succession is not based on the Queen’s family, nor being a community vote of the people./

The peace-oriented existence in itself doesn't require a military to exists, therefore I treat the Castle Knights as a mainly defensive organisation. This military serves as Neathia's defenders, bearing symbolic and community building purposes. Among the Castle Knights - just as the name itself suggests - the traditional medieval knight values show up primarily, such as loyality, humility, courage, faithfulness and the act of mercy. In their comprehension, being a Castle Knight is an act of service towards their country and the Queen, and is not mainly for warfare reasons. (To some extent, I assume martial arts and other forms of fighting - even brawling - is essentially a spiritual activity, which they pursue in order to keep their inner- and physical balance.)

As we've seen it the show, I assume the Palace also functions as the military's operation base. The head of the military is the current commander (formerly Jin, recently Elright), and under them operate several divisions with captains as division leaders. The separate divisions are Physical Fighting (both with weapon, like those defensive shock-sticks the guards are using - formerly offensive melee weapons until the fall of NSS - and hand-to-hand combat, e.g. used by Fabia), Technical staff (operating the shield generators and overseeing their areas) and Bakugan Brawling (this headcanon part is still under construction, but Elright used to be the former leader of this, and the reason he was promoted to commander after Jin’s death, is because the Neathians' realisation of the war swinging in favor of the Bakugan fights, so it was logical to put him as the next 'general leader'). /There may be other divisions outside of these, I just put out some ideas here./  Every guard receives education to some extent in all of these fields, but they end up specialising in something.

//The Neathian Special Squad (NSS) had it’s own divison under Captain Pyrehart, they were a special strike team with a unusual task: Staggering, forcing back or just divide the Gundalian leadership’s attention from focusing on their assault. Basically poking them with melee weapons until they either go away, or can’t concentrate on helping their Bakugan on the field and their monsters get defeated. According to the story - made up by me of course - after a tragedic mission this unit wasn’t restored, and the war effort shifted onto long-range fighting with Bakugan, Gear and Bakugan Assaults.//

7. So...where are the Bakugan?

They have been mentioned here and there, but I'm sure, whoever made it this far into this theorising information dump, may wonder at this point: 'But what about the Bakugan?'

My simplest answer is, that I firmly want to believe, both Gundalia and Neathia had a civilised and established culture before the Bakugan appeared there.

According to the original lore, Bakugan existed on the planets since almost the beginnings. Now, this is part of those lore bits I would definitively change during a rewrite: I want to believe, Bakugan only appeared in their very recent history, almost as recently, as on Earth and Vestal itself.

Perhaps a Bakugan lore- and GI rewrite explanation deserved it's own post, but for the further understanding allow me to explain here a little: A similar event of raining cards - what the first season started with - occured on Neathia and Gundalia too, caused by the dimensional boom of Michael Gehabich and his transporter. The twist on this - and the effective solution to the problem of possible timeline inconsistencies - is that although the explosion caused this interference at one point in time, across cosmos and universes time flows differently. So technicaly the result of it - the raining cards and Bakugan being transported into the particular worlds - could happen at different point of their relative times - even years earlier or later! On Neathia and Gundalia it could happened a few years before on Earth, which covers most of the questions of the timeline-consistency /such as Ren being assigned to watch over Linehalt as a child etc./

Bakugan coming to these places has only an added effect: Just as on Earth, they are not (yet?) integrated into the society and culture of the planets so deeply to be any kind of pillar of their existence or basic civilisation. There could be a start (as having specialised researches, technology revolving around Bakugan, taking part in the war,..) regarding this internalisation process, but it still runs on the surface, and not in the 'veins' of the culture.

I hope this breakdown made sense in some form or another. I just felt an urge to pour out the content of my head. Looking back,this became longer and more detailed, than I originally intended, while also surely missing things because there is no worldbuilding without holes or further questions. The attempt to lay down the basics was made regardless haha!

As always, feel free to disagree and follow your own visions concerning the races and worldbuilding. :) This post was made to reflect back my personal interpretation of Neathians - just for fun and thinking out loud.

For the very end, I leave a disclamer here, which was supposed to go at the beginning, but it felt redundant to put there, so here it is:

I tried to approach it from a more sociological side, as focusing on a bigger, overall picture, common features, than create exact statements. (I would rather call this a speculation regarding the features of the races themselves, their core values, common attitudes, mindset - and this doesn't mean other questions are fully out of the picture. We are just discussing things, which can be derived from the features of the society itself, and make up a more or less coherent chain of thought for now. Other 'for fun' or miscellaneous headcanons, like fashion or physical traits will be covered another time.)

Thank you for coming to this TED mambling!

[princeasimdiya12]

Akudama Drive Episode 6 Spoilers

So I already watched Episode 6 of Akudama Drive. As most of you would know from my previous posts, I wasn’t very content with how Brawler was written in the series in regards to his characterization and how he was treated by his colleagues. And this episode didn’t help by using that trope. So I was fairly disappointed but not entirely surprised that they went there.

That said, I can’t say that I hated the execution of it.

 In regards to that trope, my issues with it are how black/dark skinned characters are unceremoniously killed off in the beginning in order to showcase how dangerous or high stakes a situation is and then they’re forgotten by the rest of their peers as the plot progressed. But suffice to say, that doesn’t exactly happen with Brawler in this scenario.

For starters, he’s managed to live through half of the series. Rather then being killed off in Episode 1-2, Brawler was alive and heavily involved in the grand heist and action.  And of course he left an impact in the hearts of the fandom considering how many of us fell in love with him.

And for his death, he doesn’t take it without a struggle. Brawler literally gives everything he has during his fight against Master and it is brutally spectacular. The choreography of the two men landing fists and kicks to each other mixed with the animation for his expressions and the changing scenery adds a sense of beauty to the whole debacle. 

There’s even a sense of connection between the two men; particularly with Brawler calling out to Master that he’s the same as him. That he too longs for a grand fight and wants to give it his all without having to hold back his darker tendencies. It’s pretty enriching in regards to their character development as they form a strange and unofficial bond between the Akudama and the Law.

And for how he’ll be forgotten, that won’t happen either thanks to Hoodlum. All this time, the pompadour chicken intended to use Brawler for his strength as a way of protecting himself from his new situation. But it isn’t until this episode, both before and after his death, does Hoodlum start to recognize Brawler as an actual friend and care for him. 

He was even presented an opportunity to run away like he often does. But instead, he ran from the direction of main group and straight to where the fight was heading. Where his bro was. And we all saw what happened when he realized what happened to his bro.

And based on how he was presented in the preview for Episode 7, Hoodlum clearly took Brawler’s death to heart and feels genuine heartbreak over it. So Brawler’s death does have value and won’t be forgotten so easily.

Of course, that isn’t to say that I completely enjoyed how this turned out. The only dark skinned character on this show is considered dead and his death was used as a catalyst for his light skinned bro as a means of kickstarting his character development. So that kinda sucks. At the very least, Brawler was able to maintain a significant impact on the story through and through and went out in a spectacular fashion. 

Thank you once more for reading my thoughts on this matter. Considering that we still have 6 more episodes left, my thoughts on Brawler’s situation could change based on new information. For the time being, if you agree or disagree with any of my thoughts presented here, you’re more than welcome to reblog this post with your commentary. 

[bonesingerofyme-loc]

Endgame is a movie about payoffs

An incomplete list of all the great ‘payoffs’ in this movie.

Hulk’s character arc/story is resolved offscreen and Hulk as a character is killed off. Shh no tears, only Banner now.

Loki’s death was meaningless

Thor’s character arc/story wasn’t even regressed, it was reset

Tony and Nebula’s relationship went nowhere

Vision’s body was shoved in a closet for five years I guess

Doctor Strange’s 14 million futures and 1 solution relied on a fucking rat

The main six avengers never got to be on screen fighting together

Natasha was killed off and her death is barely mentioned

Red Skull’s presence was revealed to simply be the writers going wOuLdN’t iT Be CoOl rather than having any deeper meaning or reason for it. Boy would it have made sense for the Avengers to maybe talk to the Stonekeeper since they know next to fuck all about the infinity stones. Or maybe resolve the whole ‘Steve and Red Skull’ thing, because it’s not like that was formative conflict for Steve Rogers.

Loki’s death was seriously fucking meaningless

Rocket sort of just existed. What did he do? Nothing. Who did he interact with? Barely anyone.

Gamora’s character arc/story is reset to a blank slate because she is a new person.

Drax’s whole reason for living was revenge and to strike back at Thanos. Never see Drax in Endgame except as part of the exhaustively long checklist of ‘HEY LOOK X PERSON IS HERE’

Clint going on a murderspree doesn’t matter at all except to give a reason why he isn’t in the first part of the movie. It has no bearing on the events and no one ever speaks to Clint about it. He doesn’t even act any differently from the mostly serious and broody Clint of the previous films. There isn’t even any tension about him coming back, Nat just says ‘Hi Clint come back’ and he’s like ‘k’.

Peter Quill, who I don’t even like, has only a single scene in the movie where his entire growth as a character and relationship with Gamora is reduced to stupid physical humor and a joke.

Carol Danvers was pointless. She exists to save Tony and Nebula, which Thor could’ve done with bifrost and to blow up Sanctuary, which could’ve been done far more interestingly. And yet the movie tried to weave her in pretty well by making her part of Natasha’s galactic avengers and then...did nothing with that idea. Was it too hard to consider maybe she shows up with whats left of NovaCorps or some Kree battleships?

Thanos proves that he was jobbing hard in Infinity War. What’s that, Thanos without any infinity stones could easily beat Tony in Mk85, Thor with both his weapons and Steve Rogers? I guess the entire fight on Titan was him just pissing around. It steals all the weight and strength that Infinity War gave the Avengers by showing that Thanos could’ve squashed any of them at any time and was never actually in danger.

‘Stark. You’re not the only one cursed with knowledge.’ What does that mean? Why does Thanos seem to respect him? Fucking who knows, since we see that in the past Thanos only vaguely knew about the Avengers and thought they were dumb nerds. I guess he read about Tony underneath a Snapple lid. 

Back to Natasha’s death - she dies and the movie decides it needs to focus on fucking Bruce of all people, when she and Steve had become very close friends over the past seven years, and from the implications Steve was the only one that actually kept in contact with her post-Snap when the Avengers all retired or fucked off. Fucking Bruce. 

Hey while we’re here, let’s keep up with Steve and his relationships. How about the fact he and Bucky never reunite on screen? How about the fact that all we have gotten between Steve and Bucky since Steve got his best friend back was what, three lines total between Infinity War and Endgame? 

Or how about Steve and Sam! You know, Sam the therapist that helped break Steve out of his shell. Sam the loyal friend who stood by Steve through thick and thin. Sam, who kind of was Steve’s first ‘real’ friend in the modern day. Sam, who only shows up at the end so old Steve who abandoned his friends can chuck him a shield. No reunion. No real meaningful moment. Just hey I’m old take my shield.

Or Steve and Wanda! Did you guys forget that the secret Avengers adopted her? How they were kind of like a family for that time after Civil War, with Steve the Dad and Natasha the Mom and Wanda their adopted weird magical girl? You know, how they took Wanda under their wing and started teaching her and treating her like a real person? Guess they did forget!

What about Valkyrie too, by the way. Valkyrie who spent a thousand years as a cynical drunk and then Thor helped her out of her self-loathing funk in Ragnarok. And then she I guess just said ‘sucks to be you’ and didn’t even try to help him? Or how about that Thor just kind of chucks her the throne like a party favor. Not even like he recognized she earned it or anything, Thor just said ‘hey, fuck my responsibilities I want to go be a failure in space, so take my job lmao’. Nice. I hate Ragnarok with a passion, but for fuck’s sake. 

Nidavellir. Establishes that Eitri is the last of the dwarven forgemasters left, and still has all his knowledge and skill. And that he forged the Gauntlet. And the plans for the Gauntlet are still there. Clearly, that means Tony should just whip together a nanite gauntlet in his basement overnight.

Carol Danvers and Nick Fury. You know, how Captain Marvel set them up as good friends, and then she allegedly shows up wanting to know where he is. Oops. That didn’t make the cut. Or her seeing Fury again after so many years. Double oops. Shit, this is even from the stinger of the last movie these yucks wrote, and they couldn’t even do it. Again - like Gagnarok and others, Cpt. Marvel is not even a movie I liked but COME ON NOW.

The intelligence/wisdom of the infinity stones. The space stone ‘judged’ Red Skull and cast him out. The soul stone has a ‘certain wisdom’. Ultron was made from the intelligence that lurked in the mind stone. Vision was linked to all the other stones and could sense almost a distress from each other stone as Thanos claimed them. NVM, stones destroyed lmao.

Infinity War went out of it’s way to make visually striking and different battle sequences and pulled out all the stops to really showcase powers. We got to see smart and interesting uses of all the stones during the battle on titan. Thanos actually had a wizard duel with Strange, showing that he is so much more than just a brute brawler. He blended caster and bruiser seemlessly. The color palatte was bright and arid, full of reds and oranges and blues and greens, well lit and extremely well choreographed. Tony showcases the amazing functionality of his Mk50 experimental armor. The battle at Avengers compound is dark, a color palette of grey, dark grey, light grey, and brown-grey. The choreography of the fight consisted of ‘surround Thanos and hit him with sticks’. We saw none of the MK85 suit. You know. The LAST suit Tony Stark would ever make. We saw none of Stormbreaker or Mjolnir’s power in Thor’s hands, only the most basic ‘fwoosh lightning’ from when Steve holds it. Where was Thor and his flying, his glowing eyes, Mjolnir-as-a-character that was present in all his fights in the past? Where was Steve’s mixed martial arts and his really acrobatic and distinct fighting style? Where was Tony constantly pulling new weapons and tricks out of his suit? The final fight of the Infinity Saga with the big three, and it’s as inspiring as a mid-aughties superhero duel. Just kind of slamming together and grunting. (I guess all the good fight choreographers were stolen by Alita)

‘I can do this all day’. The iconic line of Steve Rogers in the MCU, a touchstone for his character that is emblematic of his entire life and his drive, that says in six syllables the sum total meaning of what it is to be Captain America. Is played As A Joke.

Pepper Potts, whose character and relationship with Tony Stark to date can be summed up succinctly as ‘Tony no’ while he shouts ‘TONY YES’ now totally agrees with Tony and is all gung-ho about him deciding to risk his life, his daughter’s life, their lives, and the fucking universe to go a-time-travelling. What.

Steven Strange, whose movie was about him struggling to become a sorcerer and let go of his past and his preconceptions as well as the Ancient One seeing potential in him despite his roughness is shown to all be a charade. She actually knew all along he was going to be an OG badass and is so enamored with him that she’s willing to hand away the infinity stone she and her order have protected for millennia at the simple mention of his name.

Acausal time travel. Instead of enriching the previous movies by seamlessly blending into them for the time heist, Endgame goes out of it’s way to say ‘HAHA YEAH NO, THIS IS A BRANCHING TIMELINE’ so when you watch Dark World, Avengers, etc, there’s no intrigue of like ‘oh man, such and such is going on just around the corner’ because they so thoroughly bungled time travel and everything we saw in Endgame breaks the timelines. I can’t believe JK Rowling did a better job creating consistent and coherent time travel that carried narrative weight and tension in a children’s book.

Undoing the snap. All the speculation and theory about how, why, when, what, and it turns out all you have to do is just snap to bring everyone back and then act like the intervening five years of social decay and collapse never happened. 

Theodore Ross is very specifically shown in Infinity War to be the Secretary of State. Hm. A character who’s always been an antagonist, always against the avengers...in a high ranking government position...right before 50% of the population is dusted...right, yeah, nothing. Not the President after the snap. 

The snap itself. Smash cut to 5 years later, show some quick flybys and pay a bit of lip service to ‘oh yeah things are bad’ but that’s it. Don’t investigate it. Don’t show us how bad things are. Don’t explore it. In fact, everything seems pretty ok. People are still playing Fortnite five years later and cheerfully dabbing and taking selfies, so it’s all good right? Not like half of all life vanished instantly over night and the world is supposed to be falling apart. Nah.

Tony Stark’s death. Did he die to bring back the universe? Did he die to save his friends? Did he die to save his daughter or his family? Nope, he killed himself to kill the already beaten Thanos and his final words were all about himself. bUt ThE cAlLbAcK

Thanos. Killed off. Replaced by a cartoon villain version of himself. The Thanos that is the main antagonist that the Avengers beat? Not the Thanos who we got to know and who starred as the center of Infinity War.

Nebula. Best character in the film. Has no conclusion. No catharsis or reaction to Thanos’ death.

Groot. Split second shot of him and Rocket. No reunion.

Groot, again, and the rest of the Guardians. No chance to see Rocket’s reaction to the realization his entire family is gone or the effect it has on him. What was that scene in Infinity War? “Me? I got a lot to lose. I got a lot.” No relevance.

Stormbreaker. Major plotpoint of Infinity War. OP axe forged by Thor nearly sacrificing his life to a star. Yeets through a blast from a full-stone gauntlet. Is just a beatstick in Endgame, does nothing.

Infinity stones, again. Infinity War made them front and center, showing their many uses and delving deeper into the lore of them. Endgame makes them paperweights that can only snap.

I could go on and on and on. This is just off the top of my head, right now. Payoffs? I guess if you count the writers violently elbowing you in the ribs and shouting HEY ITS THAT SCENE FROM THAT OTHER MOVIE like you’re a drooling idiot as a ‘payoff’ it’s ripe with them, but actual meaningful payoff for a decade of characters and storytelling? Hah. No.

Edit: I will continue to update this as I think of/recall more examples

[alleycatwrites]

III. Strife

“Tap out!”

She screamed in defiance. Or at least, she remembers she tried to. Her brother had her folded like an origami crane, his weight settled on her feet, the soles of which were flat against the back of her shoulders. Looking back, her only saving race from serious spine injury was her weekly gymnastics classes and fierce adoration of the stretching warm-ups.

She remembers the sound she made. Wet and gurgling, nothing at all like a glorious battle cry. It was bubbles through gravel, the pressure rising in her face to make her blood roar in her ears. Wet spittle fell on her lips as she desperately scratched at her brother's forearms, drawing jagged lines on the skin the beaded red but didn’t budge him an inch.

She remembers the instinctual panic, the fear. She can’t breathe, can’t think. She needs air, needs it because her vision is fading around the edges to gray and she can’t hear words anymore. She can’t even feel the pain of being bent like this. Just dizziness even though her belly is on the ground. Spinning.

She can stop it. She can tap. Her brother was practically begging for her at this point.

She doesn’t.

She must have woke up no more than a few seconds or a minute later, face on the floor, head cocked toward the leg of a table. The old green carpet under her nose smelled of pet dander and feet, rough and oddly oily, but she remembers her body contorted and laid flat

Remembers pushing herself on shaky arms to all fours, head strangely quiet.

Now, though, she doesn’t know if her brother was there. She can’t recall with any certainty anyone was there afterward.

She just remembers she got back up.

Her parents always encouraged her to fight.

Whether it was handling guns or practicing the proper form with blunted wooden knives, sparring with her brothers or the local children, or sharpening her words on pages and pages of defense on why she should be allowed to just be, she learned. Little lessons began accumulated: how to stop crying out for help, how to struggle past the bite of pain, how to distracted and feint and push herself.

Over the course of years, she shaped herself around, molding herself into a form that could survive it. She twisted and morphed like the silver fish in her head, unrecognizable from what she was.

Maybe the seeds of it were already in her, though. Maybe she was the product of hundreds of years of selective breeding that nurtured traits like aggression and physicality. Her forefather’s forefather had been brawlers and killers, her mother’s mother’s guerillas and widows. Maybe it was just meant.

Whatever it was, her parents never did like it when she fought them.

The truth is that she never really recognizes truth. She tries and tries but it never clicks, never is just there. Fact is only fact for so long until it fades and twists, a slippery memory warped and unrecognizable.

But she can’t stop. She has to keep learning and going.

Because here’s the thing; maybe she doesn’t recognize it. Maybe it’s never a hard or solid, capital ‘T’ truth. But all the little truths, all those small pieces. They add up. The layers keep growing.

And so does she.

There’s a thousand hurts she can list. A hundred million aches and pains, wounds still bleeding and raw. Sometimes she doesn't understand why they are there, never knew she got them when she did.

Because that's the thing about these hurts that aren't physical. These are different from the bloody noses her father gives her, the welted backside and bruised arms. They aren’t the same as the pockmarks from her mother, little rises in the shape of wooden spoon holes. These can hide and sneak away. The pains of the soul -injuries to the psyche through mental and emotional trauma- they can linger, unseen. They can bleed all over your life and cripple you until you don't realize you're walking through your life with a metaphorical leg blown clean off.

Half the trouble, she has come to realize, is recognizing they exist in the first place.

The other half is split into quarters. You then have to draw attention to the wound - because it’s there and it is bleeding and raw, but people won't look at it and will tell you it doesn't exist- and then you have to try and heal it.

She has set bones before. Stitched wounds. She has pulled debris from gashes, injected antibiotics, and sat watch over more than her fair share of head wounds. She’s more than capable of lancing an infection or treating a blunt force trauma injury.

But she can't heal these other wounds. She cant fix mangled psyches and battered emotions. She can't fight them.

She doesn’t know how.

There’s a trick here, a dilemma no one talks about. Some of these wounds, some of these mental obstacles… She thinks she was born with them. And there’s this hurdle no one addresses because the behaviors hinder her, but ethically, morally, scientifically diversity is necessary for life. The differences are supposed to enrich and enlighten.

But the divergence from normal thought processes hinders more than help. They make it difficult to operate in a culture and society built for people shaped a little differently than her.

So she copes. She adapts, and she tries and tries and tries and tries to shape the world around her the way it shaped her. To make it something a tiny bit more livable.

She fights and fights and fights the world. She kicks and screams and snarls because that's what she knows. That’s what she has at that point, and it is a cold comfort, but a comfort nonetheless.

The only other option is death, and that is always on the horizon. It is an inevitable and unavoidable fact, as much as she can recognize one.

There's no need to rush toward it. It will come on its own time.

She remembers her parents fighting. They did that a lot. This, at least, is something she can confirm happening from multiple sources. It was real.

When she was young, it used to bother her. The noise and tension itched under her skin, and the lingering, imminent threat of that energy being redirected toward her or her siblings used to terrify her.

But.

But it was always going to happen. One way or another it would twist and turn, in and out like the tide. Her parent’s ire rose and fell like waves, crashing all around them and saturating every person in their life.

Someone would get shouted at. Someone would leave. Someone would get hurt. Sometimes cops or coping or lingering, oppressive silence everyone was too afraid to break.

At ten she is an old hand at it. She has played this game time and time again, but she is usually more moved by it. Usually, there’s a keener sting when he mother cries. Her father is usually more terrifying than this. The prospect of her family -the only thing she has been taught to count on, the one familiar, the thing that is hershershers- breaking apart is terrifying and heart wrenching all at once.

But. Her mother said to grow a thicker skin. Her father said tears did nothing. Her brother said crying was for babies.

Her brother is crying. Her sister and mother and father are.

She sits on the couch, watching her parents fight, and knows when they turn she will draw their attention away. She and her brother will bounce their ire back and forth until they tire themselves out, whether they mean to or not.

For now, she watches her brother's ugly face, twisted up and snotty as he silently bawls. She holds her young sister close, bouncing her on a knobbly knee as she bawls, her own eyes dry.

And she thinks, this once, she’s won.

There’s something about a fight, to this day, she thinks is pure.

Not pure like untainted or unsoiled. Fighting, by nature, is dirty work. Whether’s it’s physical or verbal, hell, even emotional, it gets dirty. 

It’s not like in the movies or media. A lot of times, from the outside, it looks stupid. Nobody has cool faces or sweat glimmering in the right places.  There are unattractive grimaces and awkward grunts, holds and grabs that are only distinguishable from sexual by the intent behind them. When you’re exchanging blows it’s not like they show. It’s skin and pressure, eyes tracking guards and muscle movements. If you get really good you track environment too.

In the heat of things,  what she remembers most, is that it’s all about opportunity. Either finding it or making it.

Regardless, there’s something about that mentality. Black and white. Fighter vs. opponent.

Fighting, she thinks, is clear-cut in a way the world seldom is.

In high school she joins a fight club.

She remembers they all thought they were very cool for it, having just read Chuck Palahniuk's novel under the same name. Mant seemed to enamored with the violence, the concept of making soap from fat and explosives to book.

She remembers wanting to fit in, but clenching her teeth and letting secrets lie quiet on her tongue. She carefully and purposefully does not say that this is nothing, that this is weak. That her parents made the Blackbook edition of the Anarchists Cookbook required reading at twelve and only expounded on it since then.

Regardless of the words she never speaks, she gets invited to a fight club. She has a friend now, a few, but this one is the referee. They know her, know she’s considering amateur MMA, that she’s been in Muay Thai classes for a year and a half now.

They know she’s angry. That she wants to hurt people. That she will.

So she goes, because she is all those things and it sounds like fun. They meet up in an empty warehouse with broken glass on the ground, and she remembers picking a piece up. Remembers thinking that she has to be the most dangerous. That she has to make this impression last.

(She’s scared. What if they get found out, what if they get in trouble, what if her parents know about it- but they do because she told them and they laughed and said win-)

Looking back it's cringe-worthy.

“Can we use weapons?”

“Uh,” her friend replies. “No.”

She drops the shard, shrugs, and waits for her opponent.

The people there -kids, they were all kids- stare back and fidget. No one wants to fight her. Probably because she is a her.

But one steps forward. A linebacker. Mikey. He is shorter than her but strong. He’s angry too.

He nods. She returns it.

They touch fists, and their makeshift ref holds a hand over theirs while reciting the rules of fight club with all the fervent passion of a captivated teenager. She remembers her heart racing in her chest, remembers quieting her head and calming it.

The ref removes her hands. They step back. Circle.

She lunges. Fists and legs and everything she can manage. He gives back just as hard. They exchange blow after blow, but he starts giving ground. She presses forward, guard up and eagerness in her heart as the others clap and cheer. She wants to win. Wants to fight and hurt.

He twists away and she lunges again, seeing an opening, but not the back of his fist that whirls with all the momentum of his body. It slams into the side of her head and she drops. Win by TKO.

But.

When she looks up, blinking on on the ground, he smiles and offers her a hand up.

She smiles and takes it.

“Tap out!”

Her sister writhes, squirming in her grasp,  but she isn’t strong enough. She won’t survive if she keeps up like this, too stubborn and proud to admit she sucks at fighting. That she is weak.

And god, god had she tried to teach her. She tried to teach her to stop crying and whining and just grow up. Her parents are going to eat her sister. The world is going to devour her.

And that is...unthinkable. This is is her sister. The one whose weak little fingers curled around hers when she was an infant. She remembers the pride in her heart when she first held up her own bottle, fat, tiny arms struggling. She remembers the way she used to beg to be played with, the wails she used to make when she had a bad dream. She loves her, wants her to win, wants her to fight.

But her sister can’t. She won’t listen. She’s soft and doughy and weak.

She will force her, show her that you will lose. That you can lose. That sometimes you have to submit.but you can get back up.

But the terror on her sisters face is so clear, so crisp. She can see the panic there. The utter fear that wracks her little body as she flails. Her sister doesn’t even try and scratch and bite or pull hair. She just flops like a fish out of water, bucking her weight around, already taller than her older sister.

It doesn’t work. Won’t work. She’s stronger than her sister, has a better technique and trained more. She’s a better fighter.

Her sister doesn’t tap, but she unhooks her arms from around her neck. Pushes her away.

The younger girl gasps. Chokes. Coughs once or twice.

“Don’t!” she rasps. “Don’t do that! I hate you!”

She doesn’t remind her sister there was another way out. That she could have tapped. They both know.

“You’re the worst!”

She doesn’t say anything. Doesn’t fight this.

Her sister leaves, likely to cry or tell their mother. In the suddenly empty room, she is left adrift with her own thoughts, the blankets pooling around her ankles and slipping off the edge of the mattress that rests directly on the floor.

She gets up.

[tapatapreview]

November 04, 2020 at 06:30PM https://ift.tt/3l12HQb Gaming

After the conclusion of the sequence’ earlier anthology with Yakuza 6, there have been large Kiryu-sized sneakers to fill. As our new protagonist Kasuga Ichiban steps into the highlight for Yakuza: Like a Dragon, developer RGG Studio proves it could nonetheless seize its signature mix of gripping melodrama and absurdist humor whereas creating one thing genuinely recent for the long-running franchise. The reinvention is not simply within the transition from action-brawler to turn-based fight, which is a good tackle conventional RPG battles. It’s that the celebration dynamic in Like a Dragon permits a brand new form of storytelling that the sequence hasn’t explored earlier than, one which focuses on the ability of embracing friendship and combating collectively each step of the way in which.

Like a Dragon begins anew, offering an entry level for individuals who have by no means performed a Yakuza recreation earlier than. But it would not be a correct sequence entry with out the core tenets that outline Yakuza–things like charming exposition-heavy cutscenes, thrilling over-the-top fights, and a wealth of aspect actions that flood the streets of a lifelike Japanese metropolis. In true Yakuza style, the tangled net of alliances, betrayals, secrets and techniques, and shifts in energy throughout totally different organizations function the muse for a lot of its character-driven story. And it is as candy as ever right here.

Kasuga, Number One

Ichiban has a well-known background: born from nothing, scraping by in Kamurocho till a father determine with yakuza ties digs him out of significant hassle. Ichiban’s life revolves round that man, Masumi Arakawa, and he ultimately follows in his footsteps by pledging himself to the Tojo Clan. Much of what propels Like a Dragon is the connection these two share–from Ichiban taking the autumn for a household crime to uncovering why he’d been left for useless in one other metropolis after his 18-year jail sentence. Things change in time, and that good-natured child who grew up loving Dragon Quest (actually in-lore) and doing innocent errands for the gang now has loads to study in regards to the felony underworld as he re-enters society.

Loud, goofy, naive, however all the time well-meaning, Ichiban typically lets his immaturity get the very best of him. Others are there to assist him study and develop, and he by no means wavers in his dedication to the folks round him. It rubs off on his companions, whose circumstances unite every of them as you unravel the thriller behind Ichiban’s exile to Ijincho, Yokohama (the place a lot of the recreation takes place). Your core squad of Adachi, Nanba, and Saeko enter the scene for their very own reasons–Adachi is the ex-detective whose aim is tied to yours, Nanba is the homeless man who saved your life and has extra to him than he lets on, and Saeko is the barmaid who reciprocates the unconditional assist she will get from the crew after a private tragedy.

The Friends You Make Along The Way

Sometimes their motivations for sticking round for Ichiban’s messy yakuza enterprise aren’t all the time convincing, however over time, the friendships they kind develop into all of the conviction they want. The acquainted theme of deep emotional bonds is what Like a Dragon makes use of to deliver one thing new to the sequence’ sturdy, established type of storytelling–the celebration system is not simply an excuse to give you a group through the RPG fight. Throughout the story, the solid will get into hassle, fights their method out, drinks, and celebrates collectively, they usually carry one another to the tip. Much of the Yakuza sequence to this point was in regards to the struggles of Kazuma Kiryu, a person who has a coronary heart of gold, but all the time stored everybody at arm’s size. Like a Dragon, nonetheless, flips the script and explores the ability of letting folks in, and it embraces the uplifting social dynamic its characters create.

Each principal solid member has their very own life tales to inform and will get a little bit of the highlight with Ichiban all through the principle marketing campaign. But a number of the extra private moments come via in what are referred to as Drink Links–basically Persona-style social hyperlink situations the place celebration members open up about their private lives over glasses of whiskey at their house bar referred to as Survive Bar. You improve a bond ranking with them, enhance social stats, and unlock fight perks alongside the way in which; extra importantly, you actually get to know the characters who’re combating alongside one another.

The Drama Of Yokohama

That normal sentiment can be utilized to the Ijin Three, the trio of gangs that uphold a fragile steadiness in Yokohama–it consists of the Japanese Seiryu Clan, the Korean Geomijul, and the Chinese Liumang. The unnerving pressure between them enriches the narrative, as these organizations develop into vital for chasing the reality. Just a few of their members (who I will not reveal for spoiler causes) are nice standouts because the story develops, and likewise deliver out a little bit of Asian range, giving Korean and Chinese characters extra nuanced portrayals than in earlier Yakuza video games. In Like a Dragon, your enemies at present could possibly be your dearest allies tomorrow, and vice versa.

Internal rifts and philosophical variations will all the time destroy organizations from the within. When one group dedicates itself to good deeds to assist the much less lucky, others see it as an opportunity to prey on the helpless and seize energy. It’s an ever-evolving recreation of 4D chess you may see play out, and it instills an eagerness to see what occurs chapter after chapter. Another piece of the larger image is right-wing nationalism, portrayed by a bunch referred to as Bleach Japan. While Like a Dragon’s climactic political drama leans on the outlandish villainy of a power-hungry few, it takes narrative alternatives to precise clear opposition to anti-immigration, anti-sex work, and anti-poor politics in key story beats, and these themes additionally develop into a part of what drives Ichiban and firm.

I’ve made it fairly clear that I’m a sucker for Yakuza’s melodrama. However, I’m prepared to confess that Like a Dragon has one too many easy plot twists, which might come throughout as a approach to elongate the principle story. Perhaps it bites off greater than it could chew on the tail-end the place plot factors are launched as shortly as they’re resolved. They’re not unhealthy story beats per se, however they will really feel overbearing when there’s already sufficient engaging narrative established.

Regardless, Yakuza has constructed a repute on charming drama and robust characterizations, and it is these expectations that its video games will probably be judged by. With that standards in thoughts, Like a Dragon hardly misses.

Like A Dragon Quest

Ichiban’s eccentric character is a power of nature, and it is even what fuels the fight system. His creativeness runs wild, and in his thoughts, he sees himself and his pals because the heroes of the day, identical to in Dragon Quest (Ichiban’s phrases, not mine). Enemies remodel into possessed beings or extraordinarily foolish delinquents like aggressive cooks, unhinged nudists, or simply unhealthy dudes with glowing crimson eyes–some with punny names like “capitalist punisher” for evil salarymen or “hands catcher” for evil baseball gamers. And your individual celebration members remodel into their outfitted jobs with typically ridiculous costume modifications.

His reverence for Dragon Quest is charming, and exhibits that he actually is a child at coronary heart; it is a part of what fills him with the dedication to maintain combating, even in probably the most dire of conditions. Like a Dragon asks you to droop your disbelief extra so than earlier Yakuza video games to accommodate Ichiban’s child-like creativeness, and you recognize what? I’m right here for it.

Like a Dragon makes use of a fairly simple turn-based fight system with commonplace assaults, particular strikes (typically enhanced by easy QTE button prompts), and spells of various affinities and standing results. Managing your celebration’s varied capabilities and strategizing to dispatch enemies in good methods is on the core of the enjoyable. How you deal with your turns in relation to the enemies you face in any given battle presents a well-known however partaking puzzle-like problem of devising the very best plan of action. When you barrel down consecutive fights in dungeon-like situations, fight maintains a gentle, gratifying circulate, whereas the larger set-piece boss fights take a look at your command of the system. What was used really comes collectively remarkably effectively for Yakuza’s personal RPG debut.

Combat can also be a chance for the sport to crank up Yakuza’s custom of ridiculous over-the-top strikes, and it is a large purpose why fight is thrilling to have interaction with. The spirit of the sequence’ wild warmth actions comes via within the abilities you may study, like summoning aggressive followers by performing a musical act or leaping via the air to spit literal hearth upon your enemies. The intricacies of fight are pushed by the job system, which is basically a set of swappable character courses that play otherwise with their very own distinctive talents. And so long as you construct up a very good number of therapeutic, buffs, and robust assault sorts, you may be in good condition.

Like a Dragon is not with out its faults, nonetheless. It’s fairly obvious in the previous couple of chapters that the sport started to depend on lengthy drawn-out fights. I nonetheless needed to keep sharp and maximize harm with every flip or use heals and buffs at opportune occasions to remain alive, however a few of these moments boiled all the way down to a warfare of attrition. Although I really like that Like a Dragon could be actually difficult, somewhat grinding is required to even survive towards some bosses. Thankfully, there is a late-game fight area aspect exercise that gives a ton of EXP and helpful gadgets, however the necessity of it breaks a number of the momentum as you heard in direction of the conclusion. (And beware that there’s a level within the story the place you are required to have a number of cash, and if you have not invested time to earn cash, effectively you higher get on it.)

There’s More To Life Than Fisticuffs

It’s not all drama, combating, and foolish superpowers, although. While the situation of Kamurocho has develop into a type of character itself, the a lot bigger Ijincho (a mashup of the actual Yokohama) does provide its personal distinct vibe. Compared to Kamurocho, it seems like taking a deep breath of recent air if you stroll via the open areas of Hamakita Park, purchasing retailers on Isezaki Road, and the streets of Chinatown. Even the alleyways and homeless camps of the lower-class areas breathe life into Ijincho in equal measure. The metropolis is bustling with issues to do exterior of the principle story, as is Yakuza custom.

My private favourite of karaoke is again. The rhythm minigame presents one other avenue for the characters to precise themselves in an particularly charming style. Nanba brings again the traditional “Baka Mitai,” and Adachi belts out his personal efficiency of “Machine Gun Kiss.” Saeko’s friendship anthem “Spring Breeze” warms my coronary heart as she performs the piano whereas the remainder of the gang enthusiastically cheers her on. And Ichiban’s personal music, “The Future I Dreamed Of,” showcases his personal inspirations as he displays on his upbringing. When a number of different characters be part of the celebration, the karaoke playlist grows. Having it again at Survive Bar, the place everybody meets up and drinks collectively, actually creates a homelike ambiance for Like a Dragon.

One of the very vital money-making minigames is Ichiban Confections, the enterprise administration simulator. You assist a household enterprise develop from promoting sweets at a hole-in-the-wall store to turning into C-suite executives with a number of ventures featured in commercials. It’s goofy as hell however fairly concerned, as you must handle staff, assign jobs, and make funding selections. You additionally must play a separate and hilarious minigame the place you frantically argue with shareholders to earn their assist. There’s additionally Dragon Kart, which is a whole kart-racing minigame with its personal ridiculous aspect story and tournament-style challenges. The final one I’ll point out is the quiz minigame, which exists beneath the guise of an grownup college the place Ichiban learns about historical past and tradition (and even has its personal Sega-themed quizzes), serving to him enhance social stats. These actions are vigorous and rewarding in their very own small methods, whether or not it is cash, perks, gear, or genuinely humorous aspect tales that construct up the wild lifetime of Kasuga Ichiban.

Even after spending 40 hours with Yakuza: Like a Dragon to finish its principal story and expertise an honest chunk of optionally available content material, there’s nonetheless extra to see and do with substories and conclusions to optionally available quests.

The Future Is Bright For Yakuza

As the sport executes on a melodramatic, multi-faceted conclusion typical of a Yakuza recreation, you are inspired to mirror on the hardships and tragedies Ichiban needed to endure. It’s uncommon, nonetheless, to additionally see the protagonist of a Yakuza recreation additionally do the identical. You can see the journey, the struggles, the challenges, the expansion, and the friendships worn plainly on his face. Yakuza has a penchant for exaggeration, this recreation actually goes for it, and it really works. Ichiban is an expressive character, typically to the purpose of parody, however it’s endearing and infrequently inspiring. Ichiban is an idealist and a bit naive, however he is additionally what his pals have made him via their very own personalities and their sense of justice: a hero.

At so many moments, I stood up screaming at my TV in absolute pleasure (and shed a number of tears right here and there), seeing how Ichiban develops, and the way Like a Dragon ties again into the broader Yakuza lore for long-time followers. Ichiban stands tall among the many legends that the Yakuza video games have created, and Like a Dragon is not shy about drawing from that effectively once more. Maybe it is a bit on the nostril, however for me, I can not assist however really feel a reinvigorated ardour for the franchise.

For RGG Studio’s first crack at an RPG, it is a rattling fantastic outcome. It delivers what I really like most about Yakuza and introduces new concepts that largely repay. Ichiban is not doing it alone, both. He has pals and mentors, ones who’ve helped him struggle and overcome private tragedies. It was an absolute thrill to look at him develop, and that is what’s most vital for a recreation so targeted on its characters. Yakuza: Like a Dragon is a passing of the torch, and a incredible entry in a beloved franchise that proves that it is in good arms with Kasuga Ichiban.

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[bountyofbeads]

Nancy Pelosi’s Failure to Launch https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/23/opinion/trump-whistle-blower-impeachment.html

Three excellent editorials on the latest Trump criminal activity and the need to impeach. We have more than enough evidence to impeach this president!! It's time to muster the political will and courage to do so for the sake of our Democracy and future generations!!

"It is time for the Democrats to stop worrying about the tactics of election and decide just what it is we stand for. What are our principles? Are we for good government, or are we just about winning? Concentrating only on the upcoming presidential election will give this back-door president another fifteen months of opportunity. The question is not whether we have "the votes": the question is what do we believe? We keep saying, "If you see something, say something." It seems that now is the time to "Do something." The whole world is watching!"

"I see a parallel between Mitch McConnell's refusal to let any bill onto the Senate floor unless he has the president's assurance that he will sign it, and Nancy Pelosi's refusal to institute impeachment proceedings against Trump unless she is assured of the support of at least some Republicans and the general public. Both have given up their power as leaders of their party and become enablers of the most dangerous president in our country's history."

Nancy Pelosi’s Failure to Launch

The House speaker’s hesitation on impeachment empowers a lawless president.

By Michelle Goldberg | Published Sept. 23, 2019 | New York Times | Posted September 23, 2019 7:45 PM ET |

Elizabeth Warren on Friday evening sent out a series of tweets that, in addition to calling out Donald Trump for his criminality, rebuked Congress for enabling him. “After the Mueller report, Congress had a duty to begin impeachment,” wrote Warren. “By failing to act, Congress is complicit in Trump’s latest attempt to solicit foreign interference to aid him in U.S. elections. Do your constitutional duty and impeach the president.”

Warren was not impolitic enough to refer directly to the speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, but the implicit criticism was clear. It was also well deserved. Pelosi’s calculated timidity on impeachment is emboldening Trump, demoralizing progressives, and failing the country.

The House speaker is a master legislator, and by all accounts incomparable at corralling votes. But right now, Democrats need a brawler willing to use every tool at her disposal to stop America’s descent into autocracy, and Pelosi has so far refused to rise to the occasion. As Representative Jared Huffman tweeted, “We are verging on tragic fecklessness.”

Part of Pelosi’s rationale for not impeaching after the release of the Mueller report was that such a move didn’t have majority support in the country or bipartisan support in Congress. Her allies worried that were Trump to be impeached in the House but not convicted in the Senate, he could emerge stronger than ever. Many Democrats in swing districts wanted to steer clear.

These were reasonable concerns, but inaction signaled to Trump that he would face no consequences for obstructing justice or for seeking a foreign power’s help in undermining a political opponent.

Now Trump has used the power of the presidency to do just that. We don’t yet know all the details in the whistle-blower report filed by a member of the intelligence community, which is now being kept, possibly illegally, from Congress. But there’s little question that the president tried to pressure the government of Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden and his son, Hunter Biden; both Trump and his ranting disgrace of a lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, have admitted as much on television.

The idea was to try to force Ukraine to provide grist for a thoroughly debunked right-wing conspiracy theory that as vice president, Biden targeted a Ukrainian prosecutor on his son’s behalf. While Trump was strong-arming the reformist Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky, his administration had frozen $250 million in security aid that the country desperately needed to defend itself against Russia, which invaded in 2014. It doesn’t matter if there was an explicit quid pro quo; Zelensky knew what Trump wanted from him. Trump deployed American foreign policy to extort a vulnerable nation to help his re-election campaign.

Trump’s latest defilement of his oath of office has pushed some previously reluctant Democrats, like the House Intelligence chairman Adam Schiff, toward impeachment. Schiff reportedly coordinated his recent pro-impeachment comments with Pelosi, yet she remains resistant to moving in the same direction. One of Pelosi’s advisers told the CNBC reporter John Harwood that her impeachment calculus hasn’t changed, saying, “See any G.O.P. votes for it?” It was almost as if the adviser was trying to troll scared, desperate Democrats, rubbing their faces in the speaker’s baffling determination to give Trump’s party veto power over accountability.

The most Pelosi has done is to write that if the whistle-blower’s complaint is kept from Congress, the administration “will be entering a grave new chapter of lawlessness which will take us into a whole new stage of investigation.” Given the impunity Trump has enjoyed so far, this does not seem like a threat with teeth.

Ultimately, no one can know the political consequences of impeachment in advance. I find it hard to imagine how months of televised hearings into a widely hated president’s comprehensive corruption could help him, but I can’t see the future. Perhaps impeachment in the House without removal in the Senate would allow Trump to convince some voters he’s been exonerated, though so does the failure to impeach him at all.

Polls show that impeachment doesn’t have majority support, so there’s a political risk for Democrats in trying to lead public opinion rather than follow it. But surely there’s also a risk in appearing weak and irresolute. Already, frustration with Pelosi in the Democratic base is threatening to curdle into despair. “I see the grass-roots activists who helped build the wave last year really wondering what they built that wave for,” Ezra Levin, co-founder of the progressive group Indivisible, told me.

In the end, our system offers no mechanism besides impeachment to check a president who operates like a mob boss. It’s true that Democrats will remove Trump only by beating him in 2020, but he is already cheating in that election, just as he did in 2016, and paying no price for it.

A formal impeachment process would, if nothing else, give new weight to Democratic claims when they go to court to enforce subpoenas or pry loose documents the administration is trying to hide. It would show that Democrats are serious when they say that Trump’s behavior is intolerable, and potentially allow them to seize control of the day-to-day narrative of this rancid presidency. Trump does not want to be impeached — a Monday Politico headline says, “Trump’s team is trying to stop impeachment before it starts.” It’s hard to imagine why any Democratic leader would assist them.

Donald Trump vs. the United States of America

Just the facts, in 40 sentences.

By David Leonhardt | Published Sept. 22, 2019 | New York Times | Posted September 23, 2019 7:45 PM ET |

Sometimes it’s worth stepping back to look at the full picture.

He has pressured a foreign leader to interfere in the 2020 American presidential election.

He urged a foreign country to intervene in the 2016 presidential election.

He divulged classified information to foreign officials.

He publicly undermined American intelligence agents while standing next to a hostile foreign autocrat.

He hired a national security adviser who he knew had secretly worked as a foreign lobbyist.

He encourages foreign leaders to enrich him and his family by staying at his hotels.

He genuflects to murderous dictators.

He has alienated America’s closest allies.

He lied to the American people about his company’s business dealings in Russia.

He tells new lies virtually every week — about the economy, voter fraud, even the weather.

He spends hours on end watching television and days on end staying at resorts.

He often declines to read briefing books or perform other basic functions of a president’s job.

He has aides, as well as members of his own party in Congress, who mock him behind his back as unfit for office.

He has repeatedly denigrated a deceased United States senator who was a war hero.

He insulted a Gold Star family — the survivors of American troops killed in action.

He described a former first lady, not long after she died, as “nasty.”

He described white supremacists as “some very fine people.”

He told four women of color, all citizens and members of Congress, to “go back and help fix the totally broken and crime-infested places from which they came.”

He made a joke about Pocahontas during a ceremony honoring Native American World War II veterans.

He launched his political career by falsely claiming that the first black president was not really American.

He launched his presidential campaign by describing Mexicans as “rapists.”

He has described women, variously, as “a dog,” “a pig” and “horseface,” as well as “bleeding badly from a facelift” and having “blood coming out of her wherever.”

He has been accused of sexual assault or misconduct by multiple women.

He enthusiastically campaigned for a Senate candidate who was accused of molesting multiple teenage girls.

He waved around his arms, while giving a speech, to ridicule a physically disabled person.

He has encouraged his supporters to commit violence against his political opponents.

He has called for his opponents and critics to be investigated and jailed.

He uses a phrase popular with dictators — “the enemy of the people” — to describe journalists.

He attempts to undermine any independent source of information that he does not like, including judges, scientists, journalists, election officials, the F.B.I., the C.I.A., the Congressional Budget Office and the National Weather Service.

He has tried to harass the chairman of the Federal Reserve into lowering interest rates.

He said that a judge could not be objective because of his Mexican heritage.

He obstructed justice by trying to influence an investigation into his presidential campaign.

He violated federal law by directing his lawyer to pay $280,000 in hush money to cover up two apparent extramarital affairs.

He made his fortune partly through wide-scale financial fraud.

He has refused to release his tax returns.

He falsely accused his predecessor of wiretapping him.

He claimed that federal law-enforcement agents and prosecutors regularly fabricated evidence, thereby damaging the credibility of criminal investigations across the country.

He has ordered children to be physically separated from their parents.

He has suggested that America is no different from or better than Vladimir Putin’s Russia.

He has called America a “hellhole.”

He is the president of the United States, and he is a threat to virtually everything that the United States should stand for.

Trump and Election Interference, Whistle-Blower Edition

Many elements are murky, but something clearly stinks.

By Nicholas Kristof | Published Sept. 21, 2019 | New York Times | Posted September 23, 2019 7:45 PM ET |

There’s so much we don’t know about the whistle-blower complaint concerning President Trump. But here are four things we do know:

First, it seems that an experienced intelligence official was so deeply disturbed by Trump’s interactions with the president of Ukraine as to feel the need to blow the whistle.

Second, the inspector general for the intelligence community, Michael Atkinson, who was appointed by Trump and has long experience on national security issues, found the whistle-blower’s concern to be legitimate and urgent.

Third, the whistle-blower complaint came after Trump and his associates  hounded Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, to undertake a corruption investigation involving Joe Biden and his son, Hunter. The  Ukrainian summary of a July 25 phone call between Trump and Zelensky included this cryptic sentence: “Donald Trump is convinced that the new Ukrainian government will be able to quickly improve image of Ukraine, complete investigation of corruption cases, which inhibited the interaction between Ukraine and the USA.” The Wall Street Journal reports that in that phone call, Trump pressed Zelensky about eight times to work with Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani to investigate the Bidens.

Eight times! Nevertheless, he persisted!

Fourth, Trump withheld $250 million in military assistance urgently needed by Ukraine to fend off Russian aggression, although Ukraine didn’t learn of this until August. He released the money after the whistle-blower complaint and after members of Congress intervened.

So for all the murkiness, let’s be clear: This stinks.

(Trump’s position is that his phone call with Zelensky was “pitch-perfect” and “It doesn’t matter what I discussed.”)

Thus it appears that after benefiting from Russian interference in the 2016 election, Trump then tried to coax Ukraine to interfere in the 2020 election. It’s particularly egregious that Trump seemed eager to trade $250 million in American taxpayer dollars for Ukrainian help in tarring a Democratic rival.

Giuliani has helpfully acknowledged  that he urged Ukraine’s government to investigate whether Biden’s diplomatic efforts were meant to help Hunter, who had been involved in a gas company in Ukraine. (There’s no evidence of this.) Giuliani also pushed Ukraine to reinvestigate old corruption charges that ensnared Trump’s former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, and to conclude that this was a political attack on Trump.

In effect, Trump apparently tried to use American diplomatic might and the leverage of military assistance to get Ukraine to exonerate Manafort for 2016 and smear Biden for 2020.

The incoherence of the Trump-Giuliani position is underscored in this interview Thursday evening on CNN:

Chris Cuomo: Did you ask the Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden?

Rudy Giuliani: No. Actually, I didn’t …

Cuomo, 24 seconds later: So, you did ask Ukraine to look into Joe Biden?

Giuliani: Of course, I did.

Trump has been credibly accused of using the presidency to enrich himself (summits at Trump properties!), to protect himself from law enforcement (appeals to James Comey, offers of pardons!) and to punish perceived adversaries (Amazon, CNN, Andrew McCabe). Now he may have harnessed the power of the presidency to gain political advantage.

This is bombshell layered upon bombshell. On top of the initial accusation by the whistle-blower is the refusal of the acting director of national intelligence, Joseph Maguire, to obey federal law and relay the matter to Congress within one week.

The law is very clear, but it’s also true that Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama both suggested that there might be situations involving classified information where a president should not follow the statute. These are very tricky questions of executive power versus congressional oversight.

Jeffrey Smith, who was the C.I.A.’s general counsel under Clinton, told me that despite the technical legal arguments, there should still be ways to allow oversight, especially if the core issue is a commitment that the president has made to a foreign power.

Smith cited a time when he was at the C.I.A. and a matter came up that did not technically require reporting to Congress but still raised troubling questions. After some soul-searching within the agency, it provided a briefing to the “gang of eight” congressional leaders, and Smith told me that the same would be appropriate today.

Look, this whistle-blower’s complaint will leak. The Trump administration’s recalcitrance will simply make it all the more newsworthy.

When historians review Trump’s term, I think they will see combat between an out-of-control president and various U.S. institutions, such as the courts, the Civil Service, law enforcement, the intelligence community, the House and the news media, which generally have done a credible job of standing up for laws and norms and against one-man rule. The only institution Trump has co-opted completely is the Republican Party in Congress.

Today’s struggle over the whistle-blower may be remembered as a central battle in that epic confrontation. The core question is whether our president can get away with weaponizing the federal government to punish political opponents, or whether legal constraints and congressional oversight can keep him in line.

This is a test of our political system, and the next few months will determine whether we pass.

[eirenical]

SUCH A GREAT MEME. Courfeyrac and Feuilly? :D

IT IS A GREAT MEME.  XD  And… that cider I had is definitely catching up to me so these answers may end up very interesting.  ;D

(ETA: PFFT.  SORRY THAT TOOK SO LONG @thecoffeetragedy.  I hope you like it?  ^_^)

who’s the werewolf and who’s the hunter

Courfeyrac is the werewolf and Feuilly is the hunter of… PHOTOGRAPHS OF UNUSUAL CREATURES.  Courfeyrac, in wolf form, is absolutely fascinated by this human who’s been hiking around the woods, lying totally still for hours to take pictures and just can’t resist messing around with him a little bit.  This results in situations like this.  Eventually, Feuilly figures out that Courfeyrac is messing with him and demands an explanation.  Courfeyrac switches to his human form and they end up spending the whole day and night talking.  ^_^

who’s the mermaid and who’s the fisherman

Feuilly is the mermaid.  He’s collected human artifacts all his life, completely fascinated by the human world and these strange creatures that walk about on two legs.  With each passing day, he travels closer and closer to land, wanting to get a glimpse–or even talk to!–one of these elusive land creatures.  He sees Courfeyrac on the docks one day, staring off into the distance with his feet dangling in the water and looking so sad.  Feuilly can’t imagine that someone who lives amongst all the treasures of the land could ever be sad and eventually decides that something must be done.  After the initial EH??? moment is past… it’s love at first sight.  ^_^

who’s the witch and who’s the familiar

Feuilly is the witch and Courfeyrac is a bedraggled little black kitten he found outside in the rain.  Feuilly took him in and cleaned him up, brought him to the vet to get checked out, and then took him home to spoil him rotten, thoughts of when his great uncle, Valjean, took him in similarly as a child.  As Courfeyrac ages, Feuilly starts to get the feeling that when he talks to the kitten… he’s getting answers?  But it isn’t until he almost makes a fatal mistake with a spell he’s brewing and Courfeyrac knocks his hand away from the cauldron just in time that he realizes that the stray kitten he took in from outside is so much more than just your everyday cat.  Once he’s realized this, he does all the appropriate spells to make Courfeyrac his familiar so he can understand him properly… and from that point on, he can never get Courfeyrac to STOP talking!  And Courfeyrac has opinions on everything, not just spellwork.  Who knew a cat would have so many opinions on fashion?

who’s the barista and who’s the coffee addict

Courfeyrac is the barista and Feuilly is the coffee addict.

[AHAHAHAHA-- and here we are like TWO WEEKS after I started this response, debating whether I have it in me to finish it--because I have to crash my browser and reopen it which means I’ll have to save this back as a draft--and most likely lose it if I don’t.]

...*sobs Feuilly as he goes back to the counter for yet another cup of coffee and really, it’s almost 11 PM and the shop has to close, but Courfeyrac has been watching Feuilly struggle with this project for WEEKS now and he knows the deadline is midnight and he wouldn’t get in THAT much trouble for keeping it open just long enough for Feuilly to finish, would he?*

who’s the professor and who’s the TA

They’re both the professor.  Feuilly is in the sociology department and Courfeyrac is in the elementary ed department.  They’ve collaborated on grants before and really enjoy working together.  Really.  That’s why they do so many joint research papers.  And grant writing sessions go really late sometimes.  And one will end up crashing at the other’s apartment.  And then you can’t expect that person to teach classes in the same outfit they wore yesterday, can you?  THAT must be how Professor Feuilly ended up wearing Professor Courfeyrac’s sweater.  Right?  RIGHT??  *sweats*  (The students absolutely ship them.  There’s a betting pool going on in both departments.  The department of the winner has to take the professors in the other department out for dinner when all is said and done.  Feuilly and Courfeyrac don’t have the heart to ruin everyone’s fun by explaining that they’ve been dating since college.  ;D)

who’s the knight and who’s the prince(ss)

Feuilly is an adventurer... who’s a prince(ss) in disguise.  Feuilly had known in their heart their whole life that they weren’t cut out to be princess material, but still did their best to live up to the expectations and responsibilities of their office.  They drew the line, however, at the thought of an arranged marriage to a neighboring prince, having heard tales of the corruption of that kingdom’s noble class and and the oppressive taxes heaped upon them by their king.  That’s something they just won’t tolerate being a part of, so rather than take a chance that the son will mirror the father, they flee the palace in the dead of night, only their sword and a small travel pack to sustain them.

Courfeyrac is a wandering bard who meets Feuilly in a tavern one night.  A brawl erupts because one of the rogues who frequents the tavern takes a liking to Courfeyrac’s hat and tries to acquire it for himself.  Courfeyrac is pretty good at the running and charming, but not so much at the turning and fighting.  Feuilly initially rolls their eyes at the nonsense, but when they see how outnumbered Courfeyrac is (and how he’s doing his best to stick to areas of the tavern that will take the least damage from the brawl), they finally step in.  Thanks to a few well-placed slices of Feuilly’s sword, many of the brawlers end the fight with pants around their ankles--and thus faces planted into the floor--and red-faced with embarrassment, but otherwise none the worse for wear.  Courfeyrac is utterly delighted (not to mention thrilled to be saved), and declares that he owes Feuilly a life debt for saving his hat and that they will travel together until he can return the favor.

After many adventures--and a few too many blanket scenarios since Courfeyrac wasn’t nearly as well prepared for his journey as Feuilly was for theirs ^_~--another truth comes to light.

Courfeyrac isn’t just a bard.  He’s a prince.  He’s THAT prince.  The one Feuilly refused to marry.  And he fled *his* home because he’s part of an underground revolutionary group seeking to overthrow the monarchy in his homeland, and really they could use an excellent fighter like Feuilly, if they’d like to join up, too.  Feuilly is absolutely delighted, even though they occasionally chafe at the cliche that they they and their prince end up marrying anyway, even if neither is royalty any longer when they do.  They do both end up senators in the new joint Republic though, so really it all worked out for the best, in the end.  ^_~

who’s the teacher and who’s the single parent

Courfeyrac is the teacher and Feuilly is the single parent.  Courfeyrac has a terrible time trying to figure him out, in the beginning, though.  It seems like every time he runs across Feuilly in school, he’s with a different child.  Eventually he runs into him outside of school with five different kids in tow and can’t resist asking.  Feuilly, it turns out, used to be a social worker, but the work ground him down so hard that he had to step away.  Not wanting to abandon his chosen calling, however, he decided to be a foster parent.  He and his sister, Cosette, had been foster-siblings who’d been adopted by their foster father, Valjean, and it had made a world of difference in his life.  Figuring that if Valjean could do it alone, so could he, Feuilly applied to be a foster parent.  When it became apparent that he had a way with even the most difficult and withdrawn of children, his old colleagues started funneling more and more children in his direction.  Eventually, Cosette and her fiance volunteered to go in on a house with him and help out with the fostering.  It wasn’t long before their father moved in with them, either.  And with four adults in the house, managing so many children became... well, maybe not easier, but at least became more manageable. 

Courfeyrac is amazed and impressed and really touched that Feuilly would choose to devote his life this way.  He eventually finds himself getting more involved with the Feuilly clan--designing special enrichment exercises, organizing family field trips, helping to work with the students who are still too damaged to go to school.  Eventually being involved with Feuilly’s tribe of youngsters leads to being more involved with Feuilly himself and, let’s just say that five adults in the house definitely make things more manageable... but they’re gonna need a bigger house.

who’s the writer and who’s the editor

Enjolras is the writer and they’re BOTH the editors.  And... honestly, my brain is frying quickly and I can’t think of why, but it sounds right?  So, we’ll go with that.  ^_^

[prof-peach]

Hey prof! I'm a fire/electric trainer for preference, but a good friend of mine suggested that my team would benefit from a grass type. My fire types are very well trained so I'm not worried about burn damage, but most grass types look pretty delicate and my team is mostly big rowdy kids like toxtricity and typhlosion. Can you point me towards some grass types that (individual personalities aside) might like getting rough and tumble with my team?

Hmm, brawler grass types.

Tangrowth, their not only very strong, but their sap filled vines are reasonably resistant to fire. Tangela is also very sweet and often fiery in nature!

Shiftree can hold its own for sure, certainly a nice option, very suave Pokemon, usually easy to care for. Smart, will need Brian training of some kind as enrichment.

Breloom, high energy, durable, regrow parts, super bouncy. All round good choice.

Hmmm...exeggutor, very strong! Barrels of laughs, total dumb-dumbs sometimes but often good natured. Easy to get ahold of too.

I tried to dodge the starters, they’re overplayed next to other species, but torterra, Venasaur, and Rillaboom would suit.

[rinabrunoblog]

Dead or Alive 6 Review

Dead or Alive franchise somehow managed to survive for more than 20 years in the harsh fighting game landscape. Not only that, it actually managed to retain the same level of quality for all that time, which is something that even the greatest fighting game series cannot brag with. Some malicious comments would say the main reason for the popularity of Dead or Alive is the jiggle boob physics and heavy reliance on fanservice, but it wouldn’t be completely true. Beyond all those scantily clad women and bouncing mammaries lies a true fighting gem. The further proof for that is the collaboration with Virtua Fighter for the previous iteration of the game. And for this sequel, Koei Tecmo decided to step harder on the serious pedal.

Graphically, Dead or Alive 6 doesn’t differ greatly from the previous iteration. The character design remains the same, which is good but because it was really great, a mixture of realistic and animesque characters with a very attractive physical look. However, if you look closely into the characters you will notice that there are certain improvements in the quality of textures, facial features, lightning, and the display of damage. Everything looks smoother and tightened up by a notch.

However, the most prominent feature of this game is the evolved battle system. As you probably already know, Dead or Alive games have three types of battle maneuvers: strikes, throws, and holds. The triangle system these games are implementing means that strikes beat throws, throws beat holds, and holds beat strikes. This opens the door for very interesting tactical and technical game plans, which makes the player want to learn all three in order to battle efficiently.  

This already established system is enriched with some new features. First of all, there is a Fatal Rush, which was an up-to-four combination move you can do by pressing the newly introduced Special button (R1 on PS4, RB on Xbox One). Fatal Rush looks really great, but the sequence is always the same so it shouldn’t be used too often because of the holds. On the other hand, this mechanic allows you to practice timing and distance without the need to learn complicated combo commands.

Another introduction is Break Gauge, which was the first super bar ever in this series. You can fill the bar by either giving and taking damage or blocking. Once the Break Gauge is full, there are two special moves you can perform against your opponent. First is Break Blow, a single powerful, destructive attack that will deal considerable damage and bounce your opponent back to the ropes. The other one is Break Hold, which doesn’t do much damage, but it can counter every attack, no matter the height (low, medium, or high). The first attack is used by pressing forward and Special at the same time, while the special hold is used by the combination of back and special.

Some would say these new features make the game too simple, and that introduction of the special gauge is stepping into the arcade territory. We respectfully disagree with those critics, because we think that the introduction of special abilities only adds another layer of strategy, especially considering those easy combos remove can be countered easily. The horse reactions would be in place if we were talking about Virtua Fighter games, which are hardcore simulations, but Dead or Alive games are much zanier and over the top in comparison.

The intention behind this sequel was to make Dead or Alive cooler are more mature in visual presentation, so you won’t be seeing half-naked women fighting each other on the beach, and the famous bouncing of certain areas is reduced to a normal measure. Costumes are much more appropriate to a fighting game, and female fighters seem more like real human beings than RealDolls. The facial animations are now more realistic, and your favorite character won’t be so attractive at all times, especially while blocking a fist or foot with the face. Speaking about characters, most of them are recurring with several newcomers. First of all, there’s NiCO, the lightning technomancer, and probably cyborg, who fights by using electrical attacks and teleportation. The second newcomer is Diego, a Mexican street brawler, who reminds a lot of Miguel from Tekken series.

It is great to see this fighting franchise back in a bit more serious manner. Let’s hope that upcoming DLC content won��t ruin this with a couple of hundreds of swimsuits and fetish fuel costumes and that this game will continue its long road into non-gimmick fighting games.

Dead or Alive 6 Review syndicated from https://lucystrickland.wordpress.com/

[nazih-fares]

So much blood and tears have flowed in Tokyo since the event of Yakuza 0 (previously review by Mazen Abdallah), a decade in which Kazuma Kiryu and his friend Akira Nishikiyama climbed the ranks of the Yakuza clan. But fate once again plagues a Dragon of Dojima, who is quickly going to fall into the worst of situations, out of love for his close ones, our hero attracts the wrath of the Yakuza and pays the price. Sent to prison and expelled from his criminal organization, Kazuma grew 10 years in a cell before getting free.

The Yakuza franchise is eyeing the cinematic experience since the very first episode and Sega perpetuates this tradition with this remake. Yakuza Kiwami is once again inspired by Japanese mobster movies and retains the script of the original game, and with it amazing cast that we’ve met for the first time in 2005 on the PlayStation 2. The actors hidden behind each character even resumed their role and have taken the trouble to re-record for the occasion their entire dialogues in Japanese, for those of you who would prefer that experience with subtitles. This remake is a perfect showcase of how a cinematographic vision can be even more effective by an integral overhaul of the cutscenes made with the engine of the Yakuza 0 on top of 30 extra minutes of unpublished content.

Although Yakuza Kiwami is primarily a scripted adventure leaving the player to visit place around the Kamurocho district in Tokyo, Sega’s franchise nonetheless remains a great Beat’em All requiring perfect technique and parries to overcome the punks, and yakuzas which cross the path of a very determined Kiryu. Circular kicks, direct punches, crushing skulls, the Dragon of Dojima will rain blows on those poor thugs.

The bosses on the other hand know how to respond properly to attacks, and have specific patterns requiring you to concentrate and master the 4 combat styles available. Sega has taken over the system implemented in the Yakuza 0 prequel to modernize the fights, and protect the coherence that is so dear to the saga. Kazuma Kiryu can now alternate between Brawler, Rush, Beast and Dragon of Dojima, which depending each situation, the style will either give you advantage or weaken your reactions to other.

By completing secondary quests and cleansing Tokyo of its crime, you’ll gain experience points which obviously open the door to new active or passive skills. From simple health improvement to increased damage and new fighting skills to the four styles mentioned above, Kazuma Kiryu unfolds its full potential as the story progresses. The latter can also rely on various accessories and weapons as well as, purchased in boutiques spread around the city, on top of the stores that sell drinks and foods, synonymous respectively of bonus in combat and recovering health. These smaller RPG mechanics, without offering a thorough customization of the hero, suffice for this adventure in the Japanese crime world.

Heavily empowered by Majima Goro, the Yakuza Kimawi relies on this secondary character and psychopath that seems to follow Kazuma Kiryu like his shadow and appears whenever he sees fit to offer you an epic challenge. This system called “Majima Everywhere” adds a certain tension to each movement of the hero and offers Majima Goro a tailor-made role in the game, plus many Dragon of Dojima improvements unlock via his secondary quests.

Throughout the history of the franchise, the Yakuza saga has always distinguished itself from the competition by its skill to faithfully transcribe the the atmosphere so characteristic of Japan, and in this case the hot district of Tokyo and other places such as Yokohama. While Yakuza Kiwami must be stick to the the environments of the original game, it does it wonderfully via upgraded visual. Walking through the streets of Kamurocho (inspired by the real Kabukicho district) is a pure delight, full of life, rain flows through building drain pipes, criminals haunt the dimly lit alleys and so on…

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It’s also worth knowing that the Yakuza saga owes its fame to its cinematic aspect, full of epic characters, combat, but also the multitude of activities giving life to the environments visited. Kamurocho is full of guilty pleasures, which will help players get some change of pace between missions by bowling, playing video games (inside a video game! INCEPTION), dining at restaurants, drinking in bars, but also adult pleasures (wink! wink!). Sega enriched the formula with two additional activities, including the the Pocket Circuit Car Racing (basically slot car racing minigames), and Battle Bug Beauties which is a paper-rock-scisor style combat between ladies dressed in sexy bug bikini costumes… A wink at Dead or Alive I would assume.

But the main quality of this remake lies in the visual and soundscape redesigned by the developers. Yakuza Kiwami is a model of the remaster business, with Sega pushing the Yakuza 0 engine to a point that the 2005 is almost a complete different game (especially if you haven’t played the original). The sceneries, animations, characters, cinematic, it’s all greatly redone, locked at 60 frames per second in full  1920×1080 HD rendering. Certainly Yakuza Kiwami suffers from the same issues as the prequel Yakuza 0, which are mainly the fault of an aging engine which is currently getting replaced in the upcoming Yakuza 6 known as the Dragon Engine.

Yakuza Kiwami was reviewed using a PlayStation 4 digital code of the game provided by SEGA. The game was originally released on PlayStation 2 in 2005. We don’t discuss review scores with publishers or developers prior to the review being published.

Yakuza Kiwami is everything a proper remaster should be. So much blood and tears have flowed in Tokyo since the event of Yakuza 0 (previously review by Mazen Abdallah)