#i was less critical of dragon design at the time that i watched it but now that i think about it. there really was a lot of missed potentia

[frostiifae]

Could you elaborate on the Dragon Maiden thing? :o

the basic premise of dragon maid, as a story about allegorically exploring "alternative" relationships, is very cute, and i like it very much in theory.

you may be wondering why i use the term "alternative" as opposed to, you know, gay relationships. the show's very good when it's about gay adults. kobayashi, tohru, fafnir and takiya are all cute and fun and their relationships are very sweet. it could have also shown some other, even more socially-unusual relationships, like, idk, polyamory. that would've been neat, but no need to do that. it's fine as a show about gay adults.

the problem is that it chose to veer instead into a couple of different sorts of "alternative" relationships.

kanna is fine. she's great, even! i really like her stand-in role as a "child" that tohru and kobayashi have to take care of as "parents", further binding them as a family unit. and, as a child character, she's adorable and very engaging.

the idea of saikawa, a girl who is experiencing adolescent attraction to kanna, is fine in theory. the execution kinda sucks, because she doesn't really come across like a primary-school age kid experiencing feelings she doesn't know how to handle, she comes across more like an upper teenager in a porn doujin that just doesn't know the porn words to describe her feelings, so it's definitely family friendly and that's definitely how it works 👌. would have much preferred, y'know, a version of her that is normal and innocent and immature and confused about her crush? it would've been funny to see her pass kanna the "get out of my school" note.

i don't feel the need to really get into the other, much BIGGER problem with dragonmaid, which is the extremely dubious decision to make an obscenely sexualized mature dragon-woman *obsessively* horny over like, a seven year old boy, that is kind of clearly uncomfortable with what's going on? like, we can all agree that that sucked on its face, no matter your feelings on age gap relationships (which this isn't), even besides the implication that gay relationships are somehow on a similar level to really transparent and unapologetic pedophilia, which i would argue is the actual problem that ruins the show moreso than the relationship merely existing? OK, I got into it a little bit, sorry.

the point of my side post was more that like. identifying kanna specifically ("the episode kanna was introduced") as the problem gives me the impression that the commenter had a very different idea of the problems with dragon maid than i did, which is a troubling observation on a post about how tragic it is that dragonmaid could be so good and somehow still be almost totally ruined by one specific element of the story. you know?

admittedly, the comment's wording wasn't very specific about it, but i'm still very confused that the commenter chose that wording, as opposed to like. any other wording.

[adamsmasher]

Okay it's after 1am and I've had a lot of wine so obviously it's time for a late night wall-of-text post, but this time it's less likely to piss off your weird uncle or whatever because once again, I gotta talk about the best $4.99 a month I've ever spent.

Please, if you haven't yet, I'm begging you to look into all of the incredible content available on the Dropout.tv streaming service (formerly known as College Humor) . Not only did Whose Line Is It Anyway's Wayne Brady say that the Dropout crew are the only ones doing improv comedy on the same level as Whose Line, but they were also one of the only studios/streaming services allowed to work during the writers' strike because their contracts went above and beyond industry standards. (And, from my own observations, Dropout LOVES hiring queer, trans/nonbinary, and BIPOC performers + crew. Obviously I don't know much about the industry, but they seem like one of the most inclusive companies in Hollywood.)

"Alex, thanks for the recommendation! What shows do they have that you think I'll like?" Oh, you're asking me to gush about my favorite tv shows? Don't mind if I do!!!

Are you D&D curious, but took one look at actual play shows like Critical Role and thought "6 hours an episode? and there's like 750 episodes or whatever? oh baby not my adhd ass..." Don't worry, me too (sorry CR I love you I promise). But Dropout has a show called "Dimension 20" where comedians play Dungeons and Dragons with emotional, immersive storytelling, gut-busting laughs, and spectacular set design that makes you forget it's a fully improvised series controlled by the roll of the dice. They even did a miniseries perfect for D&D beginners called "Dungeons and Drag Queens" where absolute novices and Drag Race royalty Jujubee, Monet X Change, Alaska Thunderfuck, and Bob the Drag Queen embark on an adventure full of mystery, intrigue, and stupidity. I mean, Alaska plays a muscle-bound, axe-wielding, caveman-grunting Orc named Princess, what more could you want? Plus, the primary game master Brennan Lee Mulligan is so easy on the eyes. Oh, you're not into dorky ginger dudes? How about Aabria Iyengar, a 6 foot tall goddess who's equally as nerdy as Brennan but loves basketball. that's right, if nothing else, there's eye candy for every person in every season.

"Oh, why aren't there any good game shows on TV?" you wonder, wishing that the Game Show Network could come up with something that isn't a lame remake of a free-to-play phone game. Well how about Game Changer, "the only game show where the game changes every show (except for [...] Game of Games, Taskmaster, and a few others that have come to light AFTER [Game Changer first aired]. That's right, [the] players have no idea what game it is they're about to play. The only way to learn is by playing, the only way to win is by learning, and the only way to begin is by beginning." And yes, I did sit there and watch the beginning of an episode to make sure I was accurately quoting Game Changer host (and Dropout CEO) Sam Reich's description of his flaghship game show that has THREE separate spin-offs. (for context, he only mentions the other shows that copied his in the one episode I pulled up to get an accurate quote. could you imagine how uncomfortable it would be if he said that every episode? hah!)

Are you more of a traditional Whose Line fan? Look no further than Game Changer spin-off Make Some Noise, where contestants act out "improvisational prompts that [they have] never seen before, isn't that right contestants?" ("We won't know if we've seen them before or not until we see them!" Brennan insists every time he's on...)

You like musicals but wish they were less... ya know, scripted? Check out "Play It By Ear", a fully improvised musical! (you may be familiar with its primary cast members Jess McKenna and Zach Reino from the podcast that inspired it all, "Off Book: the Improvised Musical Podcast with Zach and Jess")

Or maybe you're more into trivia, cuz you're a total nerd like me (and every single performer that's ever appeared on dropout.tv). How about "Umm, Actually" where contestants are given an incorrect statement and have to buzz in to correct it - but you have to say "Umm, Actually" first!

Straight up, you can't go wrong on Dropout. Please, check it out. They're nearly doubling the amount of original shows they have in 2024, and no other streaming service is doing it like them. If I haven't convinced you yet, get the 7 day trial and give em a chance. There's no referral code I can give you that gives me some sort of kickback or whatever, I genuinely wrote what looks like a thousand word essay about Dropout at 1am just because I love them so much.

[miraculouslbcnreactions]

Thank you for answering my Origins Dragon!Marinette and Turtle!Adrien question! Please don’t worry about disagreeing with the idea; I asked for YOUR opinion and analysis on why it would OR wouldn’t work, and that’s what I got. 😌 It also made me consider meta and in-show stuff that I hadn’t before, which is cool. You mentioned wanting all of the Kwamis to be part of some sort of set of two or more, and I’d love to hear what those sets are in your head going down the full Chinese Miracle Box list and why you’d pair them together with consideration towards both the Kwami themselves and their Powers.

(Post this ask is referring to)

Oh good, I'm glad that you found it useful and not discouraging!

Talking about how to pair the Kwamis is a little tricky because of an issue that I've discussed before. That issue being that the "Chinese" miracle box seems to be about as Chinese as fortune cookies. That makes me uncomfortable because - as far as I'm aware - the Chinese zodiac is a major part of Chinese beliefs and traditions. As such, I personally feel like the box should reflect those beliefs and traditions, but I also don't know those beliefs and traditions, so I can't tell you how I'd effectively group the zodiac Kwamis in order to honor their cultural origins. I can't even be sure if my criticism is valid or just me being overly cautious!

In an ideal world where I had money to invest in this sort of thing, I'd hire a cultural consultant to work with me to design a Chinese miracle box that feels Chinese (or to tell me that I'm overthinking this and to just do whatever I want). Assuming that I'm not overreacting, this would probably mean redesigning a lot of the powers and looks so that they honor Chinese lore and not Western lore.

For example, one thing that I know for sure is that black cats are not unlucky in China. They're actually symbols of good luck (all cats are), so a Chinese box would not have the implied good luck/bad luck thing that we get with Ladybug and Chat Noir. My limited research has also raised some doubts about ladybugs being a go-to symbol of good luck or creation in China, but I'm a lot less confident about that one being a bad choice as the association may exist. I couldn't find anything definitive one way or the other. This leads me to think that, if the association exists, then it's probably a bit obscure, meaning that a Chinese box would probably go with a different animal if we were trying to be culturally accurate to what a Chinese-inspired box would really look like.

I can say with reasonable certainty that Creation is associated with the masculine yang and Destruction is associated with the feminine yin, so Tikki should possibly feel masculine to feminine Plagg. At the very least, their spots in the miracle box should probably be reversed with Plagg in the black and Tikki in the white since yin is black and yang is white?

[Image Description: center of the original miracle box showing that ladybug earrings are placed in the black part of the yin yang symbol while the black cat ring is in the white]

I also known that white rabbits being associated with time, watches, and umbrellas comes from Alice in Wonderland and not China. Are you starting to see why I'm doubting the cultural accuracy of the miracle box?

The alternate way to approach this is to remove the possible issue of Chinese culture being treated as "mystical" or nothing more than ornamentation by making the Chinese miracle box into the miracle box of no specified culture. Since that's kind of what the box already is in terms of deeper meanings and cultural ties, I think we can go that route for this discussion since we have taken a moment to acknowledge the potential issues with the box's existing design and why that's leading me to take this route as - to me - this seems to be the only way to stick to canon's lore while avoiding potential further insults to Chinese culture.

If we went to my ideal extremes with this approach, we'd actually massively cut down the number of miraculous in the box because I think that there are way too many miraculous! Who needs nineteen "unique" powers to arm and fight one villain? This is extra true since there's no real theme to the miraculous beyond the initial setup of Creation/Destruction + five random powers followed by the addition twelve more random powers with no clear ties to any culture or theme other than the look of the Kwamis that grant the powers.

But that's getting real extreme, so for this ask, we won't go there. Instead, I'll talk about some general ideas for grouping the powers that we already have and some ideas for how you could fix the randomness of our current powers to make them feel like they make sense.

To start, I love the fact that our two main heroes are supposed to be a pair power wise. That's a lovely way to approach your lore and is why I think that they should have grouped the other miraculous, too. Why are Creation and Destruction the only set? Why aren't the others in any sort of group? Why do these miraculous have the powers they do? What ties them to this box and not another box?

There are a few ways to approach pairing the other miraculous. You can come at it from a theme perspective such as the fact that both the snake and the rabbit are all about time. You can also look for opposites such as the turtle being all about defense and the dragon being more about offense. You can even go more broad and say that a given group of miraculous is all aspects of one type of power such as the peacock, the goat, and the ladybug all feeling like aspects of creation. There's really no clear way to go about this because the current powers are so freaking random!

When I approach this stuff, I don't just come up with powers. I come up with the lore and let that help guide the powers or I shape the lore around the powers I want to use until both things make sense. For example, it makes sense that Creation would have some magical being guiding it. It also makes sense that Creation would either create Destruction for balance or that they both popped into existence together so that there was always a balance. Once you have that, you say, "Okay, what other Forces would these two want in order to help guide the universe? What can't they do or what do they do consistently enough that they might want to hand it off?"

Going from there, you start to come up with ideas like maybe they wanted Time to have a physical embodiment so that they could get some guidance on the long term effects of the things that they were making, so that's Fluff coming online. But Time is a lot and they liked their balance, so maybe Sass was brought online too in order to balance Fluff with Fluff being focused on what was and what could be while Sass is focused on what is, thereby giving Fluff someone to ground her. Or maybe you even add in a third Kwami to be some sort of historian who remembers the past while Fluff is the future and Sass is the now.

Another thought path is that most things are not pure Creation or pure Destruction. You must destroy to create. When you make bread, yeast consumes sugar to create air bubbles. Creation and Destruction working together. So maybe Tikki and Plagg wanted to make "children" who could do what they couldn't do solo and that's how we got the peacock?

No matter how you go about this, I really don't think that there's a great way to explain/group all nineteen miraculous, especially if you add in the eagle and Fei's wacky prodigious with it's animal abilities. It's just too random! But I do think that there's a lot of potential in strong subsets of the ones we get in canon, especially if you're allowed to edit the powers or the Forces a bit to make them fit their supposed Force or granted power better. I've talked before about how I'd mess with Lucky Charm to remove the odd Luck association and focus on Creation and that's what I'd do with most of the miraculous because, right now, most of them don't make much sense.

For example, Ziggy - the goat - is supposed to be the Kwami of Passion and that somehow gives the power to create anything you want? I know creatives are passionate, but that still doesn't fit in my mind. It would make more sense for this to be an inspiration power like the pig or for the Force to change to Creation and Ziggy is just a lesser ladybug for some reason? And Stompp - the Ox - is Determination, but I'd actually label his shield power as an aspect of Protection, making him in some sort of pairing with the turtle. Self defense verses defense of others?

In short, the canon lore is a disaster that needs major work to feel solid which leads to lots of paths for fixing the mess. In my opinion, the best way to go about fixing it is to take the element that worked best - the Creation/Destruction pairing - and expand that out to make strong, logical lore for the other Kwamis and their associated powers. Lore that probably won't be rooted in any one culture because no culture seems to be a solid match for the lore that canon is using, which is only concerning because of the current obvious associations with China and that's not even touching on the whole Tibetan monks + Chinese culture issue. Go check out the post I linked at the start for my thoughts on that which basically sum up to, "I am not even remotely qualified to talk about this one, but it seems like a terrible idea."

(Once again, reminder that I'm not Chinese or otherwise deeply informed on Chinese culture. I'm just a person who tries her best to respect other cultures and the miracle box sets off a lot of warning bells for me. Those warning bells could always be a false positive, so you shouldn't take my thoughts as some sort of final say on this topic. Please feel free to look into this on your own and form your own opinions.

If you are Chinese or otherwise educated in these topics, then please feel free to reblog this or send an ask giving me some additional context as I really do love learning about this stuff, but it's near impossible to research! I spent a good hour talking to a local librarian trying to find books or articles in our library that talked about the Chinese zodiac from an academic perspective and we found nothing. I've got a few interlibrary loan requests out to academic libraries in our library network though and I'll follow up on this if those books end up having information that adds to the discussion.)

[zee-reviews]

Cavern of Dreams (Steam)

First time?: Yes

[Note: this review will be as spoiler-free as possible, though some minor things from later in the game may be brought up in passing.]

If you're not aware of what Cavern of Dreams is, it's an N64-inspired exploration platformer by Bynine Studio. I've been following the creator on Tumblr for a while and this game has been on my radar since it released, and now that I've finally played it, I can honestly say I enjoyed it a LOT.

The plot of the game is that you are a young dragon named Fynn, and you are trying to rescue your siblings (who are eggs) from a bat artist named Luna. The cavern's guardian, Sage, helps you out by watching over your rescued siblings in the hub world, and giving you new powers when you reach certain milestones.

One of the game's defining traits is that there is no true "combat", to speak of. There are hazards, and you have attacks that interact with the environment, but there's no enemies or bosses to defeat, and no health or lives system. This works out well, as the focus of this style of game is exploration and platforming, so the experience doesn't feel lacking for the omission.

The movement in the game is somewhat unique, as Fynn doesn't quite have the jumping prowess that a Mario or a Banjo would have. However, he does have a roll ability that allows him to go very fast and even ramp off of sloped surfaces like Sonic. The roll controls similar to the roll in Yooka-Laylee, or the Spongeball in Battle for Bikini Bottom; it can be a little tricky to control, but you can carry the momentum into your standard run when you need more precise movement at higher speeds.

Fynn does get more abilities later on, such as a tail whip to slap objects, a glide, a bubble projectile, and perhaps most usefully, a bounce ability that can not only attack the ground, but also gives you more height than your standard jump. The sense of progression you get with each new ability is very satisfying, and towards the end of the game, you'll find the movement to be very complex and rewarding.

Now for the aesthetics. This game was designed primarily by a visual artist, and my god does it show. The game is GORGEOUS, and does a great job at paying tribute to the bold colors and lighting of games like Banjo-Kazooie or Spyro while also having a unique artstyle of its own. Different areas can have different moods; a wooded lake area in a cozy autumn sunset, the metallic interior of a sentient airship, the creepy black-and-white basement illuminated only by the occassional lightning strike, and so much more. I have so many screenshots just of areas I thought looked visually interesting.

My only criticisms of the game are nitpicks, really. For one, the sound design could be underwhelming at times. According to the credits, many of the sounds were grunts made by the people working on the game, or were sourced from freesounds. Nothing was egreiously out-of-place or anything, and it is a passion project by a very small group, so it's easily forgiven.

The only other thing is that I had my camera set to inverted, but the camera in first-person mode was non-inverted, and it would throw off my muscle memory when switching. Though, there aren't a lot of times where you need to switch to first-person mode, so it was never that big of a deal.

This isn't a particularly long game, it's maybe 2/3rds the length of a game like Banjo-Kazooie, but there's still a lot here to enjoy, especially considering the game is only $13 on Steam (even less if you get it in a bundle). I would HIGHLY recommend it to anyone who's even a little interested.

[jacquelinemerritt]

Dragon Ball Z: Super Android 13 Abridged Review

Originally posted August 4th, 2016

Team Four Star shows off their effortless mastery of clever comedy.

On a purely structural level, Super Android 13 is probably the strongest of the Dragonball movie source material that Team Four Star has yet to work with. The androids themselves don’t require any convoluted explanation; they’re just the leftover scraps Dr. Gero has to rely on now that Android 17 and 18 have turned against him, and they kickstart the conflict immediately by attacking Goku in a public place, forcing our heroes out into the arctic to deal with them (which for all of Trunks’ mumbling, is a nice change of scenery from the usual desert wasteland).

These androids are a real threat too, forcing Goku, Trunks, and Vegeta to all go Super Saiyan in order to defeat them, only to find out that even a Super Saiyan can’t stand up to the fully powered Android 13. The conclusion to this fight is excellent as well, with Goku defeating 13 through a creative combination of his two most powerful abilities, rather than simply “punching him harder.”

Team Four Star even manages to avoid the stereotypical characterization of the villains used in these movies, imbuing each of the antagonists with a personality that goes beyond “the one with an accent,” “the one with a weird power,” and “the dumb one.” Android 15 is an homage to protagonists of classic Blaxploitation, walking, talking, and fighting with a near Super Saiyan level of swagger as he drinks himself into oblivion to numb the hollowness inside. Android 14 on the other hand is a quiet, introspective warrior, who from what we see seems to simply be trapped in the wrong crowd.

Both of these characters have fitting ends as well, with 15 being taken down by the prince of Saiyan swagger and utterly humiliated in the process, as Vegeta throws a dog treat at him right before he explodes. 14’s end is fitting as well, as he and Trunks clash and he realizes his impending doom, ending his life by observing that metal has both given him life and taken it away.

Android 13, the primary antagonist, is fairly shallow by comparison. After all, there’s not too much more to him than a funny southern accent, an obsession with trucker hats, brute strength, and a little outright racism.1 It’s not exactly a deep character, especially when compared to the depth Team Four Star has achieved with characters like Cooler (who originally was literally just Freeza by a less clever name).

There is a part of me that feels it would be unfair to southerners to not criticize this shallow portrayal of their culture, but honestly, I had too much fun watching it to really care. RicePirate’s performance is incredibly charismatic, and even though 13 is shallow and kind of terrible, you can’t help but be endeared to him a little. KaiserNeko’s editing and sound design certainly helps here as well, as he makes sure that watching 13 beat the shit out of our protagonists is fun and impactful.

The rest of the movie’s strengths are pretty simple: Team Four Star jam packs these twenty minutes full of really smart jokes, making nods to the fraught relationship Vegeta and Trunks have when it comes to androids, joking about the length of time it takes the Saiyans to actually go Super, and poking fun at themselves in a series of brilliant fourth wall breaks at the end, wherein a narrator walks out and another steps in to criticize the lack of effort he’s perceived in the series since season 2. He may well have a point, not because Team Four Star has gotten lazy in season 3, but because they pull of making Super Android 13 so entertaining, compelling, and funny that it looks absolutely effortless.

Rating: 4.5/5

If you enjoyed this review, consider supporting me on Patreon.

Stray Observations

113’s racism is actually kind of interesting, given that he calls out our protagonists for thinking 15’s defect is his color, but talks down to Piccolo later on due to his color. I’m not quite sure what it says about him, but it’s definitely the most nuanced part of his portrayal.

No quotes in the Strays today, just because this episode is so chock full of funny dialogue that quoting everything I like would fill up a full page.

[sugaredcosmos]

Why Minecraft is boring to you now

I keep seeing this notion online of "Mojang is lazy" and "refuses to put good content into Minecraft". I feel this claim is motivated by a lack of understanding about Minecraft's nature as a game and just how much it differs from most of the other games out there. Like Minecraft is incredibly unique within how we understand what the medium of video games even is, especially when it first came out. It's a game with no goal and it doesn't tell the player what they can and cannot do. it just gives you a set of tools and a palette of blocks and lets you do whatever you want with them.

Because of Minecraft's nature as a game with no expressly stated goal the idea that the game "lacks new content" is sort of a pointless claim. If the point of the game is that the player is the one making content for themselves, what content should the devs add?

"Content" from a traditional game design standpoint is some abstract thing that the game is telling the player to get through. In some cases the player gets some kind of extra items or abilities, and in others it's just "content". So then how do you add "meaningful content" into a game like Minecraft? You might say that they could add an extra boss, or another dimension much like many of the community made mods do. But then you come to the problem of how you implement something like that while keeping the game's identity intact. And then you come to the conundrum of what even is Minecraft's identity?

The first time I was presented with such a conundrum was in middle school. Mojang had just been bought out by Microsoft and the game's future was called into question by many of the people that I talked to at the time. I remember someone saying that they were going to add crossbows into the game and that made me uncomfortable for some reason. It felt to me like crossbows, for some reason, would somehow make the game less like the Minecraft I knew and played.

What's funny is that I was kinda right. Ever since 1.9 I feel like Minecraft has been getting the ship of theseus treatment where every update some aspect of the game changes that moves it away from what I knew as "Minecraft". And, writing this now, I realize that it's always been this way. This was before my time but supposedly there was backlash at minecraft beta 1.8 and the direction the game went following it from the playerbase that played it in the days preceding it. Subsequently, my sort of "generation" within minecraft's rotating main audience (around 1.0-1.8.9) largely stopped playing after 1.9 came out and changed the combat and added stuff for after the ender dragon was killed. I feel like the cycle repeats every few updates or so, and I think we just crossed another one with 1.20. Not expressly because of that sort of ship of theseus effect, but from the aforementioned perceived "lack of content"

I say this because I feel like minecraft's resurgence in 2019 and 2020 put pressure on the devs from the newly brought back playerbase that had been sort of steeping in an increasingly exploitative understanding of game design in most of the more popular triple a games while simultaneously developing their critical thinking skills through late middle school and high school. This, I think, led to a lot of people in my generation thinking that every game should follow this rigid structure of a loosely defined "progression" until you hit the final boss.

Thing is, this is nothing like how minecraft was played back in the day for me. From both what I played and the creators I watched, the gameplay loop of minecraft was to basically start your own building projects and just keep doing that whenever you got an idea. Now, people as adults having their creative minds obliterated by the machine of capitalism (not to mention the failures of the education system under capitalism primarily teaching kids how to be cogs in the machine rather than a fully formed and nuanced human being especially in the cases of how much art and language arts classes are devalued within both academia and life under capitalism, but I digress) erasing any self confidence in themselves to make something beautiful and good in addition to the constant presence of much more experienced builders online for the average player to compare themselves. What this leads to is a depressing loop of making a new world, building a house, finding diamonds, maybe beating the ender dragon and then quitting not knowing how they were once able to find so much joy in a game that is noticeably absent in their life now.

People now are more than ever conditioned by capitalist society into getting a hit of dopamine out of being told to do a task and then doing it, and that trend in everyday life leaks into what players subconsciously want in a game which then shapes game design and honestly it's really depressing.

So then the problem isn't minecraft's game design, or that the game's identity has changes, or the supposed "lazy devs". It's us. We live in a world fundamentally built around heirarchy and being told what to do and that expectation is so deeply ingrained in our own identities that when we're given the freedom to literally do whatever we want we become paralyzed and get bored at whatever endeavor we choose.

Try playing Minecraft again. Try it again with all of this in mind. It'll quite literally change the game for you. I know it's doing that for me.

TL;DR: The reason you don't enjoy Minecraft anymore is because capitalism sucks.

[idkjustletmescroll]

One thing I’d change about TDP season 4

One thing about me is I can’t be trusted to make a solid opinion about something the first time I watch/read it. I have to watch it a second time to really make up my mind and think critically...so here’s my official solid thought on the one thing I’d change the most about The Dragon Prince season 4.

Two, technically. I’d rather make the time jump a matter of months instead of two years. It doesn’t feel like two years, y’know? It feels like people are just getting back to “normal” after a lot of crazy shit happening. I’d keep the makeovers and stuff, but...a little less of a time jump.

Anyways, my second is that I’d want more Amaya having HER OWN conflicts! I mean, I get they wanted to explore sunfire culture and give Janai development--which I still loved! I loved Janai when she was introduced and I love her now and I love her as queen. But--as a post I just reposted says--we needed more for Amaya to grapple with. You can’t tell me that staying in Xadia long-term, away from her nephews she loves so much and her home, AND being in the same land that killed her sister, was easy. And as that same posts mentions, the whole “two cakes” scene, where Janai is saying that she doesn’t feel like she can have both the life with Amaya she wants and the crown? Should’ve gone to Amaya. And I completely agree!

Furthermore, how are they adjusting to each other’s cultures? Has Amaya told Janai about Sarai? Have they gone to Khessa or Sarai’s graves? If they’re getting married, Janai’s definitely spent time with Callum and Ezran, right? Amaya can’t be both General of Katolis and the Queen Consort of the Sunfire Elves. How’s that going over with her troops? And the people? Who’ll replace her? Does Ezran ever write to her for advice? Does she visit him? Does she have friends with the elves? Do they respect her? Has Janai even been to Katolis? These little things about their relationship.

And a lot of these don’t have to be big things! Amaya struggling a bit with calming down the human troops that would’ve listened to her without question before season 4. Janai mentioning that Ezran or Callum wrote them a letter and that’s what she’s reading. Janai helping Amaya with the transition/choices she has to make. We all saw the sunfire influence on Amaya’s new armor, but it would’ve been nice for Janai to have a necklace or something with the design that the Katolis royal crowns and Amaya’s shield have. Small things like that.

[lifeofkaze]

A Search for Balance

CHAPTER 13: PREPARATIONS

Find the masterlist with all chapters of this story here, the previous chapter here, and the next one here.

Tagging: @flareshogwarts

New Season, Old Power Balances

Rita Skeeter provides you with everything you need to know about who's really got a shot at the League Cup this year, and why this season might see the end of the pitiable performance of the Chudley Cannons for good.

The time our illustrious Quidditch stars have spent slacking draws to a close and fans all over the British Isles are on the edge of their seats for the start of the brand-new season. 

Will the Montrose Magpies go into the season as the firm favourites again? Who will turn out to be their most dangerous pursuer? 

The hottest team to watch this year might be the Wigtown Wanderers. Are they ready to fight for glory, or has last year's crushing defeat dented Coach Parkin's injured pride too much to keep a level head? With Skye Parkin and Elizabeth Jameson - whose contract situation still remains unresolved - as the new duo leading the Wanderers into battle, will they prove to be a force to be reckoned with, or are they nothing but a one-season wonder? 

Lizzie fidgeted on the pedestal until the small, dark-haired man circling her gave her an impatient look. He reached out and pulled on the fabric of her dress, securing it with pins behind her back. With a critical expression, he stepped away to marvel at his work.

"What do we think?"

His question wasn't directed at Lizzie but at the other woman in the room. Melinda McRae put aside her cup of tea and looked Lizzie up and down. Her eyes lingered on the exposed skin of her shoulders, accentuated by the structured sleeves that wrapped snugly around Lizzie’s upper arms. 

"Don’t you think it’s a little revealing for the occasion?" 

The designer clicked his tongue. "I followed your son's requests regarding the shoulders, Mrs McRae. And everything else, really."

Melinda McRae nodded graciously. "Then it's perfect, Emmanuel. If this is how Matthew wants her to look on their big day, he shall have his wish. Don’t you agree, Lizzie?"

Lizzie didn't reply, inspecting her reflection in the floor-length mirror in silence. The dress that had been tailor-made for her was breathtaking, indeed. The blinding white satin clung to her figure like a second skin, the diamond brooch in the centre of her heart-shaped neckline sparkling in the sunlight. From her waist downward the skirt narrowed, creating a stunning silhouette but allowing only for very cautious movements. Even though it was warm outside, the air of the room was chilly on Lizzie's shoulders, and she had to fight the urge to pull her sleeves over them. 

Melinda raised an eyebrow at Lizzie's prolonged silence. "Child, I believe I asked you a question."

Snapping out of her daze, Lizzie hummed in response. "It's beautiful," she told Emmanuel and meant it. His dress was a work of art - just nothing like the wedding dress she had imagined for herself. "Do you think we could make it a little less tight, though? I don't think I'll be able to dance in this."

Or breathe, she added in her thoughts.

"Of course we can, but that would really take away from the effect," Emmanuel said with a forced smile, looking as if Lizzie had suggested that they burn the dress and exchange it for a sack of dragon dung instead. 

Melinda seemed to share the notion. By the way she was gripping the handle of her teacup between her thumb and index finger, it was apparent that she was displeased. 

"Love, it shouldn't be your concern how to dance in this exquisite gown Emmanuel has created for you. All you need to do is follow Matthew's lead. Trust me, he will take great care of you." 

A doubtful noise escaped Lizzie, making Melinda's brows knit together in a frown. "Anything you wish to say?"

"No, you're right, of course," Lizzie breathed. "Matthew will make sure everything is fine."

"You won't have to worry about a thing. He'll make sure you're well provided for, now and always.”

Now it was Lizzie's turn to frown. "I can provide for myself, thank you very much." 

Melinda chirped a laugh. "Of course you can, sweetheart, but you won't need to. And once you’re married and have a family of your own, you can pay him in kind. You’ll make a wonderful mother.” 

Confused, Lizzie turned as far as her dress would allow. "Who says we even want children?"

"But of course you do. Isn't that the whole point of it?" 

Lizzie didn't think that sacrificing her career for children who didn't even exist yet was the whole point at all, but she didn't want to start an argument either. Looking for a way to escape the situation, her eyes fell on the grandfather clock in the corner of the room. Within a second, she had made up her mind.

Evading Emmanuel's perpetually tugging hands, Lizzie lifted her dress as best as she could and hopped down from the pedestal. The designer gave a gasp of protest, but she ignored it and purposefully walked towards the door. 

"Where do you think you're going?" Melinda called after her.

"The line-up for our first match is being announced today, so I need to hurry. I want to make sure I’m going to play," Lizzie replied, marching from the room with her head held high. "Or isn’t that the whole point of it?"  

***

As it turned out, Lizzie hadn’t needed to hurry at all. When she entered the changing room as one of the last players to arrive, Ethan didn't look like he would announce the line-up anytime soon. He and Skye were standing to the side, talking too quietly for her to hear. The tension between them made Lizzie feel uneasy just looking at them. 

"Do you know what's going on?" she asked Morgaine as she took her gear from her locker.

"Not a clue," Morgaine shrugged. "Probably just an argument or something."

Once everyone had changed and gathered in the middle of the changing room, the air was filled with expectant silence. When Ethan made no move to speak, a confused murmur arose. 

"Aren't you going to tell us the line-up, Coach?" Bethany Tweed, one of the Beaters, finally plucked up the courage to ask. She almost shrank into her Quidditch robes when Ethan directed his glare at her. 

"I'll announce the team when I see fit," he barked, casting a grim look around. "You'd better not be sure of being on it only because you were in the past. Before I tell you anything, you'll get your arses up in the air and convince me you've earned your spot. What are you waiting for?" 

As Lizzie had suspected, Ethan's foul mood made for a particularly rough practice session, and it wasn't long before everyone was utterly exhausted. After having to duck out of the way of a sloppily beaten Bludger for the third time, she'd seen enough of it. 

"I don't know what's going on, but your dad needs to tone it down. If we keep going like this, we’ll have casualties before the season even starts."

Skye, breathless from the rapid passing exercises, considered Lizzie, then put her thumb and index finger to her lips and whistled sharply. 

"Alright, you lot! Time for a break!"

Exchanging furtive shrugs, the team returned to the ground. Judging by Ethan’s angry look as he joined them, it was clear that the interference didn’t sit well with him at all. 

"What's this all about?" he asked brusquely as soon as he was within earshot. "What are you calling a break for?" 

"The team's knackered, Dad. Just give them a moment to breathe."

"Am I the coach or you?"

"I'm the captain," Skye raised her chin. "It's my job to make sure the team's well off just as much as yours, ain’t it?" 

"Let's hear your thoughts then if you're so sure what's good for the team," Ethan said coolly. "What's the next exercise we should do?" 

"I don't know," Skye said, taken aback by the question. "We could do some attacks, I guess. Scoring never hurts, right?"

"Now that's some news," Ethan scoffed, raising his voice for the rest to hear. "Have you heard, lads? Scoring never hurts. How have I overlooked this wisdom my entire career?" His attention suddenly shifted to Lizzie. "What would you do to have the team recover?"

Lizzie hesitated, thoughts racing inside her head. "I'd maybe stop using the balls and do some formation flying."

Ethan now looked more curious than disgruntled. "Why?"

"The training was hard so far and the team does need a break," Lizzie explained. "Focusing on flying rather than playing for a bit would make for a more rounded practice and would be good for all of us, not only the Chasers and Keepers." 

From the corner of her eye, Lizzie saw Orion incline his head in approval. She quickly pushed the thought of him aside and concentrated on Ethan, whose face had split into a smile. 

"I like your reasoning, lass," he said, and even sounded a little impressed. "It was a good choice, making you co-captain. Takes some instinct, understanding what your team needs and all." He clapped his hands together. "You heard her! We'll start with an individual flying course, then do some manoeuvres without the balls. Anyone who falls out of line is in for broomstick pull-ups." 

As they lined up for the first obstacle course, Lizzie shot Skye a grin, which Skye didn't return. She waited for her turn in silence, completing the course quicker than the rest of them. For the remainder of the session, she didn't speak a word more than strictly necessary.

Even with additional resting time, everyone was glad when they could finally drag themselves back to the changing room. Lizzie couldn't wait to get home to Mouse, a glass of cherry wine, and her bed, but there was still the roster left to be announced. When Ethan stepped in front of them with a list in hand, her tiredness gave way for a fluttery feeling in her stomach. 

"This is it, lads," Ethan said to the assembled players. "The season’s almost here. Come the weekend, we'll get a new chance to prove that the Cup should have been ours all along." 

A murmur of consent went through the room. Ethan let it pass before he continued. 

"The preparations were tough, but I'm proud of how far we’ve come. The line-up's changed, but that doesn't mean it's any less. If any, we’re better than ever. Be that as it may, there's only seven of you who have earned the privilege to play this weekend. These are…"

As he called out the players for their first match - beginning with the Keeper, the Seeker, and the Beaters - Lizzie's heart thumped harder with every name read off the list. By the time Ethan had reached the Chasers, she was holding her breath. 

"As the captain, Skye is set," Ethan said, looking between Lizzie, Orion and the other Chasers. "The other spots will go to Jameson and Amari this time. Sorry lass," he added at Morgaine's disappointed look. "There'll be enough chances to earn your stripes before the season’s over."

Lizzie slowly exhaled, a wide smile forming on her face. For a brief moment, her and Orion's eyes met. They hadn't spoken much since boot camp, but Lizzie was too relieved to hide her happy grin as he smiled back at her. 

The feeling of exhilaration stuck with her through Ethan's instructions on how to rest and recover. As she exited the changing room, surrounded by the chatter and laughter of her friends, Lizzie was too preoccupied with her personal moment of triumph to notice that Skye was trailing behind, trudging after them with gritted teeth and her eyes cast to the ground. 

[aspiringsophrosyne]

Episode 9: A Test of Pride.

Oh, don't you hate cliffhangers? Unless the movie's damn good enough to justify it, and those kinds are a rarity these days.

The Good.

This was another episode written by Sam and Travis, and it shows. Later I'll talk about the show's humor compared to the stream, but for now, I'll say that this one had some pretty good gags. The return of Boulder, Parchment, Shears, and Grog slamming Pike face-first into a barrel are peak Critical Role jokes.

You can catch an early nod to "When the Bald Man Cries" before Scanlan takes off; the beret on the dragonfly was a great little touch. 

And hey, Cobalt Soul cameo!

I appreciate the Grog backstory. Especially since, in-game, Travis has been repeatedly reticent (at best) to explore his characters' pasts. Ironic, given that, so far, they've turned out pretty damn hype. The level of brutality is perfect; it shows just how little freedom, care, and love Grog would've gotten had he not spared Wilhand and been given away through him and Pike.

Also, I love the detail that Kevdak has one blind eye in the present day because Grog slashed it out in their backstory. Took me a re-watch or two to pick up on that.

I dig the focus on civilians. I like seeing how not everybody in this world is a mercenary or can defend themselves as the protagonists can. In the game, there would definitely be individual NPCs that got focus and love, but you couldn't do too much, or blood vessels in the DM's brain would eventually bust.

I love Kaylie's design; it's a cute pixie-ish look that doesn't conflict with her justifiable distrust and angry behavior and makes the family resemblance clear as crystal. 

In terms of characterization, I appreciate that she and the troupe are trying to get help for the rest of the town; you get the impression Kaylie at least could sneak out on her own, but she's not doing that; she specifically charges Scanlan with the task of getting everyone out.

We got to see a little more from Zanror, too. Most of his portrayal was off-screen before the Kill Box fight in the original, so I liked seeing his and Grog's former closeness and Zanror's misgivings about Kevdak before that in these Herd-centric episodes.

The Bad. (Or at least, not great.)

I have something to say about Dranzel's troupe, but I think it fits better a couple episodes down the road. Keep them in mind for now.

Nitpick

I wouldn't have minded it if they'd made the flash back in the beginning of the episode a montage of different towns instead of just the one instance we saw. This would give us more info within the same amount of time, plus you can show multiple pillaged towns and Grog never encountering someone who was completely unprepared to fight back to any degree. Until he meets Wilhand.

This makes his change of heart make more sense and hit harder.

Pacing.

This is another episode with less-than-stellar pacing. 

Grog and Pike's part of the story is handled well, but Scanlan and Kaylie's storyline should feel much less drawn out than it does. There's a cut back to those two, Dranzel's troupe, and the various townsfolk a couple of times; nothing really happens with them before Scanlan convinces Kaylie he can get them out before he reunites with Grog and Pike.

We can fix that.

There's a dragon in the neighborhood: have his presence shake the walls, have Scanlan peer outside only to see a long black tail slinking around the building, or have Umbrasyl's acid breath seep through the roof and down onto the people below, who cry out in fear and pain and then desperately try to stifle themselves so they don't draw his attention. 

You can play up the suspense and uncertainty of the moment and make it feel like something catastrophic could happen at any time.

Pike's Mom?

I believe it was Sam who acknowledged during the watch party for this episode that there was some confusion over whether the gnomish woman we saw in the flashback was Pike or maybe her mother. This confusion was due to her hair being black, and her calling Wilhand her grandfather. Sam said that they didn't want Pike to say "great-great" every time she spoke of him, and that's reasonable. 

Except...

If you've got a scene where a character looks markedly different than usual, to the point they can be mistaken for another character or a relative, you have to. If there was any scene where Pike needed to refer to her great-great-grandfather as such, it was here, so it would be clear that this woman was Pike.

Kevdak

We'll talk more about Ralph Ineson and how fucking intimidating he and the animators made Kevdak in the next episode...but I gotta say, he comes across as a little generic here compared to his stream counterpart. Kevdak's scary, sure, but not in any specific way. He feels scary the way any big, brutal dude would feel scary.

I like the idea of one of the folks Zanror was talking to about a rebellion getting impulsive, attacking Kevdak, and either getting mutilated (losing an ear, or maybe a finger) or being killed outright in turn. This tells us two things: the rest of the Herd is not and maybe has not been happy with Kevdak's leadership, but he is very good at putting down dissenters. It's a reminder of the Herd and its leader's specific brand of brutality.

In the same vein I would've liked to see them do more to tell us what Kevdak's motivations were. In the wrap-up for the first campaign, the DM revealed that, as had been hinted at during the stream, Kevdak had been biding his time until he would eventually try to take down Umbrasyl. By contrast, the audience doesn't even get hints about what Kevdak's deal is in the show. Is he genuinely cowed by Umbrasyl? Is he biding his time until he can rebel against him? Is that just what he's telling himself to avoid coming to terms with the fact that he's a dragon's servant? What's going on with him? Despite the show having multiple opportunities to clarify this for us, it doesn't. 

That's it for this one folks. The last three episodes of the last season were nuts, and this one's no exception.

[house-vestra]

fe17 thoughts (part 1)

first round of engage thoughts... i just beat chapter 17 but this is mostly about the firene gang so probably only spoilers for the early game

probably the worst FE in terms of line writing; ppl rag on fates for bad writing but mainly for plot holes/concept but i didn’t mind fe14 on a line level. there have certainly been more times during engage where the actual lines characters were given felt very amateurish.

in terms of characterization, i feel this game is probably the weakest as well. the character gimmicks are fine to me (none feel very egregious at this point) but i think the characters are hurt by how short the supports are. i think these are the shortest supports in an FE game? generally i feel like in FE, supports generally each contain a full story beat so a support chain will consist of 3 separate encounters, usually with at 1 or 2 reversals in there, but fe17 supports sometimes take all 3 levels to cover just one story beat (i.e. the b support picks up directly where the c support conversation left off, rather than being a new conversation resulting from the characters getting to know each other better). that gives the impression the characterization is much shallower than in other FE games. but i’m not convinced it... needed to be this way? there are moments where i feel like some characters DO have other things going on for them other than the 1 gimmick/character trait from their c-support.. i’ll revisit this when i’ve unlocked more a-supports i guess

like many people, i was taken aback by Alear’s design but I’ve mostly come around to it. I played M!Alear because he has less hair to look at. ppl have criticized the divine dragon thing being an excuse for protagonist worship but I don’t mind it; the game plays with how being worshipped is actually something uncomfortable for Alear and there’s a minor recurring theme about the nature of worship in Elyos which is a little juicy

mixed feelings on framme/clanne (i always want to write framme/cramme lol). probably least fav christmas cavs, which is a feat when alan/lance exist. i actually do think the Divine Dragon Fan Club is very funny... but i don’t like either of their designs and i feel like.... they’re annoying??

alfred is a wannabe himbo and i love that for him. it’s an interesting choice to give him that personality but make him look like That. i liked most of his supports; he is very funny.

reserving judgment of celine until i’ve gotten her later supports. she does talk about tea a lot but i sense she does have more going on; i like that she’s more canny and mature than a lot of kind younger sister types. i feel like a lot of the character supports are padded by polite pleasantries but celine sometimes cuts through the niceties in a way that suggests there’s more going on with her?? i will return to this point after i get more supports. i do like her design; she is cute and her big poofy dress is funny.

chloe is pretty. i think her thing with eating weird foods is funny as well, but the writers (possibly localizers, could be in the original jp context as well) missed the mark with calling the food “folk food.” it would be one thing if what she was eating was actually established in lore to be what commoners or regional peasants eat as a fact of the world. we do have a lot of noble characters who could be aghast by that. but we also have characters from poorer backgrounds and nobody eats what chloe is shown to be eating, so it doesn’t feel like honest world building when chloe lectures other characters about the authenticity of weird regional delicacies

(but it could have been funny if chloe could only cook weird things that no one else likes in the cafe)

louis’s thing with watching ppl is a little uncomfy for me but i could change my mind at some point. i do like his green eyes when he opens them, and i like that they do have him open them at times; that endears the character to me. i like that he’s a pushy big brother to zelkov

limited thoughts on boucheron; i do like his reactions to alfred and etie harassing him and he makes a good straight man to them. “those are my abs” from the etie support was great. his model does make it abundantly clear that the shoulders on the adult male model are too broad, so that’s distracting.

i actually like most of the firene gang on their own... but as a group they are too nice lol and it makes most of the conversations/supports in the early game feel kind of bland and samey.

ESPECIALLY QUEEN EVE; i feel like her design is very regal, proud, and borderline-could-be-a-bitch but then she just is a normal nice lady, so i was disappointed.

as a side note, to all the people (on reddit) who keep saying they wrote etie to be a buff bodybuilder but didn’t draw her as one... they didn’t write her to be a buff bodybuilder. they wrote her to aspire to be a buff bodybuilder, but she struggles to put on muscle like alfred does, read the words on the screen, i beg of you.

thought jean would be a stronger unit but he’s... not that good for me; i feel like... qi adepts aren’t good???? i don’t mind that he and anna are children but i have seen some criticism of their ages.

anna is cute. i have the same criticism of her as i do with all post-fe12 anna’s, which is that fe12 anna is best anna. the money thing is more toned down in engage, which i appreciate. she is so little. i think she has good growths but i haven’t noticed her being that good because mine is flimsy as paper.

gameplay-wise, the emblems are really fun. this is a new level of unit customization for Fire Emblem. class changing/skills were serviceable before but they required grinding and some level of commitment to them, whereas i’ve been swapping emblems on and off characters very liberally so the way i play each unit changes between battles. that is very neat.

edelgard/dimi/claude is my favorite emblem; fallen star is very good, atrocity is strong but less useful, raging storm is mostly not useful due to the cost but i’ve used it once. tiki is good as well as she’s strong; i’ve not noticed her increased growths having that much effect but could be because i swap her on and off people.

for base game emblems, i think probably... micaiah  > lyn > sigurd > byleth > celica > eirika > corrin > ike > lucina > leif > marth > roy

i haven’t used leif and roy that much so they could be better than i recall.

unit-wise, i don’t think i’ve noticed many stand outs for me? everyone is roughly usable, and i’ve trained everyone but clanne and vander (i’m in desperate need of more master seals)

everyone is saying you need to promote at level 10. THERE’S NOT ENOUGH MASTER SEALS TO DO THAT. i promoted everyone at level 20 and i still have people sitting there waiting for master seals.

speaking of not having enough of a resource, i’m also very poor. i upgraded all countries to level 2 to get their regional clothes but the level 3 is TOO EXPENSIVE. i have a lot of gold skirmishes but they’re rough to do bc they’re pretty high level and if i use my high level guys, those guys will level up, and then the skirmish level will INCREASE MORE. this is... like a punishment for sisyphus

they buffed armors so much that mages are really indispensable. hammers and armorslayers... do not work lol

i appreciate that they gave us lots of shiny staves to use, and pretty early too. i have not used them.

i guess alear is my strongest unit??? they’re pretty dodgy but didnt stop marni from ONE SHOTTING ME.

i’ll do brodia gang next; i have lots of thoughts on them. i’m recording these for future me’s reference, but i’m happy to hear other people’s thoughts too!

[mdhwrites]

I think Dana explained the betas though, it was the characters in a much different, heavier and darker story, that probably would have leaned more into the idea of witches and… well hell. Since Hieronymus Bosch drew lots of purgatory images. But you cant really do that for Disney. Plus to be fair, you’re meant to be able to throw ideas at a wall (even if they are very unlikely to work) for concept art and then be willing to immediately dump stuff and try new ideas without getting attached.

 Side note, while the big selling point for the Betas is that they are edgy or can be used to explore darker subjects, people sometimes just make them borderline evil, or just… actual evil, did you know its very easy to find beta fics tagged with non con and/or underage? Yea. They make Willow actively hateful and sadistic or make the Lumity ship a copy paste of Catradora, aka have them beat the life out of each other but then say uwu owo its not toxic, they love each other.

(seriously i cannot take ship discourse in fandoms seriously, they'll say one ship is toxic or problematic and turn around and ship the same thing but worse.)

For the first point... You're absolutely right. I should not judge for someone exploring different possibilities in concept art because I have no idea when in production that art was made or what the idea for the show was at the time. A LOT of things go through a half a dozen rewrites before the public ever sees them. Frozen apparently came down to the wire for its final plot and it's a miracle we got what we did at all. And even then, I think that movie is still a bit of a mess at times.

Also, fun fact, I have considered an Owl House AU where Luz went to hell instead. In that, Eda would be a demon looking for redemption and her only real ally, but also the only one trying to be real with her so Luz keeps thinking the demons who want to manipulate her are the ones to trust. Amity would have also been an angel undercover and supposed to be giving reports to god about the comatose child who's soul went to hell for some reason when the worst she deserves is Limbo. I could do a concept pitch blog for it but *shrug*

So I think it's personally wrong to conflate canon material with fan material and what is being criticized. Fanworks and the like are one of the safest places to explore different topics or express pain and the like you've had. It also only commonly has one or two eyes on it to say something might be toxic while media on tv usually has a few dozen and the fact that no one catches the red flags is... questionable. Especially why those red flags exist.

(As a note: I can't weigh in on if Catradora is toxic or not because I have watched only one episode of that show. Not even the first. I really ought to though since it seems up my alley.)

WITH THAT SAID, fanfiction authors aren't exactly going to always be respectful about such topics and the like and it took the majority of a year for anyone to tell me people used the Betas for more than murderous, drug addicted psycopaths. Even those people praised a story for having the two get into random fist fights with strangers in a Denny's parking lot so... Yeah. I'm not going to say the characterization of the Betas in the fandom is the best, or their use for that matter.

With all that said, I feel like the nicer Amity has become, and the more the two have come closer and closer to their Beta designs, the less I see of the Betas. Even now, I see lot less blood smears and sadistic grins and a lot more "It's just a normal Lumity picture except a different design." These aren't criticisms really but more just me ruminating on the fact that I think the fandom lost a lot of people who liked the edgier possibilities because of how poorly the show handled its own edge.

As for me as a content creator, have I ever considered using the Betas? I mean, I have for a one off or two, notably a one off where Luz is a dragon and Amity the willing sacrifice to her, but a one off can be hard to capture anything really interesting about them. I'd say I've only had one idea where I maybe wanted to use the Betas and that idea is a Noir Mystery? (It's complicated) story where Amity is a brothel owner in part to make her mom mad, Boscha is both bouncer and stripper for said brothel and dating Amity and Luz is a detective but not super gritty or the like. More Columbo (from what I hear, haven't seen it myself) than normal pulpy fiction Noir types. Also her detective style would lean a lot more into reading people and connections than forensics.

Another story I could do a concept pitch blog for since god only knows when or if I'll ever get to it. That idea is WAY more fleshed out than the going to hell one though.

But yeah, the betas are fine in my opinion to exist and mostly fine in how the fandom uses them because... I mean, if you don't like what they're being used for, just don't consume it. It's not necessary AT ALL to be a part of the fandom and I think a lot of fandoms really need to learn to chill about content creators creating content they don't like.

I don't think people realize the sorts of spaces they're creating within their own fandom because of that or the damage to their show's popularity either. It's a complicated topic and one I've had to give a lot of thought as, well... Ex-erotica writer, remember? And I've still done one erotic story for TOH too, even if it's aged up.

[grnolan]

A Non-Exhaustive List of Stuff to Watch During the Strike

Everybody has a backlog of things to watch, but for everyone who is like me and routinely looks at that backlog and goes "but none of those hundred things sound interesting right now", here are some recommendations.

If You Have…

NETFLIX

Avatar The Last Airbender: Animated/Fantasy; 3 seasons; A teenage chosen one reawakens 100 years into the war he’s meant to stop. If you somehow are on Tumblr and haven’t seen this show, give it a try now.

Cunk on Earth: Documentary; 1 season; A very serious documentary that very seriously tells the story of the history of human progress.

Glow Up (2019): Competition; 4 seasons; Aspiring makeup artists compete for opportunities in the industry.

Nailed It! (2018): Competition; 7 seasons; Nicole Byer and Jacques Torres laugh with people who are not bakers as they try to bake extremely complicated desserts in less time than professionals could do it.

Wynonna Earp (2016): Western Horror; 4 seasons; The cursed descendant of famous lawman Wyatt Earp hunts demons in a small Canadian town alongside her (canonically bisexual) little sister, a US Marshall, an immortal Doc Holliday, and a (canonically lesbian) local cop.

HULU

Domino Masters (2022): Competition; 1 season; A competition show where teams build Rube Goldberg devices primarily focusing on dominos.

Holey Moley (2019): Competition; 3 seasons; Increasingly ridiculous mini golf holes where the ball can go into a water hazard but the people go in much more frequently.

Lego Masters (2020): Competition; 3 seasons; Teams of two build complex Lego designs based on each week’s theme.

Primeval (2007): Sci-Fi; 5 seasons; British scientists and government officials discover fluctuating portals to various time periods, which release dinosaurs and other creatures into the modern day. You’ll watch the first season and go “idk why this is considered good” and then all the other seasons will happen.

DISNEY PLUS

DuckTales (2017): Animated/Adventure Comedy; 3 seasons; A reboot of the 80s show of the same name, but with better character development and better treatment of its female characters.

The Owl House (2020): Animated/Horror Comedy; 3 seasons; An Afro Latina human girl is on her way to summer camp to be taught “normalcy” when she goes through a portal and finds herself in the Demon Realm. She decides that it’s way better than camp and stays. Friendship, family, love, and PTSD ensue.

MAX

Baking Championships: The Baking Championships (Kids Baking Championship, Halloween Baking Championship, Holiday Baking Championship, Spring Baking Champion Championship) are all a nice heartwarming fun time.

The Great Pottery Throw Down (2015): Competition; 5 seasons; You know how chill and fun GBBO is? Imagine that but with pottery.

CRUNCHYROLL

RWBY (2013): Animated/Fantasy; 9 seasons; A group of girls join a school to train for hunting monsters and fighting crime with cool weapons that are usually some sort of melee weapon and also a gun. The animation gets better with every season.

NO STREAMING SERVICES

Board Game Club: An ongoing series on the No Rolls Barred YouTube page; a bunch of people get together and play board games. This probably sounds like it would be boring but it is absolutely fantastic.

Critical Role: YouTube; 2 completed campaigns, 1 ongoing; A group of voice actor friends get together to play Dungeons and Dragons. Increasingly well-produced over time.

The Lizzie Bennet Diaries: 100 episodes; An adaptation of Pride and Prejudice that takes place entirely over vlogs. Very funny, handles the confines of a vlog setting fairly well, and Ashley Clements (Lizzie) is fabulous.

Video Game YouTubers: Particularly Let’s Plays, speedruns, and challenges. I personally enjoy Pokemon challenges like by FlygonHG, and Super Mario Odyssey Hide and Seek by a bunch of different Mario streamers is great fun.

[smokeybrand]

Critical Success

Finally completed my first run through Baldur’s Gate 3 and I understand, wholeheartedly, why this game has so much praise. It’s f*cking brilliant. Seriously, I’m already about six hours into my second run, and I’m still having a blast. Seriously, this game has exceed all of my expectations. Baldur’s Gate 3, for me, is as good as Mass Effect in almost every way. If you’ve been around these parts for a while, then you know that is high praise. ME is one of my favorite game franchises of all-time. They won me over with solid world building, great narrative and plotting, plus some of the best character work I’ve experienced in any form of media. I’ve been through Tali’s story so many times, and I still love every second of it! It’s been years, man, and every time I come back to that world, I have a blisteringly difficult time not courting my darling Quarian. I get that same vibe with Karlach. Goddamn, is my muscle mommy Tiefling barbarian, straight sugary adorableness!

Now, I know when I say it was the narrative that hooked me, that’s kind of a cheap reason. Dungeons and Dragons has been around for about as long as I’ve been alive. A little longer actually. I watched the old cartoon when I was super young and have been DnD adjacent my entire life. My best friend in elementary was a huge DnD guy so I am aware of how vast that world truly is. That said, the narrative chosen for this game is just plain good. The scope is vast enough for a grand adventure, but the detail in every interaction is what does it for me. These cats really put lobe and effort into the script, plotting some great experiences and legitimate, emotional, situations. Look me in the face and tell me Astarion’s story doesn’t get that single man tear to drop. And the voice cast?! My goodness, did they perform their asses off! It was a weird experience, mostly because these characters are all brand new, yet, their actors were cast perfectly to bring them to life. Like, there is no way Shadowheart doesn’t sound EXACTLY like Jennifer English. None.

Obviously, my favorite part about this game was the actually flaming, delicious cinnamon roll, known as Karlach Cliffgate. Everything about that chick is fantastic. Design, backstory, growth; I adore me some Karlach. She’s the reason I even bought this game. She was the first companion I romanced. Loved every second of that side story. Until the end. Her ending sucks balls, which is the biggest beef I have with this game overall; The ending is kind of lame. Listen I loved every second in the Forgotten Realms. The journey was epic and entertaining but the ending? Man, that felt flaccid as sh*t. The weakest part of this game, for me, was that final battle. After facing off against Ketheric and Orin, among others, the Netherbrain was kind of meh. The entire conclusion was just less. That’s the one thing Mass Effect has over this game. The ending to every ME title was epic, cinematic, and satisfying. The ending to BG3 left me wanting. It’s not bad, per se, just pedestrian. We had such highs and legitimate pathos throughout our adventure just to get to the end for what? And ending? It feels like the game just kind of stops. You obviously have your character moments, which are dope (except for Karlach's because f*ck that sh*t, bro), but not much outside of that really gets you pumped. I wasn’t disappointed of anything, just indifferent.

At the end of the day, this game was fantastic. This gaming experience was transformative. I’ve already started my second play through, opting (after much internal debate) to romance Shadowheart. I hear she’s the most popular option and, so far, I understand why. Still team Karlach till I die, but Shadowheart is a different kind of adorable. Rolling hard with Astarion in my party, Le’zel was in his place last time, and I’ve already seen some interestingly catty banter about. Good times, that. I plan to actually cure this Shadows out this time and see where that goes, just like I opted to go Underdark instead of over the mountains or whatever. I’m already set on a Dark Urge run after this one, or whenever Patch Seven drops because there are hints of a possible romance with Alfira. Also, Dragonborns are cool to look at. There’s SO much to do in this game, so much to explore and develop. You can get lost in this narrative, which is the entire point of DnD. It’s wild seeing how far this franchise has come. Once upon a time, it was the reason for a Satanic Panic. Then it was a denizen for the Nerdy. Now, it’s got a solid film under its belt and, arguably, one of the greatest video games of all time. In conclusion, Karlach is best girl. Fight me!

[jaded-tisay]

Girl talking about a piece of media: This female character is kinda annoying and stupid, not a big fan of her :/

Guy talking about a side character he likes: No one will ever replicate what Chadren did. He was literally an unstoppable force and immovable object. He was pure, absolute strength. Every technique, every trick and gimmick, every asspull, he was unfazed by. A spirit bomb by SSBKK Goku was easily repelled. Frozen in time? Who cares, he's like, stronger than time. Goku finally asspulls Ultra Instinct, and it does fucking nothing against a barely-even-trying Jiren. Unlocking new power doesn't help, fighting smart doesn't help, he facetanks beams, he beats people up by just looking at them. They unlock new powers, they team up to fight him together, it doesn't fucking matter. Nothing they do can reach his might. No antagonist has ever felt this far above what the protagonists could muster. He was truly a juggernaught.

Something occurred to me as I gazed upon the glorious aesthetics of this CHAD. He is just a ripped as fuck ayy. Nothing more nothing less. Obviously everyone can see that, and it's been criticized many times. What people failed to see however, was that therein lies the value. His simplistic, "boring" design was not an accident. It was a symbol. A symbol for his belief in absolute strength. You see, CHADren is unique among the many antagonists Goku faced in that he is simply strong. Nothing more, nothing less. He doesn't have weird gimmicks, he doesn't have fancy techniques that border on magic, his race doesn't have weird biological gifts, he doesn't have transformations. He's just fucking strong because he worked for it. And with that raw strength he surpasses everything, no gimmick works on him, no transformation helps, even freezing him in time doesn't defeat him.

Jiren the Gray. Amusing how this simple name inspires even TIME ITSELF to tremble in fear and fall to his might. Kachi Katchin, the STRONGEST MATERIAL IN THE KNOWN MULTIVERSE, which even the GRAND PRIEST HIMSELF claimed was indestructible, crumpled like fucking CARDBOARD beneath GODren's power. A technique that only the angels have mastered--a technique that escapes even the GoDs--was mere FODDER against ALMIGHTYren once he unleashed his true power.Why is this, you ask? Because DISCIPLINEDren knows the value of cultivating pure inner strength through intense meditation, studious adherence to the Warrior's Code, and the complete lack of ties and bonds to anything that will do ANYTHING but increase his strength. He's truly a momentous character, a quintessential testament to the overarching theme of Dragon Ball that has been oh so omnipresent since the series' humble beginnings.

I used to be an anti-Jiren like you guys. However, slowly and over time, my perspective of Jiren started to change as I watched him continuously annihilate everyone in the T.O.P. I contemplated for a bit, and started to ask myself what made him so fascinating as a character, a view I still have of him even after his backstory was revealed. Why does a characters backstory have to be convoluted for them to be a likeable anyways? Dragon Ball never had any complex backstories; perhaps one could argue that Jiren’s backstory wasn’t particularly unique amongst the other characters, but Jiren as a whole is more distinctive than the entire main cast combined. Take a good look at Dragon Ball Super, note the constant asspull powerups and gimmick transformations among the main cast and major antagonists; of course, Jiren and the Pride Troopers are the only exemptions. Now, take a good look at Jiren, a man that has achieved his unconquerable strength and wisdom through continuous HARD WORK, MEDITATION and has never once resorted to pathetic gimmicks. I have long accepted that Jiren is the best and that he’s also the STRONGEST character in the entire franchise. When will you accept it?

Consider the nuanced juxtaposition of Jiren's character. He strives for the upholding of justice, yet fears the inadequacy of his own philosophy strongly enough to discard his ideals in order to maintain quiescence with his beliefs, which are his sole motivation due to the trauma of loss. He is staunchly persistent in his personal goals, almost to a point of fault, as they force him to abandon close relationships and interpersonal ties, leading him to be surrounded by like-minded individuals - and yet, completely alone, crushed by the all-encompassing and solitary silence. This runs perpendicular with most modern depictions of heroes of justice, almost all of whom seek to garner rapport and camaraderie with their fellows. Yet Jiren's core beliefs parallel an impressive number of literary paragons. What a fascinating, thought-provoking character we've been graced with. No mortal man could have conceived of such an esoteric and compelling character. Sometimes I even wonder if he created himself through sheer force of will.

I feel like a huge reason people misunderstand Jiren's characterization and subsequently dismiss it as "bland", "boring", and "generic" is that they don't recognize the meticulously-crafted nuances that give him form. This isn't an insult; newcomers--also known as "casuals" to the more uncouth individuals--are unfamiliar with shonen tropes, and only regurgitate what they perceive as ultimate truths as a result of blind hearsay. Again, this is not meant as an insult: ignorance in and of itself is not an imperfection. It is only when that ignorance germinates and blossoms into WILLFUL ignorance that it becomes detrimental to one's continued existence as a worthwhile member of humanity. Jiren the Gray transcends the quintessential tropes of a shonen character who lost someone important to him/her and seeks to atone and rise above this tragedy. He does not cleave to his deceased master's teachings as if they are gospel merely because he was unable to safe him; he instead crafted his own ideals, virtues, and motivations in the way he saw as most advantageous in regards to accomplishing his ultimate goal: to utterly, WITHOUT FAIL, espouse his master's teachings. Jiren is not beholden to Gicchin's viewpoints or personal, individual ideals: he instead recognizes that his fallen master would want him to walk his own path, regardless of the possible and probable contradicting vectors their respective moral codes could cross. This, more than anything else, cements Jiren as his own character--indeed, his own man. He pulled himself up by his bootstraps, using his beloved master's demise not as a crutch, but as a singular motivation to reinforce HIS OWN beliefs, HIS OWN ways of life, while at the same time deftly weaving Gicchin's persona into his own mode of existence. Jiren is more than a character in a legendarily-influential shonen story that will never be surpassed. He is an ideal. A belief. A way of life. He is the summit.

As I sit and pontificate upon esoteric ponderances such as the scope of the universe, the meaning of existence, and the magnificence of Jiren the Gray, I find myself quite often contemplating upon the incongruous audacity of this magnanimous character's detractors. Are they simply envious of us? As intellectual titans of the highest caliber, such a conclusion would not be unfounded. Might it be that they are intimidated? As a studious arbiter of logical thought, I have been privy to--and, in some instances, been the proprietor of--many instances of naysayers' intellectual dismemberment at the hands of the myriad Jirenscholars, so this hypothesis, too, has its merits. It takes a true scholarly mind and unflinching perseverance in the face of adversity and criticism to maintain such an unflinching level of intellectual honesty and peerless perspicacity that has become the hallmark of the Jirenscholars. Perhaps, rather than crush them underfoot as helpless insectoids, utilizing our collective titanic intellect as a proverbial boot, we should show them a modicum of pity and extend to them the enlightened hand of the Gray. Pity and reliance on others, of course, is the bane of the cultivation of true inner strength, but some beings begin life too weak to seek it out on their own. They are simply dealt a poor hand, but they must rise above it instead of fighting blindly against it with childish insults, jejune arguments, and a veritable maelstrom of logical fallacies that they tirelessly pepper us with in a never ending, fruitless onslaught. It is our duty, brethren, to show ALL peoples the way. Even those that seek to turn from it. GLORY AND APPROBATION TO JIREN THE GRAY!

I have to confess something. I was not always a scholar. It is noticeable, as my vernacular fails to be as rich and sharp as that of my peers. However, I live in respect and accordance with the teachings of Jiren and what he represents. Even if my brain, due to its limitations in terms of both biology and a past life lived in ignorance, isn't as potent as my fellow scholars, I strive to set the example that ignorance is a choice. Every genius needs assistants, who, while not on the same intellectual level, are still of a certain mental pedigree, and contribute in the search of knowledge and truth accordingly. This character, Jiren the Gray. The name caught my eye when it was first uttered. Something about it rung deep within myself, the last speck of hope within my spirit struggling within the darkness. Then, I saw it. His design, his actions. It spoke to me in a way I could never have imagined. So filled with awe was I at this character that my very being changed. I understood his message. Almost from night to day, my world changed. I got urges not sin and partake in vice, but to sculpt my mind and body. As soon as I noticed, I was already jacked and on my way to achieving a toned body, and my mind wandered from math to philosophy on my spare time. Women took notice of me, I began making more friends, reconnected with my distant family. I landed a good job at a company, with a promotion on the way already. I have only Jiren to thank. I am proud to be a scholar, now and forever.

[hoodssery]

Recommending Video Essays #1

I am currently sick and dealing with the constant bodily betrayal of having a chronic illness. This means I don't really have much to do (or much I can do comfortably), and am doing what little things I can and distracting myself with games like Battlefield and Arma 3 King of the Hill and video essays playing in the background of 24/7 Operation Locker servers.

Video essays are a pretty popular format for YouTube considering the design of all large scale social media platforms centers around a short attention span, click more things kind of philosophy that seems to be doing very well in the modern digital age. More than that video essays on all kinds of topics seems to be becoming the new form documentary is taking, with a notable amount of video essays even taking up the title of “documentary”.

But, that doesn't really matter because I'm sure you all can agree that what really matters is someone with 12 subscribers and no followers telling you what's good content to shove into your sensory holes that come standard with every human being.

The style and format of certain Youtubers have dramatically shaped not just my content, but the way I consume all media now. That's a pretty big deal because at the end of the day most of these people are schmucks like me who sit in their house, play video games, and say what's right and wrong. Even weirder is that I don't even know these people!

So in honor of these fellow weirdos, and because I don't have anything much better to do, I'm gonna recommend a video essay everyday of me being sick. And who knows, maybe I'll even manage find the little will it takes to do this less frequently after I can move more than 100 feet at a time.

Recommendation: God of War - Almost a Masterpiece by Joseph Anderson (https://youtu.be/pJPOvLvdugw)

POTENTIAL SPOILERS AHEAD FOR BOTH God of War (2018) AND JOSPEH ANDERSON'S VIDEO

For most of these people I will be recommending you may have already heard of them, or seen videos from them, especially if you're traveling in obscure enough circles to find these posts. Joseph Anderson may or may not be one of these people. I can say from first hand experience that for a long time, I only recognized his profile picture of an illustration of a Dragon from the cover of his book The Wizard and the Dragon. While I can't speak for his talent and merit as an author of fantasy novels, Joseph Anderson is someone whom I greatly respect for their work as a critic of video games. He has had a very consistent voice for gaming since his first his first set of five videos entitled Dark Souls Critique – Part One – Five. Since then Joseph Anderson has consistently gotten better at producing and making these essays, with his best work being multi-hour, in-depth critiques of games ranging from Super Mario Odyssey, to Bloodborne.

However, the one that I find is his best, and the one that I would recommend to people who haven't watched his videos before is God of War – Almost a Masterpiece. This is the video where Joseph Anderson's methodical, long form breakdown of video games shines through the most. Despite covering almost every facet of the game over just about three hours flat, the video remains very focused on his view of the narrative that is set up for later games in this new God of War series. Even when he does stray from the path of the narrative, it's never for nothing and provides a more interesting insight into the gameplay, open world, structure of side quests, and comparisons to the other game's stories and gameplay than I've seen from anyone else covering this game.

Joseph Anderson is a huge inspiration for me. There is very little waste in his videos, and what waste there is always is providing some information, even if it's redundant or excessive. He is someone I honestly cannot recommend enough even if he's never gonna finish that Witcher 3 video.

Other recommendations from his channel:

-The Villian of Edith Finch, a video I would recommend if you don't have time to watch a movie length video. (https://youtu.be/6bMn4CoyUkM)

-A Critique of SOMA, another short one. (https://youtu.be/J4tbbcWqDyY)

-Super Mario Odyssey – It's no Masterpiece, is a video I don't agree with, but is also a video where his arguments about the game make me analyze my own position on the game. In my opinion, the sign of a good critique. (https://youtu.be/kYJx5xt2cB0)

[sixth-light]

I have come to the disappointing conclusion, as someone who backed the Kickstarter and who has listened to/watched the Briarwood arc multiple times, that The Legend of Vox Machina is going to be a show I experience through gifsets for maximum enjoyment. Which is kind of a bummer, and I want to work through why that is, exactly, for my own peace of mind. (This is not intended as a declaration about the show's objective quality and it isn't in the relevant tags for that reason. Rest assured there are no plot spoilers below for the first three episodes, which is where I tapped out.)

First off, stuff I did like: the animation and character design is all absolutely fine, I have zero problems with the CGI dragon, and there's a lot of little vignette moments that I enjoyed a lot (the guards and Trinket, Matt's coat-check character). I also thought the fights/use of spells and checks was translated pretty thoughtfully to a narrative story, esp one where they presumably couldn’t use trademarked D&D things.

On the level of things that simply are not to my personal taste: the regular hyperviolence and heavy reliance on jokes where the punchline is that a subject or act is taboo (e.g. Scanlan peeing on someone, most of the sex jokes, 'ball tag'), plus the equally heavy use in the episodes I watched of cringe/'fish out of water' humour. I am fully aware all of these things were a part of the original show; they were just a much less concentrated part of it. Some of the material also lands differently for me in a visual medium than in theatre of the mind, particularly the violence.

It also makes a huge difference to me when these kinds of jokes or scenes are being told by people I am watching play roles, for each other's amusement, vs by characters in a fully fictionalised story. A lot of Sam's Scanlan stuff I never liked but clearly the other players did, and that smoothed it out. It doesn't get that smoothing in an animated show. Same with all the bits where VM are completely failing to read the room/act like adults - in Critical Role you can see Matt enjoying it. In TLoVM, absent that context and with characters in-story disapproving/annoyed, it comes across as much more puerile. To a degree I think it flattens out the characters too, because they ARE pretty broad stereotypes and when you’re not seeing the actors construct them, it’s less obviously a Choice to make them that way, and at least for me it renders them less interesting. Biggest case in point: Grog.

(Additionally, my golden rule is Some Of These People Have To Like Each Other and three episodes in, I don't believe ANY of these people like each other, aside from Vax and Vex I guess. And they did at this point in the original work!!!)

On the level of things I think there's an objective argument could have been done better...the pacing, oh MAN, the pacing. This is a fanservice show first and foremost, and it means they're trying to introduce fourteen named, important, recurring characters as well as cram in a bunch of in-jokes. In three 22-minutes episodes. There isn't time and it means the action frequently pauses for funny 'bits' which don't contribute to the overall plot, and character arcs are...not really visible. I think the only way it could have been less disjoined is if they had bitten the bullet and picked a couple of members of the cast to focus on as leads, and gradually built up the others. And killed some of their darlings in terms of funny one-off scenes. I also understand that they're apparently having Pike leave the same way Ashley did in CR even though obviously that constraint does not exist here, and like - this is completely inexplicable to me. How hard would it be to write around her presence??? Not that hard! 

There's also a defensible though likely not universally accepted argument that because they're leaning so much on a fairly crude form of comedy while trying to tell a very serious story, it's tonally incongruent in a way that works better in improv than in a traditional narrative.

All up I feel like, if this story was going to exist as a coherent narrative that would attract non-CR watchers, it needed to be worked up by people who were familiar with the genre but NOT big fans of CR. Instead what's been made is a show that is aimed at people who are intensely familiar with the source material and have a particular view on which parts of it make it great, i.e., the parts I liked least.

Which, again. This was a fan-funded project originally, there's some logic to this. And I will freely admit that if the bits that hit my personal buttons were toned down, I'd probably be a lot more forgiving about the writing.

But it turns out that when it comes to adaptations, especially when I think about my reaction to WoT, or how I feel about comics!TOG vs TOG-the-movie...I'm not actually very interested in one-to-one adaptations or adaptations that largely exist to create visual representations of an original text. I want to see adaptations that stand alone as coherent stories within the confines of their new medium. So, for example, this REALLY changes my expectations about what I might enjoy in, e.g., a Rivers of London tv show if one ever happens. TBF that's a bit different in that the original author started as a scriptwriter, but still; I think I'd actually want to see a lot more change than I've discussed in the past. This goes all the way back to LoTR twenty years ago, so it’s pretty clearly now a part of How I Enjoy Stories. 

Anyway, like I said: clearly TLoVM is working out for a lot of people, good for them, I'm going to stick to gifsets or maybe curated highlights when the first season is done. The bits I like don't outweigh the bits I don't like and sometimes that's how it goes.