#legit their talks machina episodes were the best

[missbiddle]

you don't understand how much i need them to be on 4sd together again

[daisylikesmedia]

Series 2 Episodes 8 & 9: The Impossible Planet & The Satan Pit

The intro of the ood, a base uder siege floating around a black hole, and fking SATAN HIMSELF. This is one hell of an episode of Dr Who, let's go.

So, this is the the arguably first or second proper base under siege episode of new who, depending on how you see Dalek. Personally, I feel this is the first time the true modern dr who base under siege formula is nailed down. With a crew of 4/6 alongside The Doctor and their companion trying to survive an alien attack in a confined base. I have mixed feelings about the B.U.S. formula. I think in some episodes it's pushed to it's fullest and creates some of the best episodes of new who, but in others it makes the story very formulaic and drawn out. In this episode, I feel it sets a good baseline for how a base under siege episode should go. It's got a strong plot and a fantastic threat, with albeit some slightly less interesting characters.

Speaking of that fantastic threat, let's talk about it. The Ood are a another iconic addition to the whoniverse, and as a "slave race who wants to be slaves" it creates so many good opportunities to explore historic or current events through their episodes. I do feel they're a bit underutilised in this episode compared to others (they become satan lackeys for the entire second episode which is a shame), but we get to explore them more in future episodes so I'm not up in arms about it. But they're the tertiary threat we've got two more to talk about.

SATAN. WHAT? HUH?! I adore seeing The Doctor in episodes where they are just out of their depth and do not understand who/what they're dealing with and the confusion/curiosity you see with 10's actions when he figures out he's dealing with the devil. Dangg it's good stuff. However the best use of this villain is what Satan does to Toby. There are so many great little horror moments where you as a viwer get strapped in and are forced to sit and watch as Satan's puppet sabotages the group from the inside out. Will Thorp's performance is amazing, and there are so many little moments that are beautifully scary. My favourite being his lil shushing motion towards the chasing Ood as the group are climbing out of the air vents. Amazing.

I do think there are some holes in the script though. The TARDIS being down in the Satan pit is just, not explained at all. And the fact that there were legit 0 consequences to The Doctor's decision to throw the planet into the black hole at the end kinda irks me? It did just feel a little bit too convenient, but hey maybe there's some divine intervention there idk slkgdhj.

TL:DR/Overview: A strong base under siege two-parter that has some creative running themes and an amazing antagonist. This episode does sacrifice some of it's character work and leans on doctor ex machina's at the end in order to support it's strengths, but I'm willing to forgive that because this episode is an awesome ride. I'm going for A tier here. (also woah my opinions on this series have balanced into perfect symmetry this time LMAO. well, so far at least :3)

Join me tomorrow for Love and Monsters, the first Doctor-lite episode of new who!

[ecoamerica]

Watch the American Climate Leadership Awards 2024 now: https://youtu.be/bWiW4Rp8vF0?feature=shared

The American Climate Leadership Awards 2024 broadcast recording is now available on ecoAmerica's YouTube channel for viewers to be inspired by active climate leaders. Watch to find out which finalist received the $50,000 grand prize! Hosted by Vanessa Hauc and featuring Bill McKibben and Katharine Hayhoe!

[captainsspnanon]

Episode 8 – The Gates of Zadash

TO ZADASH!!!!

*thinks deeply* Yeah, I think Zadash is my favorite location in C2.  If only they could have the Xhorhouse (Xhorhaus?  I’ve seen it spelled both ways) in Zadash, I think I’d be happy.  Zadash + Xhorhaus + Nein-sided Tower = perfection

Pregnancy announcement!!  Ronin still is a tiny baby in my mind, time makes no sense at all.

Nightvision goggles! Gifted very early in the campaign, and yet there remains only one – even when we get to the part of FOUR party members who don’t have darkvision.

I’d forgotten about Molly’s generosity – slipping the silver back to people who try to buy him a drink and I know the bandits will be coming up soon (I think this episode?  Maybe the next).  It’s an odd quirk of his, how he’ll say one thing and do another – ‘act’ greedily, but refuse the gifts.

If they don’t have an Identify user in C3 I’ll be astonished.  They needed one badly in C1, which seemed almost like they made sure they’d have one in C2.

LOL First Beau/Caleb spat and it’s 100% Caleb’s fault.  He (or Liam? Not sure if deliberate rp choice or legit failure to communicate) did NOT make it clear that he wanted to use the glove, he completely made it seem like he wanted NO ONE to use the glove.

“I think everyone should say thank you to Caleb” holy shit in hindsight that is the biggest fucking blinking neon sign that Nott’s a mother.

SCARF!FRUMPKIN always provides best fanart.  Also I’m 100% in denial about the finale Frumpkin situation.  Caleb may have let him go, BUT FRUMPKIN HANGS AROUND ALL THE TIME ANYWAY AND NO ONE CAN TAKE THIS FROM ME

...oh god.  I forgot that Jester told the Traveler that she would be alone – leave the group – if that means that he’d be there.  I LOVE JESTER.

NUHGverot?  When did the pronunciation change to NOHGverot, I wonder?

They’re so excited, and Liam even says that they’re so excited over 150 gold each, which is ‘chump change as compared to Vox Machina’, but even in later game I feel like they’d still be excited over 150 each because HOLY SHIT the M9 were so fucking broke.

NAME DROP!!!!!  That makes me think though.  Before C1, they were The S.H.I.T.s, which got changed to Vox Machina for C1.  I wonder if being live streamed means that they don’t feel like they have the option to change the group name once decided.  Like, if they had picked The Mighty Nein, and then halfway through the campaign wanted to change it, they probably would feel like they couldn’t because of store products and the youtube episodes being labeled and such.  :(  I hope they don’t (in C2 or C3) feel like they get stuck with a name that they’re not really feeling.

Shumas is a region in Marquet!!!  Did we know this before?? Maybe.  BUT I DIDN’T (or I forgot)

I’m actually surprised that The Ruby only gets mentioned for the first time in episode 8!  I thought it would have been before now!  But I’m pretty sure that’s because of how Jester is portrayed in the animated recap – which to be fair the timing also works for now. Both of Jester’s parents name dropped in episode 8 for the first time!

I really like the contrast of how Beau and Caleb talk to Jester about finding her father, while Caleb is all for knowing who your parents are and Beau is preemptively like your dad can be a dick why search him out and not just travel on your own?

Omg they asked Caleb if he had kids???  I have NO recollection of this.  And when Caleb tells Nott she’s like a little sister, and her response is ‘that’s nice’ OMG.  Rediscovering these little moments is so amazing.

Oh noooo!  Marisha hurt herself sneezing!  I think I read at some point that she actually had hurt her rib, and then when they were are the doctors/hospital, something happened with Matt?  *googles*  Ah, he got locked in a bathroom for over 10 minutes.  And she only hurt her muscle/cartilage.

Giving Nott ‘today’ as her birthday is super super sweet, except she does have an actual birthday and I don’t think it ever actually comes up.  I wonder if when she’s Veth if they celebrate two birthdays, her Nott birthday gifted by Caleb, and her actual Veth birthday.

Interesting that this is NOT the first time syphilis has been mentioned in the campaign!  I like to think that Bryce mentioning it the days before is what had it stuck in Caleb’s mind.

Oh FUCK!  Molly grabbing the glaive from the cart is BADASS!!!

Huh, I’m learning something about myself.  Rewatching this scene, I went into it knowing that it would/should help reframe Molly in my mind, maybe give some new perspective, maybe just a reminder of something cool he did that I forgot.  Instead, it ended up confusing me and leaving me in a sense of just not GETTING Molly and how he works, not really. I’ve watched Talks and such, so I know the background, but I wonder if that’s one of the reasons that I ended up not liking Molly, just the fact that I felt that I couldn’t understand him.  It makes me regret a bit not having him more, it would have been interesting to see how my perspective would have changed once I felt like I could get a better grip on WHY Molly did things as he did when he did.  At least in terms of his generosity and kindness.  I got the full grip on the hedonism, which is something that I’m not frequenting in my media consumption.

Huh, I thought Caleb fainting was from going unconscious, not an RP choice that he made afterwards.

I wish I could see the glasses indentations that they’re all commenting on.  15 inch screen and even at 1080p (that feels like 720 why are they still fuzzy???  They’re fine on Talks!) and he looks fine to me.

...does anything ever come of this iron helmet?  Considering I forgot all about it, I’m assuming either nothing, or something very very minor.

Wow I have no recollection of these outskirts of Zadash.  I feel like this might be the only time that they were mentioned, and isn’t that a sad commentary on real life.

Oh DAMN I forgot Mr. Tour-guide too!  How did I forget so much??  I guarantee you that if it weren’t for the animated recap I would have forgotten all about the revolutionaries too.

PUMAAAAAAAAAT

Grayish brown fur. How did that somehow become BLUE in the official art/cosplay I have no idea.

Hmmm.  In terms of store vendor, I like Pumat more.  But in terms of PC relations? Gilmore.  But it’s hardly a fair comparison.  Aside from Obann, Pumat never really became more than just a vendor, whereas Gilmore was sooo much more.

[eponymous-rose]

Talks Machina Highlights - Critical Role C2E74 (Aug. 13, 2019)

This week’s guests are Mica Burton and Marisha Ray! Let the chaos reign!

The druid couch (TM) is asked to turn into an animal. Like, right now. Just do it. Just turn into an animal. Just do it. They succeed?

[id] Marisha, Mica, and a Molly body pillow on a couch, all holding strange poses [end id]

Announcements: The second issue of the second series of Vox Machina: Origins comes out tomorrow! The body pillow is Mica’s (she also has a McCree body pillow: “some asshole voices him but whatever”)! And... I guess that’s it? Here we go!

Episode 74: Manifold Morals

Mica has only seen a couple complete episodes of CR, but she’s picked up a lot by osmosis, which is to say that she knows the secrets of Arsequeef (she’s still a little taken aback when Brian excitedly brandishes a tiny photo of him in her face).

Stats for this week’s episode! The party went 183 days without knowing Beau’s last name. Reani had the 250th guest roll of campaign 2. There were six otter puns in the episode. 

Marisha, deeply insulted: “Only six???” 

Mica’s been playing D&D since she was a teenager. She was in a campaign when she was at Rooster Teeth, which was her first experience playing a more intense campaign. She’s got an acting major, so the improv always really appealed to her. She only brought about 1/4 of her dice to the game. “I guess it was my mating call to Laura to pour them out in front of her.” She sent in a four-page backstory for Reani to Matt; after receiving it, apparently Matt burst out of his office to tell Marisha, “I love Mica Burton.” Usually, Mica plays chaotic neutral characters (typically tieflings), but she wanted to try something different this time around. She also sent a three-page description of Reani for the artist’s reference.

Marisha: “I love her freckles.” Mica: “I love her titties.”

“It’s been very difficult to separate Beau’s feelings [about Reani] from mine.” Marisha loved seeing another druid at work. “Beau finds you very endearing and charming, but also Beau kind of thinks Reani might be a psycho.” Mica: “Valid.”

"I just thought it would be cool to be Giant Scorpion Batman.” Reani just sort of set up camp in Uthodurn while waiting for further instruction. “The angelic past influenced the Folk Hero, rather than vice-versa.”

On the party not knowing Beau’s last name: “She’s... fine. Beau likes keeping the upper hand by continuing to have secrets.” Marisha resolved at the beginning of the campaign not to reveal anything personal about Beau unless it was immediately useful or she was asked directly. “She would value knowing things but not divulging them. The more you tell people, the more they have to use against you.”

Cosplay of the Week: an adorable Jester! (on Twitter: koalois, photo by AmynTheOutcast)

Reani’s always been “super evil-die, good-live”. Landen really leaned into Samliel talking to her. “If Landen says ‘listen’, and Samliel says ‘listen’, all Reani knows is ‘listen’.” 

Mica hadn’t planned any of the M9 parallels; she hasn’t watched enough of the show to know those details. She also didn’t know in advance that the group would be dealing with patrons to such a degree. “Dude, I rolled her months ago. This is all just an amazing coincidence.” She feels like if she’d seen everything, she might have approached the character differently, but this felt “more organic”.

She talks about how nervous she was to be on the show (”I was shaking”); she loved everyone at the table and had heard such good things about the fandom, and she wanted to do them proud.

“I don’t know if Beau sees herself as a capable leader. That feels very generous. But I think Beau knows she can bullshit herself as a capable leader in the moment. Beau’s best when she’s bullshitting.” Marisha put a lot of points into deception, because she knew Beau would be good at lying, but Fjord’s influence has made her try to be more honest. “I should go back to lying.”

“Goatback? Does that sound fuckin’ enjoyable? Yeah, no, fast-travel’s a big deal, especially when you’re at this level.” Marisha points out that they got spoiled having Keyleth last campaign to just teleport via plants wherever they needed to go.

Mica on the concern over Reani’s low hit points: “Y’all, I’m fine. Trust and believe.” She points out that she has two Wild Shapes. “That’s a lot of hit points!” Marisha: “I’m so proud.”

One of Reani’s favorite methods is to invite her victim for tea and then poison them. “It seems more humane than stabbing.” Dani: “She could legit have just murdered all of y’all.”

Fan Art of the Week: Reani and Caduceus and the tree! (on Twitter: Skidarstudios)

Mica’s horrified off-screen gasp when Brian does the dab-slash for the first time is magical. Marisha: “I appreciate your humor so much more when seeing it through your eyes.” Dani: “Yeah, she makes you a lot funnier.”

Mica on the failure points of the relationship with Fen: “When I yelled, ‘it’ll always be your fault!’ it was a gut reaction. She understands that what she does can never work with how Fen thinks. Their ideals inherently clash, and they obviously still care for each other, but when your base morals don’t mix, it’s just going to be a destructive circle. It was kind of a mutual ending of the relationship.”

“But she’s traveling with a hot-ass monk, so, you know. She’ll be fine.”

Beau’s always known that her affiliation with the Cobalt Soul can be a good bargaining tool, but she’s had to be selective about that. Mica: “It won’t fly at a club to get you in.” So she’ll always jump at the chance when it arises.

“Samliel hasn’t said anything other than ‘Dragon, dragon, dragon’,” which is the first thing Reani’s heard from him in five years. So she’s defaulting to helping the Nein out as much as she can. Reani overheard the M9′s whole conversation, and she heard them talking to Umi about spreading his name and that he’s as good as his father. “She wants him to be happy, so she’ll put herself at risk to help the greater cause. Also, she thinks a lot of the people in the group are attractive,” especially Beau and Caleb.

Reani has the Luck feat and Mica realized after the game that she didn’t use it once. “I’d rather use it for something that can get us killed, rather than an auditor.”

Mica will be back next week! Mica: “Is this a legitimate offer or are you baiting me?”

[seenashwrite]

Notes From Nash: Season 15 Episode 2

We're back! And by that, I don't mean back for episode #2, I mean we're back in the little town, same little town we were in for the majority of episode #1. And as far as how ep #2 compares with ep #1.... um.....  

The writers ain't in no damn rush to advance the plot or further character development, are they? So this is basically ep #1 all over again with some guest star overload as a substitute for those two very important aspects of storytelling I just mentioned.

[stares at date]

They've got *how* many eps to wrap up the show? 

Hoo-boy.

Spoilers below the cut.

Changing it up from last time (see link at bottom), I thought I'd go in order of the ep this post. All right. Let's roll.

From the mom who gets 86'd in the opening------

And, PS: That's not disemboweled. Don't use the word if you (a) don't know what it means and/or (b) won't let make-up/effects do their job.

-----to the rest of the people, I care nothing. There was no point giving all these extras lines and whatever little backstories, I give no fucks. Mainly because, gee, I don't know, I signed up for a show about two brothers goin' out there and gettin' after it, and thus far we've gone about two inches and gotten nothing.

Are we still in this little town?

More questions, borrowing from the dialogue some here:

"Remember when we did the thing with Amara?"

"God's sister?"

"And the soul bomb? And here's how it worked? Remember? Because you participated? REMEMBER?! I'm not just saying this for the benefit of, oh wait, no one, because the chances of brand new viewers coming into the game this late is virtually nil, so everyone - including us, here, in this scene, our characters - already know this backstory, ergo the only reason for exposition anvils is to benefit those viewers, who - as we've already established - likely don't exist. So let's run through this for the benefit of, I have to assume, the writers who don’t actually, you know, watch the show as evidenced by--- well, we’d be here all day."

Nope. No, no. Those aren't questions I had. Because I've been watching the show for a good while now. This exchange should’ve been something to the effect of - “I was thinking - remember how we did the soul bomb, with Amara? Do you think you could pull off something like that? To trap them?” and then Rowena responds with uncertainty but will give it a try, etc. I mean, the writing in this ep is thus far pedestrian.

There's still no explanation for why these ghosts - especially these super notorious ghosts like Ripper and Lizzie and who-fuck-ever - were lingering so close together that they were able to be trapped by the stupidest ex machina spell in the writing world. And what of the others? The entirety of hell escaped. We've seen, what, maybe 20? Could there maybe have been a throw-a-way line to Belphagor something like “Did you corral the worst douchebags together”, or “Is there a bar in hell where the worst douchebags hang out or something”, or “this is just our luck that the worst douchebags landed here” or WHATEVER, just SOMETHING to acknowledge they (the writers) recognize that Convenient Super Bad Ghosts Are Convenient.

IT'S KETCH, BITCHES!

I love this character. What a breath of fresh air that snarky piece of ass has been. I hope he doesn't get killed. He will. Because we can't have anything good. But there is some good, which is the Ketch-Rowena flirting. Honestly, I'm fine with Rowena getting action from anyone. She's awesome and she's earned it. Ketch is primo catch, though. (I'm not sorry for that sentence. I am, but I'm not.)

The repeated use of Belphagor's name pleases myself and my podcast co-host. Should you wish to know more about that demon, please do check out our podcast. Don't look him up first, trust us. That they have chosen this particular demon's name is just *chef's kiss*, though I do hope it's not a foreshadowing for how the rest of the season is going to go. Okay fine, I'll spoil it: he's a shit demon. He deals in poo. Literally. I'm not lying. Go forth to the podcast @youtotallymadethatup​ - just about every post links you to where you can listen. /shameless self-promo

IT'S AMARA, BITCHES!

Let's hope that wardrobe does her better than that ill-fitting black dress this go 'round, she deserves better.

"You're the darkness, I'm the light."

STOP IT. STOP. FUCK. STOP.

Are we still in this little town?

Blah blah blah Castiel Dean angst repeating essentially what's already been said at the end of 14 and last week blah. "You know what's real? We are." Not if it's an alternate timeline, my love. 

I keep forgetting just how many spaced-out chains you need to have strewn about your standard meat packing plant and/or factory, well played, set dec and props. That.... that was sarcasm.. (Look, I got no beef with the crew, they're just playing the cards they've been dealt, and their hands are garbage, just a pile of same ol' same ol' stereotypical, unimaginative stuff, so bless them. I hope every single one of them has a job lined up next year, truly. They have more than paid their dues and earned it. Lord knows especially since certain parties took the reins, good night nurse. I've digressed. )

IT’S KEVIN BI----

This is dumb. This is actually dumb. In case you didn't see my half-time post, and I quote:

That is *three* in under twenty minutes. Like, it’s episode 2. You’re blowing your wad. Pace yourselves. AND MAYBE SOME STORY ADVANCING, THAT WOULD BE AWESOME

This bullet thing could be hella interesting. It *could* be. I wonder if it will be. 

These ghosts are painfully uninteresting. The guy playing the Ripper is horribly miscast. This needed to be someone who... who.... I dunno, is a good actor. He's not. Sorry, Pops. I mean, even Osric (who is an excellent actor) couldn't elevate that scene.

This episode is painful.

Are we still in this little town?

Ketch got knocked out, left alone with ghost, deffo gonna get possessed. 

Are we still talking to these ghosts? Why? Why is Kevin thinking he can go up against them alone? I'm not exactly sure what threat they are to him, can't he just disappear and whoosh somewhere else? I missed something, I must've missed something. It doesn't matter, none of this matters.

Okay, Belphagor says there's at least a hundred. Still, what would that be, like 1/2500000000th of hell? Why are the Winchesters, of all people, and now Rowena concentrating on this stupid little town----

Are. We. Still. In. This. Little. Town.

---why in the fuck aren't the most renowned hunters of modern time and their angel friend and the powerful witch friend and the friend with immense tactical knowledge regarding weaponry for supernatural shit not at the bunker strategizing and planning and... and... and.... I just.... 

Lookit, I've said this before: especially in fantasy/sci-fi stuff, if you are logical in every possible place you can be, if you nail the simple shit, then the audience is exponentially more likely to buy into the fantastical stuff, and also to be more forgiving (or not notice altogether) when you inevitably whiff, because nobody's perfect, of course. But this show in later years has notoriously screwed the pooch on the easy stuff, and here we are, in some needlessly convoluted mess right out of the gate in the last season ever.

::sighs::

Oh, look. Because of course he's possessed. You left him alone with a ghost. I'm neither a professional writer nor a psychic, I'm just thinking "What is predictable as possible?" and saying that. You try it. It's worked for me so far.

"I tried to heal him it didn't work" - well maybe he's still residually possessed. Or maybe you suck. Sorry Cas, you don't deserve that. It's not you. It's not me, either. It's them. It's the writers. I don't know what this line is about unless they're teeing up Cas to be even more neutered than he already is. I legit don't know, I can't think, I'm so irritated right now. 

"Nothing to hold you anywhere" - what? Really? Seriously? So what are you and Dean? Y'all ain't his family? Let that little badass haunt the bunker. He'd be the most awesome research assistant ever. Now THAT is a good plot point, have ol' Kev be home base, helping coordinate whatever's coming. Oh here we go, swishy swishy hand, magic hole, nobody knows why this demon can do all this shit, and Kevin's gone. Why? WHY. My idea is better. No way Osric would blow your guest star budget, it appears to be shaping up to be immense, especially with all the money you've saved so far on location(s). 

Shoulda kept him rest of season, let him assist, then his final reward is getting into heaven for reals when Cas (they'll probs kill him, tho) or Amara (maybe, seems too obvi a choice tho, and she doesn't give a shit about beng a ruler, we knew that back in whatever season that was) or Jack (because why not, it's the most ridiculous idea, since he's got the mind of a toddler, meaning it's something the writers would think is a great idea) or Billie (wild card guess) is the new God. Or have him brought back to life, fuck, I don't care.

So is the bullet trapping Chuckster on earth, is the question, and if so what kind of all-knowing deity puts a weapon in the hand of a potential enemy that could render him even a *touch* weaker? Where's the long game, there? What could any possible reasoning be? 

Okay, well, the scenes between Emily and Rob have been the best part of the episode, as well as the interaction with Ruthie and DHJ. Everything else fell flat. J2M seemed to be bored and phoning it in, and it's not often that can be said about any of those three.

I swear, if the preview shows that we're still in this little town for episode #3.... wait, is that the crypt from ep #1?.... are.... are we..... 

ARE WE STILL IN THIS LITTLE TOWN

What have we learned? Other than Chuck, no character development. The plot remains that some ghosts-interchangeably-used-with-souls from hell are trapped in a confined area, and it was via a tenuous spell provided by a demon whose motivations are unknown, and there's something up with that bullet wound. We knew those already.

(There's possibly something wrong with either Cas or Ketch -- or else that's something that will be completely forgotten was ever mentioned -- but we don't know either way and we don't know what it is, therefore we didn't learn anything; if this does ultimately turn out to be something, then we'll count it as a learned item for that episode.) 

So, minus learning that Chuck is weakened somehow and that at least for right now Amara’s not exactly in his corner, we're in the exact same place story-wise that we were in last week. 

And looks like we'll be back there again next week. 

See you next week, I guess.

=================================

Past posts, from newest to oldest (and I sometimes do addendums if a response warrants)

Episode 1

.

[loquaciousquark]

Talks Machina Highlights - Critical Role C2E42 (November 20, 2018)

Dani was actually goofing around quite a bit here, but this still makes me think of some glorious 90s band, so I’m keeping it.

Anyway! The inimitable @eponymous-rose has done more than her share of recaps lately, so here I am picking up where I’ve been slacking off. Tonight’s guests are Marisha Ray and Laura Bailey (with special guest appearance from Ronin! Awwww), so I can hardly wait. We’re discussing Episode 42: A Hole in the Plan.

Tonight’s announcements: Brian is bursting with an announcement he’s not allowed to reveal for another six months. His favorite guess: something about him stealing all the money from the company and moving to an island, but that’s actually his long game, not the short one.

Throughout November, they’re raising money for Operation Supply Drop, Travis’s favorite charity, which supports both active and retired military.

No episode of Critical Role this week due to Thanksgiving. There will also be no episode of Talks Machina next Tuesday; instead, they’ll be airing Sam’s Fireside Chat! This was a reward from the Critter donations to the Pablove Foundation.

Critical Role hoodies are back in the store; the print is very similar to the original with a bit more embellishment on the text on the back.

“Honey Heist 3: Tova’s Honies” airs this Friday at 7pm Pacific! Marisha: “It was bear-nanas.” Laura: “Oh, no.”

CR Stats: Jester has cast Blessing of the Trickster 31 times; 15 of those times were on Nott. Jester technically won her bar brawl with Sorris! She dealt 16 points of damage to his 15. Beau continues to have the most natural 20s with 49. She also has the most natural 1s, womp womp. Marisha: “Well, I roll a lot, you know?” Brian: “Well, your husband is also a tyrant and not to be messed with.” Marisha says she thinks Gil’s die is cursed and everyone gasps. How dare.

Does Brian feel the pressure of following Dani, who was such an excellent host last week? No; when he went through the potential list of fill-ins, the only one that made sense was Dani.

Marisha sees Darktow as a super-abusive socialist society, which does not sit well with Beau. It’s a silk trap.

Jester’s conversation with Caleb was triggered by Fjord’s kiss, especially with her wondering if it really meant anything to either of them. Laura thinks of her high school crushes and how hard you crushed & how devastated you were at every perceived slight; Jester only has the view of romance through her mother, which means physical affection is very different from emotional affection in her mind. On Brian’s asking, Laura’s high school crush was Han Solo. When Laura’s sister was 12, she paid her $15 to paint Han and Leia in a dip kiss, which she still has framed in her current house. I’m dying, this is adorable.

Beau doesn’t exactly trust that Fjord is going to do the right thing, but him sleeping with Avantika doesn’t trigger her red flags in terms of “looking out for each other, keeping each other in check.” She’s looking more for them bullying someone when they don’t need to, being violent when it’s not necessary. “Pursuing power to endless depths and fucking hot pirates, that’s fine with Beau. She just doesn’t want to kill children.” Brian marvels at how this fits into Jester & Caleb’s conversation about killing people from the most recent episode.

Jester can tell Caleb is tortured, and more than anything she wants people not to be sad around her. She just wants desperately for him to be happy.

Marisha has thought a ton about what Beau would have said if Jester had come to her first about the kiss, especially since it was Jester’s first kiss (Marisha assumes, and Jester answers in an adorably non-committal not-not-a-negative). Beau would have been game for it. She doesn’t know if Beau would have given good advice, but she would have tried her best.

Brian spills that Mary’s character’s CHA in their home game is 6. They discuss Nott’s score of 5 and enjoy themselves mightily at both of their expenses.

GIF of the Week! By @ropadoper, it’s Liam casting Reduce and then the Wall of Fire at the end of the episode, both of which involve Marisha falling out of her chair to the floor in reaction so that only her forehead is visible. Everyone is being so cute this episode I can hardly stand it.

As a reminder, an international shipping facility has been created in the UK. Laura asides to tell Travis the keys are in the diaper bag. Literally everyone is in the studio tonight except Sam, EVEN ASHLEY.

Jester thinks the Traveler always gives very good advice, but his suggestion to trick Fjord was the first time ever she felt a little hesitation to follow his advice. Brian: “Is that because he’s never been wrong or because she’s never been allowed to disagree?” Laura says it’s always been amazing advice so far, much more a best-friend relationship, but this was the first time she didn’t want to take his suggestion wholesale because she wasn’t sure it’s how she wanted to get Fjord to like her. Marisha really likes the dynamic of finding out your childhood best friend is a god.

Beau finds herself still being careful with her walls--Marisha imagines Beau was put in a lot of, like, pageant dresses as a kid--so when Jester commented on her hair and then laughed, she felt a little of that “wait, what, do you actually care? Do I look like shit?” Laura says she laughed, not Jester, because it was the most random thing to compliment Beau on.

Beau’s haircut came into being because it was cool & because Marisha wishes she were brave enough to try an undercut.

Brian’s convinced Fjord’s got gills. Dani: “What do you think Fjord is?” Brian: “Obviously a water man. Water genasi. What are water genasi?”

Beau wasn’t surprised Allison rejected her; she’s used to it. Ack. She was looking for an ally against Avantika, Big Brother style. “Instead she just shat in an alleyway with Nott.”

Laura’s not perturbed the Traveler hasn’t mentioned Fjord’s god; he doesn’t really talk about/care about other gods or patrons. Brian suggests he’s actually the Dongfather in disguise. This show’s collective mental age is smaller than Pike, haha. 

Beau felt like such an interloper when Sam asked her to help with Fluffernutter, like the best friend trying to be in on a joke without really knowing what’s going on. Marisha also takes a moment to praise Laura for her Jester over the last few episodes; she’s digging into the metaphorical popcorn every time Jester & Nott start going off. (Me too, bud.) Jester’s description of the insect carrying a piece of bread is one of her favorite D&D moments ever. Both Marisha & Laura are agog at how many little plans they’ve tried have gone disastrous and then circled back around to being mostly okay again.

Beau was a little hurt when she wasn’t asked to help break into the captain’s quarters, since that’s her specialty, but it was eased by being able to help with her knowledge anyway. However, she knew since she didn’t have any magic, she had no escape plan aside from jumping off the boat. She laughs that that’s what they ended up doing anyway. 

Jester views sex as a transaction, which is why she’s not particularly bothered by Fjord sleeping with Avantika.

Fanart of the Week: @jdillustrates, with a lovely portrait of Caduceus.

Jester’s warring between the logical part of her brain (he was saving her life) and the romantic part of her brain (did he want to kiss me, though?).

There are reasons Beau learned Deep Speech--not as complicated as most people think--that will be revealed eventually. “Nerdy reasons, not because she was kidnapped and turned into a cultist.”

Fjord/Avantika does make her jealous, but it’s also serving a purpose. Laura compares it to telling the high school crush to go hang out with a best friend, only to have them start dating.

Marisha doesn’t feel like Beau’s plans were overly shot down this episode--it’s something she hadn’t even noticed until this question. Marisha feels like it’s so much of a group effort with everyone trying to get to the right plan that it’s hard to pick out who contributed what part of which plan.

Brief interlude to examine a portrait of Brian that looks like George Michael.

In re: the Molly disguise: Beau felt like there was just a wall of regret walking towards her, because it was the friend she let die and the one-night stand. Beau never felt it was actually Molly, though. Jester picked Molly because when Nott said “Keg,” she instantly associated it with “someone who is really cool--who’s also super cool?” Everyone commiserates over how into the night’s shenanigans Molly would have been.

Beau was frustrated while being detained, but she also knew it was going to happen, so it wasn’t a huge issue. She felt like that was where the challenge began for her--anything to get the guard away from what was going on. 

Another brief interlude where everyone experiments with how to make power vaginas with their hands. “This is the car salesman power vagina.” I feel like wherever the rails are for this show, they’re so far gone they might as well be little stars in the sky.

Laura thinks Jester’s reaction to Caleb’s backstory would be much different than Caleb imagines it. Both Laura & Marisha talk about how Caleb’s convinced the moment people realize, they’re gone; there’s also the complication that Beau’s “comforting” is not actually that comforting. “She’d say, ‘you know, they won’t care,’” (which Marisha points out, Caleb would respond--how could someone not care about this?) when what she means is, “They love you and won’t abandon you over this.”

Laura and Marisha are both pumped about Caleb’s Wall of Fire--the walk to the dock was like “getting called to the principal’s office, except the principal is going to kill you.” Laura’s immediate reaction was regret she’d tossed the gems, but she loved his decision since she was panicking IRL & her heart was legit pounding. They also both get super enthusiastic bashing Nott’s plan to dump the haversack in an alley. “It’s bright pink! Someone would have definitely seen it!”

Marisha really misses Professor Thaddeus, but is convinced she’ll never see him again. Dani: “He’s your Nymeria, your Arya.” Marisha, tearfully: “He’s gonna come with his flock of owls and gouge out everyone’s eyes but ours.”

Laura’s convinced Sprinkle is magic, since he definitely should be dead twice over.

Quebec is for Lovers: After Dark edition

Neither Laura nor Marisha are cooking this year. Laura & Travis have no Thanksgiving plans at all this year. My gosh, if they were here my parents would be stuffing them full of turkey yesterday, even though they have no idea who they are.

Brian teases Max over messing with Trinket & carrying him back and forth in his car. Dani wants one TM where Brian isn’t mean to Max. Max, offscreen: “I’m FINE. I’m GOOD.” Marisha laughs that Max was okay with Brian’s teasing but shooting daggers at the TDs laughing.

Brian gives Dani an A for amazing and adorable, but not asshole.

Dani ships Percy/Vex, Keyleth/Vax, and Fjord/Jester. Close after is Kima/Allura & Caleb/Jester. She would be surprised if it happened, but wouldn’t object. Marisha asks, as a shipper, what does Dani look for in a quality ship. Dani likes clear feelings with clear reciprocation, canon connections; she doesn’t ship a ton of subtexty stuff.

Laura has been relistening to Vex’s playlists & crying. Both she & Marisha really miss Vex & Keyleth. Liam texted Laura the other day a fanvid of Vex & Vax that made her cry.

Marisha gets emotional seeing fanart of older Keyleth because it means that she’s living on & being happy. Noelle also came up & thanked Marisha for giving Tova a purpose after the latest Honey Heist, and everyone talks about how many hours they’ve spent creating and living in these people.

Marisha can’t listen to Tokyo Sunrise by LP anymore because it instantly makes her cry.

Beau is not a mindflayer. Everyone’s convinced, Marisha.

If Laura had Jester’s paint set, she’d draw home improvements. She’d draw a door for her bathroom into Ronin’s nursery. Marisha would draw more producers--”Not to undermine the ones I have! We’re so overworked!”

Brian looks to Max for the time left, only to have missed Dani literally just giving him the signal.

Brian starts to say he’ll see us next week, but Dani tells him not to confuse us since there’s no TM next week. Brian: “We’ll see you next week this Thursday Critical Role on youtube.com, Logan Paul guest starring, along with Paul Rudd, Rudney Dangerfield...”

Max, as the sound fades: “Okay, please...”

And that’s it for tonight. See you next time, everyone!

[venus-says]

Kamen Rider Zero-One Episode 14

I legit feel so confused.

This week's Zero-One was... weird.

Weird in the sense that there was so much stuff happening here that could've been divided to be the plot for at least other 3 or 4 episodes. I feel like I'm being way too repetitive, but once again, Zero-One is presenting us with all of these amazing ideas but the execution has been so rushed that all these great concepts end up falling flat because we don't have time to develop them. I know they're trying to pave the way for the new Rider arrival, but even with that in mind, you can still slowly work with these concepts.

For example, have this episode be about the space brothers only and Aruto going to space and learning something there, while on Earth A.I.M.S. starts to suspect there's a spy on Hiden. Then in the next, make the confrontation happen as Aruto and the brothers are landing back on Earth, Jin tries to hack Raiden and fails, the majority of the episode is Aruto trying to convince Fuwa that Raiden is not a spy, and the episode ends on a cliffhanger with Jin transforming Raiden in Ikazuchi. The next episode starts with The Ark getting operational again, they get blown back, Horobi makes the new progrise key and they engage on combat again this time with metsuboujinrai.net going after them, Fuwa gets the Assault Wolf key but because of the drawback they're defeated again and the episode ends on a sour note. In the next one, ZAIA gives Yua a power-up in hopes that she'll be able to hold things up until they can finish things properly for the new Rider, there's a big fight and the episode ends with the new Rider arriving that'll conduct the climax for this first third. I would still have my problems with this storyline, but it would be better than watching all of this (at least most of it) being cramped in a single episode.

This would also be better to give some more character to Aruto because this is the fifth week on a roll where Aruto has made absolutely nothing relevant (yeah, he defeated the Dodo Magia last week, but any other person on the cast could've done it too so it doesn't count). Honestly, I'm tired of this, is like they don't know what to make with his character so they make him throw a joke here, then they make him look distant desolated, and then Izu Ex Machina comes with a new power-up Zea Ex Machina made and that's done, we have new toys to sell so everything is alright. THIS FRUSTRATES ME SO MUCH! And it's not like they don't have something for him, heck they're talking about Hiden's public image being on the mud for so long, make something with this. So far we haven't seen a single consequence of Hiden's bad publicity to the public, for a character that defends Humagears so much like Aruto does there are many possibilities for plots revolving around it that could give him more depth and personality. What they're making with him is just sad.

But let me try to be positive. Like I said this episode had interesting points, and as much as I trashed it I did enjoy and much like what happened last week I barely saw time passing while I was watching it.

One thing that I really liked is that now it's kinda confirmed that there are four generals in metsuboujinrai, I don't know where I saw it but I know this was a theory going around and it makes me happy seeing that metsuboujinrai still has more to offer us as antagonists. Obviously, I have a problem with one of these generals being completely obliterated right on its first appearance, but I wanna believe that they wouldn't dish out on such an important character so quick like that so I won't ramble about it. Now, I'm a little anxious because apparently Jin is reaching singularity, and I hope that doesn't mean he'll be the general defeated at the climax of this arc because I really like the falcon boy and it would be sad to see him go.

I like the "there's a spy on Hiden" plot, I know is something that is used everywhere and is kinda cheap, but I still like the concept. Of course, I would rather if the spy was actually a human so Aruto wouldn't look as dumb for going in defense of Humagears. However it was very interesting the way they did, having a Humagear with so much personality, maybe he even had achieved singularity already, being a spy without noticing it and fighting against that to the best of his abilities was awesome. Had we have time to have some sort of investigation, and spent more time with Raiden this would probably be the best plot of the series so far.

As much as I personally don't like seeing Fuwa getting swallowed by anger because I'm afraid it'll reach a point where it'll be difficult to start liking him, I like that the thing of him forcing to open his keys wasn't just a useless gimmick and it came back on way that was pretty damn cool. I also like the Assault Wolf form, way more than I like Shining Hopper, it's very simple in regards to looks but is very effective it picks Vulcan's basic form and enhances it in a perfect way, is like seeing a pokemon evolve which I appreciate. I also like this thing of using something that was supposed to be for the villains is quite a fun idea, I also appreciate that this doesn't come for free, there's a backfire from using this new form and it seems way more deadly than Zero-One's backfire so I'm very interested in seeing how it'll play out in the future.

I feel like I've spent way more time talking about negatives rather than positives and I'm sorry for that, I swear I like Zero-One but I'm dumb and is difficult for me to overlook some things. Anyway, these were my thoughts on this episode let me know yours in the comments down below, I'll see you all soon. o/

[atopearth]

Final Fantasy X-2 HD Remaster Part 4 - Chapter 5, Ending and Overall Impressions

I found it so funny when the commsphere Shinra dumped into the hole to the Farplane was fixed by Gippal and he asked Nooj what he’s gonna do about Leblanc since they’re risking their lives there to save Baralai from Shuyin and Vegnagun, and right when Nooj answers, the connection dies, so Leblanc doesn’t get to hear it hahahaha. Good thing is that Leblanc is a straightforward person though, so even if she didn’t get to hear it, then she’ll just go straight to the Farplane to ask him, gotta admire her spirit and her love for him! Hilarious when Brother was talking about his love for the Yuna that keeps facing forward and doesn’t mind that his feelings will never be reciprocated and then tells Barkeep that they’re cool bachelors and then Barkeep is like “Speak for yourself, sonny” in his Hypello way hahahhaha and then a female Hypello comes along LOL. Funniest thing was if you talk to Paine, she’s like, I think I saw two Barkeeps, then she thinks she needs more sleep hahahaha! Buddy talking about how he and Brother formed the Gullwings when they went all the way north to some ice place to find the Celsius (airship) and ended up being guided by a gull and also surviving by eating a gull too LOLL, I guess the gull sacrificed itself for a good cause, because without it, they wouldn’t have formed the Gullwings and then Yuna wouldn’t have joined and saved the world once again haha.

Visiting Zanarkand first since there was apparently a bug in the original game where you might not get the episode complete if you came here last, that would suck! Anyway, not surprised Maechen was an unsent considering him always popping up anywhere he wanted and knowing so many things, I wonder how it feels to live for 1000 years just to tell stories of the past to people and experience so many things. It’s crazy to think how important that handshake was in the beginning of the game, since he was actually the one in that sphere recording who was so happy to have been able to shake Lenne’s hand 1000 years ago! And now that he shook Yuna’s hand, it reminded him of the fact that he’s actually already dead. Glad to know he had a happy long life.

(I don’t know what I did wrong but I don’t think I’m getting 100% and at this point in time, I honestly don’t care anymore because I’ve spent more time being frustrated than playing this game so whatever lol) I still don’t like Beclem btw, so I don’t really care that he’s leaving Besaid lol, the only thing I agree with is that they really do need to work the Besaid Aurochs to the bone! They’re pretty bad lmao. Wakka thinking carefully about what he should name his son was nice, a name is very important, so I think taking your time is good, I’m glad Lulu really wanted him to be the one to name him. I’m surprised Wakka doesn’t think Lulu relies on him at all, like dude! She’s ready to have a baby with you, I doubt she’d do that if she didn’t think you were reliable at all! Have more confidence in yourself, Wakka! I guess everyone is getting back together, lol at Dona having practised her lines so many times for trying to get Barthello back to live with her, since he’s been at Kilika temple all this time as a New Yevon supporter. Your beliefs are important, but so is your partner, so it’s good that everyone has stopped fighting and people can come together again regardless of their beliefs, it’s about time they stopped fighting and whining lol.

Lolll at Rikku being the culprit for the hover crash at Mi'ihen highroad hahahaha! She legit didn’t even notice that the hover crashed because it was trying to dodge her and when she jumped down a ledge, she fell on a machina and that’s why it went crazy lol. She caused so much trouble on the highroad without even realising lolll. Guess it’s good that Rin only made her clean all the rubbish on the road haha. Luca…was really just Yuna walking around reminiscing the memories of spending time with Tidus here, which is nostalgic and nice. Who doesn’t miss Tidus? XD It was kinda cool that we got to fight Lucil, always thought she was pretty cool, I liked her speech and think that she’s a very strong and worthy leader. She knows how to unite and lead people. Even without Nooj, you can tell that the Youth League will be fine with her there.

That Djose machine experiment was very interesting, don’t wanna dig to repair and make it stronger though😢 Lmao at Tobli’s success now when he was in so much debt before, I guess Yuna’s influence can just make everything go well lol. Having Tromell lead the Guado is the best choice. Considering all that the Guado had done and all the reflection they’ve gone through most of the game, with the Ronsos looking forward instead of back as well, it’s for the best that we let go of the past and hope to improve the future instead. I feel like Cid had a very crappy role in this game lol, I liked him in FFX so I’m kinda disappointed that his character is rather…questionable now with the things he did to Zanarkand and not really playing a role to redeem all that. Seeing O'aka and Wantz bond again and take care of the Macalania agency together was heartwarming though, nice to see that these brothers are still doing well and are hopeful for the future!

After finding all the cactuars (lmao at the tenth one being with the “wrong crowd” aka the rogue cactuars that don’t want to fulfill their duties) and lolll, never thought I’d see a Jumbo Cactuar! Easy fight but nice to see it lol. If only it had a moustache hahaha. That boss you have to kill afterwards though, he had so much life! Luckily it was a simple fight and I earned so much AP from it lol. Legit just used two Dark Knights using the darkness skill alongside Yuna Curaga-ing haha, all I did was hold the ‘x’ button to win XD Good to see everyone respect Kimahri again and understand that he’s wise and caring. It’s nice to see that Yuna doesn’t need Kimahri to protect her anymore, so he can now protect his tribe, and although things were a bit rocky, it all worked out! Now on to some annoying sidequests! Accessing the secret chocobo ranch dungeon was easily the most tiring and annoying thing ever. It was SO time consuming. I spent so long looking and capturing chocobos in the Thunder Plains to get 4 that had a max level of 5 zzzz. Then, I had to level them and fight 7 random battles in between until they were all level 5 AND THEN the dungeon itself was annoying because it doesn’t have a map omg. I just googled a map because I couldn’t take it lol. The only good thing about it was getting the AP egg so now one of my characters can earn triple the AP yay! Otherwise, legit so tired lol. Especially since I did the Mi'ihen dungeon as well with all the wall bombing to proceed zzz.

Anyway, things just get more tedious. Was digging at the Central Expanse for the Desert key and to upgrade the machine experiment in Djose and gg, could not find the key at all so I gave up lol. I tried to fight the machine without being properly prepared using my crappy dresspheres and I died hahahaah. I learnt my lesson XD Needed the last two crimson spheres so went to the Via Infinito and dang am I getting motion sickness with all that jumping. My head hurts so much lol. Think I need to level and use my mascot dresspheres though, the elder drake kills me hahaha. Btw, the mascot dresspheres are so cute lmao, Yuna as a moogle, Rikku as a Cait Sith and Paine as a Tonberry is hilarious to look at, I’m going to enjoy using them in battle hahaha. Really cute to see Paine opening up and show her feelings and how much she appreciates Yuna and Rikku being her friends and trying their best to talk to her, it was a funny but nice scene. I never knew/remembered that when Yuna uses the warrior dressphere, her sword is the Brotherhood! That’s so sweet to see!

Kinda surprised that when you go to the Den of Woe, they figure out that Shuyin was the one controlling Nooj and that’s why he shot Paine, Baralai and Gippal when they escaped two years ago, and that now Shuyin is in Baralai’s body. Thought they established that already and that the den made people crazy because of his extreme depression and feelings of having to relive Lenne’s death with the pyreflies since they practically replay strong memories. Anyway, that’s done and dusted so time to finish levelling and go through the Via Infinito? XD Annnnd I gave up on the Via Infinito lol! Got to like level 60 (I think) but I cbb with the way stats work in this game and how you can’t max it etc, so you’re reliant on garment grids, switching dresspheres to get the most benefits such as going past 9999 HP and damage and the accessories, and the tower itself was tedious (and motion sickness inducing LOL, why am I weak) and you don’t even get much out of it (after defeating Penance in FFX and feeling no sense of accomplishment, it’s just so not worth my time lol), so yeah I can’t be bothered😬 Aaaand I spent so much time getting most dresspheres to 100%, I’m tired😖 And lol my characters are like level 99 or close to there because I was so tired of levelling myself….so I kinda cheated and stuck a rubber band on the analog stick to move it to the left and another rubber band with a battery on it to stay on the x button and voila! DIY levelling machine lmao. I just threw Yuna at the Thunder Plains and made someone constantly heal and the rest use skills to max the (annoying) Mascot dresspheres and others lol, yay.

Anyway, Vegnagun! Yes, Leblanc never was the type to just wait there quietly for Nooj to come back haha. And yes, Vegnagun is a machina created by humans so technically, it should be possible to be destroyed without it killing everyone in Spira. But anyway, the best thing was Yuna’s speech to everyone when Nooj suggested to sacrifice himself to kill Vegnagun and Shuyin. I was touched with her words tbh, because she’s right, it was so difficult to see all the fayth die in FFX because they had “no choice” and that they had to “accept” that this is what they had to do, and Yuna did accept it and do it, but in the end, she’s only left with regret, pain and the loss of people that should be beside her that aren’t. They need to stop sacrificing people in order to win, because it’s not really a win when you lose so many before it. And although it’s cheesy to have everyone combine their powers to take down each part of Vegnagun, it’s very sweet too because it feels like the spirit of the game, and it feels like we should get to finally have a happy ending. So weird to see Shuyin use all of Tidus’ skills but just with another name lmao. And as expected, Lenne comes out of the dressphere (pretty much) and so Shuyin finally gets to talk to her properly and fade together with her and rest in peace😊

And omggg the fayth appeared and asked Yuna at the flower field/farplane whether she really wants to see Tidus again! Guess I got 100% completion??? (Edit: I got 99% zzzz) I’m happy that New Yevon (Baralai), Youth League (Nooj) and the Machine Faction (Gippal) can finally unite together and understand that they’re all a part of Spira and really don’t need to fight, although I do think that the fighting between them was rather awkward? They had differing perspectives but they resulted in physical fighting and kinda like war so prematurely without really thinking about it, you really can’t blame Shuyin for being pissed that Spira is still like how it was 1000 years ago lol. Anyway, everyone’s happy now so yay. Yuna really did have another long journey in this game to save the world, so she really should and deserves to go back home to Besaid. Always great to see Yuna and Tidus get to reunite at Besaid just like how he first came about, and to reunite with everyone at Besaid too! That’s where they can both truly call home so yeah that was nice. I YouTubed the perfect ending scenes and yeah, I prefer the normal more, I don’t think it was necessary lol.

Overall, I still have mixed feelings over FFX-2. On one hand, it was nice to see Spira after the Calm and the problems that come with that alongside a new Yuna that has lost the chains of responsibility with the happy Rikku and stoic Paine that has a background that unfolds alongside the plot of this game, and just see them go on pretty carefree adventures and have fun. On the other hand, I wasn’t really a fan of the garment grids or the dresspheres but it was still okay, but I guess it just felt like since it’s supposed to be more of a fan service game, I should have enjoyed it more? But instead I thought it was kinda boring? And the 100% completion attempt (that failed) killed me lol. I guess the story wasn’t very appealing, it’s good that it was light hearted and it was fun to follow the girls around and see their perspective of things, but I guess it lacked the fun and adventure that a lot of games have, instead it was kinda just like a short story about nothing that wanted to talk about something (saving the world again) when the only thing that really resonated with me was the last bit with Yuna when she said she had enough of people sacrificing themselves for peace. Basically, all right game but not very satisfying if you wanted something more from FFX (until you see Tidus at the end I guess) and not very interesting as a standalone imo.

[heloflor]

Any thoughts on how Discord is a legit abuse survivor at the hands of Tirek and how that plays into his development/occasional relapses?

(Sorry if the answer is so late, I didn’t have internet for all week and I probably won’t have it again until next week-end >_

To be honest…I actually don’t really know how to answer about Discord being an abuse survivor. Thing is, I can’t say I really know stuff about social abuse aside from bullying; so as much as I can understand why people see their relationship as abusive, I tend to consider it as more of a false friendship in the sense that Tirek shows respect towards Discord (flattering him at the beggining, letting him cause chaos) but only because Discord is more powerful than him; and when he gets enough power Tirek can betray him, showing his true intentions. I mean, I don’t remember all the scenes but from what I remember, the only moment Tirek “hurts” Discord during their conquering is when Tirek learns about Twilight and grabs his neck; and in that moment Discord isn’t afraid to tell Tirek he had doubts about Tirek considering what they do as teamwork, which make me feel like, if Discord was the “villain’s sidekick who do the hard work”, he still had some control over the “friendship”.

But for how it plays in Discord’s development, it does plays a lot for his reformation. (here comes the long rambling…)

Thing is, “Twilight’s Kingdom” seems to have two “plots” in it : in one hand, Twilight learns what her role as a princess is; and on the other Discord learns what friendship really means. Off-topic but this is kinda visible during the “bubble” scene. This scene, aside from being the moment Twilight gets her key, also feels like the moment Discord makes amends for what he did while realizing what ponykind has to offer to him. So it could be a “double” point of view. And, when Tirek makes the bubbles appear, you have three shots showing the mane 5 + Spike and one of the shots only shows Fluttershy, at the center of the screen; and later on, when the bubbles pop, Fluttershy is also shown alone in the middle, considering that Fluttershy is the one who reformed Discord in the first place.

But getting back to Discord, the events with Tirek are important because he realize what he can really have by being reformed. Indeed, in “Princess Twilight Sparkle”, it’s shown that Discord reformed for two reasons : having one friend, not Fluttershy but at least one friend (and, if it can count as proof, in this episode, not only Discord doesn’t care, misspelling her name while grabbing Rainbow Dash; but Fluttershy barely gives him the benefit of the doubt and when he’s next to her at one point, she looks rather uncomfortable and even ashamed when Discord hurts Rainbow; which actually makes the reformation more realistic than the ending of “Keep Calm and Flutter On” who was adorable but maybe too bittersweet considering the character) and the other reason, which seems to be the most important to him is to be free from his stone prison(which is pretty understandable honestly).

But thing is, as time went and as seen in “Three’s a Crowd”, while most of the mane 6 decided to “give up” on Discord, being like “Yeah, you reformed so now please go do your life away from ours and everything will be fine”, Fluttershy decided otherwise and started to show more kindness to Discord, sending him letters and all to make him a “true” friend instead of just a guy she had to be nice to to avoid having him destroy everything. And in “Three’s a Crowd”, we can see that Discord started to see her as a real friend and is happy to have her around (also, interesting development from Fluttershy too : in this episode, the way she pets him at the end makes it feel like she doesn’t see him yet as a pony but more as an animal friend; it may be just me but I find it interesting to see her having trouble too when it comes to treat him like a pony at first (and by pony I mean like how they see Spike as one of them). And good thing that in the finale she seems to “finally” see him as a pony).

And then comes “Twilight’s Kingdom”, in which the beggining tells a lot about how the ponies see Discord. I mean, it’s obvious that he doesn’t spend time with characters other than the mane 6 so surely the background ponies must be afraid of him. As for the others : the princesses are all shocked when Celestia suggest him and, when Discord talks to the mane 6, their facial expression show that they want him away, at one point Rainbow “hit” him and Applejack shows happiness when he’s away. Heck, during this dialogue, the only positive feeling Discord recieve from the ponies is when Fluttershy confirm their tea party (and that would actually explain why he looks so happy about it). So how do all of that affect Discord ? When he talks to Tirek for the first time, he tells him about how he’s doing it for Fluttershy and, when he hesitates, he looks at a picture of her. In the end, Discord doesn’t care about ponykind aside from that one pony. (and honestly, who would blame him ? He didn’t know anything about friendship at that time so if others don’t want to give from themselves to befriend him then why would he do so ? BTW unrelated but I don’t think that makes Twilight a true hypocrite when she complains to Celestia about how Discord betrayed them because yes she never tried to reach him but moments ago she realized that he was truly trying to help them with the diary and she may possibly have started to consider trying to befriend him more at that point)

So then comes Tirek who offers him a deal : having one friend but not using magic much or having a new friend while being able to plunge the world into chaos. And, although it’s not just “having one friend” anymore but “having Fluttershy as a friend”, considering he probably still had a lot of his previous ambition and considering the hostility coming from the others, and like he says himself when the mane 5 are trapped (”Surely you saw this coming ?”), he may have though that Fluttershy was faking most of the time to keep him under watch (even though he got attached to her); so Tirek’s choice was a “win-win” (friend + magic). So it’s only during the betrayal scene that he realize not only that Fluttershy does really care about him (with the “I didn’t. I truly didn’t”) but also that Tirek was a toxic “friend” who was playing him to get power, making him also realize that trying to take over the world isn’t worth it when you can have friend instead.

So yeah, all this rambling just to say that Tirek helps making Discord realize what friendship means and to be also wary of others (in a way), helping Discord reaching the point of true reformation by putting him in the worse situation (betrayal, no magic, making Flutters feel terrible).

As for how it plays for his occasionnal relapses (I swear this won’t be as long), personally, I only saw the event playing his first relapse in “Make New Friends But Keep Discord”. After all, in “Dungeons and Discords”, for a while he tries not to get too pissed, teleporting the others two into a jazzy place before relapsing (so it’s mostly linked to his lack of consideration towards Spike and Big Mac and his own patience), in “To Where and Back Again” well…let’s just say Changelings were lucky that this ex-machina throne exist or he would have probably gone on a rampage to save him waifu best buddy and for “A Matter of Principals”…yeah…I talked about that one in another post; he’s acting more like his S4 self so I wouldn’t really count it here tbh (even though it’s rather unfair to exclude an episode just because I feel like Discord was badly written for the most part).

But yeah, getting back to S5, thing is, after the Tirek incident, it may be possible to consider that Discord decided to stop using magic as much as he used to. But thing is, chaos is all he ever had before his reformation. So at that point, if he did try to use less his magic, it’s believable to have him turn to the only other thing he “has” : Fluttershy. When you look at the way he acts in “Make New Friends But Keep Discord”, he’s being very obsessive towards her. Heck, though I barely know anything in this domain, I would even call it a co-dependent relationship, which is something truly toxic (which is also why I consider this episode and “Dungeons and Discords” as very important for Discord because in both of them he learns about having multiple friends, making him less glued to Fluttershy and so having a healthy relationship with her).

So yeah, I believe that, if he gets so mad at the idea of losing her, it’s because, after what hapened with Tirek, she becomes everything he has, making his relapse linked to the Tirek incident. Also, when you think of it, considering he was betrayed by Tirek, he could also fear that Fluttershy ends up turning her back on him to go with someone else.

…Well, that’s one long rambling. I hope it wasn’t too long and boring to read (and thanks if you read it all !).   

[pearwaldorf]

A repost of a list I made the last time I did a real deep dive into the Critical Role tag. I have included relevant spoiler warnings but they’re not meant to be comprehensive, so please tread accordingly. Asterisks by new additions.

Percy/Vex

Porny

hold me down, I wanna find out, by sabinelagrande Percy has some plans and not much else, but it’s enough for Vex to go on. It’s Percy/Vex femdom. That should probably be enough for you to figure out if you want to read it or not.

whatever you do (do it for me baby), by mischief7manager Percy finds something that belongs to Vex. After testing, he takes it upon himself to make some improvements. The Percy inventing the strap-on story we all knew was inevitable. This is Impressively Filthy in the best way.

under your moonlit gaze, by seimaisin Vex, Percy, the hot springs, and sex. With a brief interruption from Scanlan. Excellent PWP. Not kidding about the lack of plot. <3

I’ll show you how it’s done, by sabinelagrande Vex is a woman on a mission, and Percy had better hope he can keep up. Lovely bit of bondage and femdom. A++ need more of this.

Not porny

Serving Repentance, by CurrieBelle Set after Episode 40. Vex and Percy discussing their shared interests: trick shots, repressed feelings, poor timing, and ill-advised vengeance. This is a lovely little bit of connection between these two, and I like it a lot.

Inheritance, by CurrieBelle Set after episode 30. Vex asking Percy the question we were all thinking. The Percy voice is just so good in this.

Within the Words, by pagerunner While searching for clues that might help them on a mission, Vex encounters a book in a language she can’t read…and so she turns to the one ally who can. A lovely little moment of connection and discovery.

closer to the sky, by seimaisin Vex is a problem he’ll never be able to solve. A necessary conversation after The Sunken Tomb (episode 44).

The Hands-On Approach, by JettieBettie Vex has never given Percy’s hands much thought before; she is very much like everyone else, distracted by the white hair, apathetic aristocratic gaze, and quick witted intelligence. He certainly seemed the type when they first met, the kind of man with nothing but a callus on his finger from a quill pen. By now she knows better. Lovely bit of character study.

the myth of loneliness, by seimaisin “The wings were a big deal, huh?” “Yes and no,” she says. “I don’t know. Which is a very specific answer, I know.” A lovely little bit of connection in a lonely place.

I want to tell you but I don’t know how, by impossibletruths Such an easy phrase, he knows, small and simple and short, but it sticks in his throat. Besides––actions, they say, speak louder than words. Aww, this is sweet and lovely.

A Civilized Discussion, by curriebelle The one from Trinket’s POV. I love it so much.

Kima/Allura

oh and it aches (and it feels oddly good to hurt), by mischief7manager “They’ve been traveling together for three days now, and if that self-righteous, sanctimonious, supercilious paladin opens her mouth to spout about Bahamut’s glorious purpose one more time, Allura is going to cast Hold Person on her and dump her off a cliff.” Three times Kima saved Allura’s life, and one time Allura returned the favor.

Brighten My Northern Sky, by impossibletruths Cassandra keeps speaking, but Kima pays her no mind because standing at the window, tired and pale and dusty and here, alive, in Whitestone, is Allie. Aww, this is lovely and sweet.

Just promise me we’ll be alright, by impossibletruths In the space of a heartbeat, it all comes crashing down, and she makes her choice. Kima’s voice is so good in this; I love it so much.

we’re not broken, just bent (look, i’m still around), by mischief7manager Kima and Allura rekindle their relationship at Whitestone and find out what has changed, and what hasn’t. This is gorgeous and quiet and vulnerable. I love how Kima snaps and is uneasy, the way Allura blames herself for what happened.

Percy/Pike

Time is not on our side, by thevaliantdust Pike’s divine connection ends, and the waiting begins. Set after episode 59. This is some Quality Angst.

Until you set your old heart free, by impossibletruths In the aftermath of the tomb, Pike makes a discovery, and Percy remembers that not all healing is magic and mended bones. Quiet, lovely, comforting. (ep 44 spoilers)

Keyleth/Vax

i’m yours and that’s it, whatever, by mischief7manager (Keyleth/Vax) “Vax’ildan of Vox Machina asks Keyleth of the Air Ashari to marry him on a warm day in early spring. ‘Wait, what?’ she says.” Cultural misunderstandings surrounding marriage is my jam! Oh god it’s so stinking cute.

love is watching someone die, by nighimpossible (Raven Queen/Vax, Keyleth/Vax) Five dreams Vax'ildan has of the Raven Queen. Creepy and melancholy.

Other pairings/multi

Things in between the fractures and fissures, by impossibletruths (Keyleth/Kashaw) It’s fine, she tells herself. It’s an idle curiosity. It’s checking in on a friend. There is a question she needs to ask, but it is not the one she’s thinking of. Or, two weeks after the Tomb Incident, Keyleth and Kashaw have a chat. There is never enough Keyleth/Kash, and this is so lovely and well-characterized.

The dance, by valiantdust (Vax/Gilmore) Gilmore wakes in Vax’s arms. Yes, it is a Gilmore POV of That Scene. Because I love dying and being dead, I must spread this around. (episode 39 spoilers)

another dream, another love you’ll hold, by zornslemon (Cassandra/Kaylie) “Vox Machina is like that. They come into people’s lives, perform incredible acts of heroism, and then leave again, ignoring the people they leave behind.” Cassandra and Kaylie bond. This is so out of left field, and it works really well.

elements of desire, by notalwaysweak This is a series exploring the formation and negotiation of multiple pairings, from multiple POVs. It’s like a cozy polyamorous blanket.

What Are You?, by Sparxflame (not tagged but basically Percy/Orthax) “What is this?” asks the smoke, quietly. Percy swallows, on his knees, hanging in the endless dark of the void. He knows he’s dreaming, knows none of this is real – but none of that changes the fact he’s alone, and it’s dark, and the smoke is so thick around him that he can barely breathe. “It’s- my gun,” he says. The kinda fucked-up Percy gun kink story I didn’t know I wanted. 👌🏼

serve you well, by endquestionmark (Vax/Briarwoods) So: “Anything you need,” Vax says, and means it with all the fervency of someone with nothing left to barter. Legit the fic I was hoping somebody would write after Vax disappeared into the Briarwoods’ room. (dubcon warning)

Gen

Prowl, by resonant_aura Pike Trickfoot has been a healer for as long as she could remember. But she isn’t only a healer–and it would be beneficial for her enemies to remember that. Who doesn’t love a badass!Pike story? I like that this fills in some of what happens when she’s at the temple.

Simple Creed, by notalwaysweak Helping Pike out in the hospital is more gory than glorious. But Gilmore discovers it’s not without its own rewards. A lovely little character piece, illuminating both Pike and the effect she has on people. (episode 39 spoilers)

Gods and Champions, by earthquakegirl Following Ep. 48, Pike gets fed up with Vax avoiding her and decides it’s time they talk. I like how this digs into both their characters, and people’s perceptions of Pike.

we are not along in the dark with our demons, by TechnicalTragedy “How do you do it, Pike?” “Oh, it’s a constant fight. But us? We’re good at that.” I love how this digs into how much everybody looks up to Pike, and how important it is for the group, but especially Percy.

In Healing Healed, by icarus_unchained Set just at the end of Ep.52. Pike considers Percy, Vox Machina, light and darkness, healing and being healed. Pike’s perspective on what Percy does is absolutely lovely.

And we will stand beside and breathe in their new life, by impossibletruths Percy has lost siblings enough; he had thought himself free of the fear of losing a loved one. He never expected the bright-haired druid girl to crawl into his heart and stir up those long-buried memories. But then, Keyleth rarely does as expected. Or, six times Percy saw his siblings in Keyleth and one time Keyleth called him on it. I am super weak for Percy and Keyleth stories and this is such a good one.

Just the Endless Frozen Pines, by isyotm Keyleth is there long after everyone else is gone. She makes sure Whitestone is too. There may have been ugly crying while reading this.

Intertwined, by sabinelagrande The morning after doesn’t go quite like Percy expected. Technically Percy/Vex, but not really the focus of the story. Cackling.

tame the ghosts in my head, by lakilaes Vex is five when she starts keeping track of how much they spend. Oh this is just fucking heartbreaking.

Night Moves, by sabinelagrande Vax has an unexpected guest, and he would rather not know why. The one where Trinket gets sexiled.

Culpability, by CorvidFeathers After Vex’s brush with death, Percy and Cassandra have a conversation about judgment and guilt, and work out a few of the knots in the tangle of past regrets and mistakes that shadow them both. Why does this not have more kudos? This is complicated and real; probably the best Cassandra and Percy fic I’ve read. (episode 44 spoilers)

Of Edges and Survival, by Kayssna She cries the day she forgets her mother’s favorite perfume, and cries harder when she realizes she doesn’t remember her eldest brother’s face. A lovely little vignette.

It Might Sting a Little, by curriebelle Everyone in Vox Machina must have pierced ears so they can use the magic whisper earrings. Ergo, an ear piercing fic that turned into a Percy character study, because of course it did. It’s really interesting having a look at this Percy, who is so different from the one we see on the stream. Also he gets roughed up a tiny bit in a loving way.

Empires at Peace, by curriebelle Post Episode 38 - Gilmore reflecting on Vax’s decision. Oh god this hurts, and it’s so perfectly in character.

New beginnings, by thevaliantdust Gilmore and Sherri begin rebuilding their business in Whitestone This is so cute.

sugar, we’re goin’ down, by notalwaysweak “I’ve never dueled a dragon before.” How it all went down: the duel, and Emon’s walls too. The one where Gilmore is a badass and a hero, and Sherri is too. There may have been some crying. (The title is a nice touch.) (episode 39 spoilers)

A little help from my friends, by impossibletruths It all seems pretty simple to him. She knows, he doesn’t, she can teach him. Two plus two equals–– well, whatever. Point is, there’s nothing wrong with asking for a little help. Keyleth teaches Grog a thing or two about fighting. Delightful.

Garden-variety training, by charmedward It’s the middle of the afternoon when Grog finds Keyleth crying in the grounds of Greyskull Keep. A lovely bit of interaction between two characters we don’t see talking much together.

the light in me will guide you home, by notalwaysweak While Vox Machina roam Tal'Dorei gathering allies and power, a smaller group holds Whitestone together. A nice look at the bits we don’t see in the main narrative. (Chroma Conclave spoilers)

forget forgotten, by 1001cranes 5 Times Vax Was Not the Raven Queen’s Champion Proper drabbles, each a delightful tiny AU in itself.

* fifteen feet of pure white snow, by cinderfell Critical Role (post Chroma Conclave arc); Cassandra de Rolo When you’ve lived your life in a gilded cage, it’s hard to leave even once the door has been opened.

This is such a fantastic character study focusing on a fear that Cass would plausibly have, and it’s treated with such empathy and compassion.

AU

frost in the brambles, by vype There is a universe where Percival de Rolo was struck down by arrows instead. The one where Cass is the one Vox Machina finds. I love this so much.

Exandria NM, by sabinelagrande The series where Vox Machina works for the National Parks Service. Don’t laugh, it’s fucking great because it is so wonderfully specific and obviously written with insider knowledge. Tell Sabine how much you love it so she’ll write more.

Modern Keyleth/Kash coffeeshop AU omg it’s so stinkin’ cute.

* The Hero’s Petition, by NevillesGran Far in the northern reaches of Tal'Dorei, the city of Whitestone lies half-buried under snow and dark trees. They say monsters live there, now, ruled by worse. They say strangers are hunted and killed. They say to enter is death, particularly to enter the castle.They say sometimes, if you're very brave or very lucky, or merely very desperate, it may be worth the risk.

The dark Keyleth & Percy AU I didn’t know I wanted. Sequel here.

[indygotcha]

who in your opinion is the coolest mc ever?

IDK how to answer this truthfully, TBQH. This question landed right on my face during me suddenly feeling dissociated with my interests out of nowhere yesterday.

I more or less dunno if I can entirely distill myself to talking about who’s best among best when it comes to certain things and stuff. It seems like I can take everyone for who they are, and the ones I would love the most are the ones I might want to relate to the most, or have certain special connection.Like right now, your question brought reminded me that lately I haven’t bothered watching BNHA at all, and have had very.. “indifferent” feelings to it over these times despite having read all the chapters and everything

I think it has had to do with the time I had watched the 1st season and had overall on-going history with dissociating on liking fictional characters or relating to them and stuff. When I got into the series first time, I think it was because of its amazing shonen spirit that felt like simple, yet very reconstructed. I had been pretty depressed during that time and was already in middle of struggling through graduating high school. 

Thanks to my hard efforts though, I managed to get through and graduate with quite a bang. Quite amazing times too, especially since BNHA was still on-going and I had a blast watching it. You can read more about it here.

But again, what did happen? I think it’s an awful mix of me again having to start to thinking I’m nothing in a fandom if I can’t make myself well-known there in some way, or something. I guess because I tried to draw a BNHA OC due them becoming a trend, but then none batted an eye as much as I though they would despite me working hard on it, and it had me lose interest due war flashbacks on being rejected/ignored in some previous fandoms I was part in, and went on to go try writing some fanfictions in order to build a following. Even worse if something happens to become hated even when I liked it: Because TBQH, it’s hard for me to hate something to the point of bandwagoning on it out of spite -  I always believe they can be made better without changing the character outright most of the time.

This has been like this for the whole time now since being back in this fandom, and lately it had me lose interest on keeping up watching the newest episodes. I instead decided to follow my curiosity and watch something less intensive and prone for me to think I need to make myself “alive” here in this fandom.

Which um, leads to what I think is what reflects my feeling on this question: Kazuto “Kirito” Kirigaya A.K.A “Jesus-kun”

Most standard response on this would be “why would I even wanna a bat an eye on this dude, he’s nothing well-written, he’s clearly a stupid wish-fulfilment character, etc. Hell, why am I checking out what’s considered “the worst anime” of all time, at least in mainstream presence?

Perhaps the starting point was that I knew there was already better anime out there I can kick back into if it really is trash, and well, I have nothing to lose if I watch this incase I wanna go back to good stuff again. Might as well gain knowledge on how mainstream anime works today. TBQH, I had also had some subtle feelings of being tired of watching high quality stuff and wanting to kick back a bit. 

So something odd happened during certain moments in the show. I… had moments of “feels” for more emotional scenes and stuff.

I was, frankly, appalled. Because for longest time, I had been thinking that the overall reception to something is the truth. So there was no way this show would have me in feels. In fact, it should had been complete opposite because there’s clearly plot holes, deus ex machinas, etc.

In fact, I wondered what had me keep going watching this show, and I soon realized why: because the show wasn’t actually as bad as peeps made it to be.And frankly, the “wish-fulfillment” or other things that would feel unrealistic in some ways, felt actually more beautiful due their imperfection:  because they forced me to feel them instead of trying to dissect intellectually in order to allow myself feel them in a legit fashion (A.K.A every frigging argument on Tumblr other site ever).  

Like yeah, this is definitely a dumbest excuse for a family ever

But I again, feel like that the imperfection on how this family got together anyway, being stranded together by the circumstances that the world they got trapped and how they can be so sweet with each other makes it actually something I wanna find one day due coming from a rather broken family myself. It’s all in the feelings that this stupidly imperfect yet so cuddly and badass gave to me. 

Then come videos like this which dissect how it all is so illogical for it all to happen it is that frankly, I lose the sight of getting to it because “it’s unrealistc” and “stupid” and that feeling gets broken:

They keep piling on and on which frankly has me lose the sight of the feelings that these kind of things gives to me, from my own ground and personal past experiences + desires. And thus, I rather try to cover up my thoughts via intellectual reasonings among other things in order to stay on top instead of being forgotten.

And that’s how it’s been for most of my life, I had treated things I used to enjoy as something I need to analyze and find so objectively good that there’s no way I can be looked down upon for liking it because I was made fun of or treated like shit for just liking them for my own reasons (usually more emotional than intellectual).

But that’s not how it goes when you try to enjoy these things. It’s not about how objectively good they are - it’s about what they made you feel. The surprising part is… there usually is a reason. And it has something to do with yourself deep within. IMO, those reasonings are more purer and perhaps larger than life, compared to whatever objective reasons there are to say when something is good, reasonably explained, or other things to be allowed to be felt validly about.

So why Mr.”Jesus”-kun? 

Well, because… at first he and the series reminds me of the appealing things in anime. The keyword is on “appeal”. 

Like, you see a dude who gets some kickass moves or abilities, who seems like, liked overall by many folk and yadda yadda. Your usual mess and stuff. But overtime on always just analyzing these things instead of just taking them in, I kinda felt like a kid again wanting to be all those things that makes for a cool person even if they might appear to be some dumbass wish-fulfillment char. But it’s the feelings that matter - since in the end, they springboard you right away from there. Like, don’t think of how he got there. Think of the first impressions you had on some characters upon seeing them be awesome enough to hype you when you flicked a channel on randomly running these anime.

Now I would have dropped this whole series at once due harem shenanigans that were so brought in about as one of the series’ most notable “infamies”, yet frankly enough, there was no such stuff enough to make Certain Magical Index look a genuinely romantic series. It just kept on whatever plots it had, even if it had some controversial stuff going for it (like the whole cousin incest-shit, but they actually resolved it in pretty “okay”, dare I say, tasteful manner compared to your other animes with much heavier focus on such topic and never bring it up again ever since.)

I thought it’d be there, but since the show wasn’t apparently harem jazz and tried to tell story arcs as they came anyway, I decided to chug along since I had gone enough deep  -  yet later on in the 2nd season, Mr.Jesus-kun goes through some hard events and through that he went on to make an act of being a fucking DECENT PERSON  pretty damn admirable and heartwarming - something I always took for granted even if I do that a lot of the time. In fact, I think he’s quite a heroic guy for a “boring” person. 

Like, he goes to kick rapists’ asses even if you might say they rip that stuff of from better anime and it’s used for pointless drama. 

And if that wasn’t enough, he goes all the way to help a girl he bonded throughout the arc she’s featured with her severe PTSD to see a very positive flipside to the incident that led her to get one, which leads to one of the most satisfying endings for an arc I’ve seen in anime for a long while:

I think what took me most aback was how Jesus-kun himself felt so strongly about giving her opportunity such resolve, which is frankly admirable thing. 

In the arc, he had to deal with similar feelings due certain incidents in SAO that had him also kill folk before, much like this gal Shino above. He found resolve through as well after talking it out with his personal doctor:

Like, say what the fucking ever you want about this overly dumb MC, but this guy deep inside is a decent person throughout and tries to go all by helping others beyond virtual reality jazz that he’s given so much flack about. No fucking rocket science why girls fall for him. :P  Not that the anime is like the spinoff-games which has the harem mess people laud the series so much as for some reason.

For that, he’s been “coolest” MC for these past 3 days (and gets to join in ranks with others I know in similar being). And from what I heard about this series, it seems to keep on getting better, if only for the fact that the author (Reki Kawahara) appears to not be some stuck-up man and tries to address problems with his writing as series goes on, even to the point of rebooting the whole series for a new series of light novels. On that end, most peeps lauded anime as worse than original LNs, so I guess it means I can go fill in the blanks for these chars in them incase I get curious, and build my vision of them even further.

In short, I have a lot of MCs I consider cool.  Why settle on one only?

And now here comes the unfollows

[poipoi1912]

Carisi-centric thoughts on Ep 18x18

The last fifteen minutes really ruined what was, until then, a perfectly serviceable episode. It really flew by, up until that point, and I kinda liked it. It was dumb but fun :D

I even liked the hypnotism angle, but I must say, I think the problem persists; yet again, the episode had an interesting premise, but it failed to take advantage of it. Why not go into the practicalities of hypnosis? Where was Huang to get on that stand and explain it in detail? Speaking of, wouldn’t Barba talk to an “expert” during the trial? Why not make a show if it and demonstrate hypnosis? Wouldn’t that be fun to watch?

Warning

OK, guys, I’m going to be honest. I’m of two minds, when it comes to this episode. Sonny-wise, the episode was fantastic (and let’s be honest, that’s always my main concern lol), the premise was fun, we got Barba working with the entire team, not just Liv, and the case itself (the investigation of it, at least) was twisty enough to remain enjoyable.

BUT.

From a legal standpoint, this episode was laughably bad. It honestly left me baffled. Who wrote this? The last fifteen minutes were ridiculous. No way would Barba ever get a conviction based on what we saw. I’ll expand on that in a minute (in EXTENSIVE detail), but first let’s start with the good.

Sonny and Continuity

A lot of great stuff in this episode! Sonny pulled a classic Sonny, and looked into the case thoroughly, going above and beyond and finding information about out a crime which was committed out of state. He even dug up a civil suit. That’s absolutely consistent with the Sonny we know. It’s what he’s always done. He never gives up, he finds smart ways to work around the obstacles and solve the case.

I also appreciated that Sonny showed real empathy when he heard the first victim had died. Peter played that little moment so well. Both the surprise and the sadness. What I loved most about it, was that it didn’t feel like he was thinking “oh shoot, there goes our witness.” It felt like the old Sonny, the one who used to cross himself when he found a dead body. The Sonny who’d take the time to grieve, just for a moment, when confronted with the death of a stranger as opposed to last week’s Sonny, who dismissed actual death threats like he didn’t give a shit lol.

And I do always love it when Sonny cracks a case with his research. Even though he didn’t actually crack it, because what the fuck? But, again, more on that later.

Sonny’s Love Life

Wait, Sonny has a legit girlfriend that’s been mentioned more than once? Can we meet her, please? I’ve always wanted to see him happy and in love :D and making out with someone lol. I just wish we knew more about her. A name, even. Wouldn’t Amanda know her name? She and Carisi are obviously buddies. So far, the info we got on her is a) her bra size (classy, SVU writers) and b) that she’s into that raw food trend. I like that, actually. It fits Sonny. He seems like he’d totally be up for trying new experiences food-wise and otherwise, and this could be their thing, going around random restaurants and trying to convince each other to eat weird dishes, lol.

I love it when our characters are shown to have lives outside the “show”, but can we actually see it? Can we see Sonny all flirty and cute? If they don’t want to cast anyone new (because they seem averse to creating new characters), can’t we at least see, like, Sonny smiling as he talks on the phone, or as he reads a text, with Fin teasing him about it? Or something? Please? :D

Barba Thoughts

I was surprised Barba was the one to suggest hypnotism. Way to think outside the box! I’m not sure he was the best person to do that (he seems like a total skeptic who’d shoot that theory down immediately), but I bought the excuse of him having come across it before. Plus, I loved that he was the one who got to solve the case, for a change. And I also liked how the entire team, Barba included, spent several scenes brainstorming together. I had missed that. Barba in the precinct, with the entire squad.

Aaaaand that’s where the fun ends, and the pedantic/annoyed part of my post begins, lol.

Why on Earth would Barba take legal advice from Liv? Why would he ever play that tape for the jury? If that’s not reasonable doubt, I don’t know what is. Why would he follow Liv’s actual instructions? She’s not a lawyer! She directly affected the case, in a way that could have been detrimental, even though Barba seemed like he knew better (since he tried to talk her out of it, before folding as always), and the way the episode chose to resolve that was by having Liv and Barba drinkin’ it up at a bar.

Liv’s mistake was never identified as such, and it took Sonny “deus ex machina” Carisi and his random discovery to save the day.

Even though it shouldn’t have. Which brings me to:

The Law

Me for the first like 45 minutes: OK BUT WHERE IS RITA???

Me when Rita appeared: YASSSSSS QUEEN

Me at the end of the episode: NOOOOO QUEEN 

Where do I begin?

Why was Barba acting like hypnosis was sure to be accepted as 100% real and effective by a court of law, let alone a jury in its entirety? Why did he seem to “suddenly” realize he had no case (which, d’oh) at the halfway mark, only for Liv to wrongly convince him otherwise? And, even if Barba did manage to stumble upon a group of jurors who all believe in hypnosis, why didn’t he bother actually proving anything?

To get a conviction, Barba would have to prove that:

hypnosis is real,

hypnosis can be powerful enough to make a woman consent to sex against her will,

Trask has the skill to hypnotize people,

Trask actually hypnotized this specific victim, and

Trask raped this specific victim.

None of that was ever proven. None. Like I said, no expert was shown explaining just what hypnotism entails. No proof was given that Trask even knew how to do that (so what if his mentor taught him, does that mean he now knows how to do it perfectly?). There was an actual tape with the victim’s ‘consent’ that was played but not actually debunked.

And oh Lord. That old case Sonny dug up. WHERE. DO. I. BEGIN.

What defense attorney, hell, what judge would allow a totally random arrest from over 20 years ago to be brought up into a totally unrelated criminal trial? Not to mention, no one even bothered to point out that the defendant was a drug addict at the time (22. YEARS. AGO), and he had since “changed.”

To be fair, the writers tried to make it work, with Barba asking Trask if he had ever been arrested, to “open the door” to bringing up the previous arrest (and also to get Trask to lie on the stand). Problem is, Trask only lied about the arrest itself, not about the specifics of it. With that in mind, Barba would only be able to mention the arrest itself, to contradict Trask’s testimony and present him as a liar. But he’d never be able to introduce the actual details of the arrest, the actual facts of that old case.

Barba would need to ask something specific to open that door. Something like, “Have you ever been accused of anything like this before? A man in your position, wealthy and surrounding himself with drugs and beautiful women,” blah blah. If Trask had lied about that, then Barba would have been able to bring up a similar case from the past (even the case of the dead woman mentioned previously). 

Unfortunately, there was nothing similar about the case Sonny found. No relevance, no probative value. A drug addict, ill and scared, letting someone die? Over 20 years ago? An expunged arrest, no conviction? That was prejudicial as fuck. Rita would have it thrown out in 3 seconds. Many times, prosecutors can’t even mention actual (and relevant) convictions, because it would be prejudicial, unless the specific convictions have a significant probative value relating to the case on hand.

Same goes for that half-assed “confession” to Trask’s mentor-slash-friend. Trask never mentioned this specific victim. That was circumstantial as fuck. I'm embarrassed on Rita's behalf for losing this mess of a case. The old Rita would never.

Legally speaking, this was a total circus. Barba proved nothing. No way would the jury find Trask guilty. No way would Rita Fucking Calhoun let any of that fly. This is Dana Lewis levels of character assassination, in my book. 

Stray Thoughts

Is Liv working reception now? Didn’t she used to have an office? Where her subordinates could reach her, if a victim wanted to speak to “someone in charge”? You’re a Lieutenant, sis! Let someone else man the doors!

Declan? 👀

Amanda didn’t judge a victim, for once, and the case involved drugs! Progress!

Fin listening to that lady for like 5 minutes? YES. His face was the highlight of the episode. Fin himself was the highlight of the episode, actually. So many great lines, and Ice-T was clearly having fun.

Speaking of, we got Fin joking! And Carisi joking! And Amanda laughing! Who are these people? I don’t recognize them :D

Seriously though, I really appreciated the attempt for a more ‘lighthearted’ episode, but the writers should have stopped themselves riiiiiight before giving Rollins the line, ‘look deep into my eyes, you’re under arrest.’ Because no.

[shayne-or-something-blog]

Episodes 14-16

Ash and co. didn't just take the bike road thing from Cerulean to Vermilion and it ended up taking them like a month.

Lt. Surge fucks up Pokemon, on the real.

Ash actually throws a punch at Misty but Joy catches it mid-air. Joy is a kung fu legend low key.

Why would you send a Pidgey against Lt. Surge?

Pikachu has absorbed an actual bolt of lightning and had an entire power plant thrown into it's cheeks, I don't understand it's power growth through the series.

Surge is at least twice Misty's age and height but hits on her anyway, but calls Ash (same age) baby.

Surge calls Pikachu a baby pokemon, kickstarting the idea for Pichu.

Surge sends out Raichu but to add an air of mystery he says "Go Pokeball" instead of using his Raichu's name.

Raichu is so dope, I wish it were better in game.

Surge and his Raichu are so in sync they even mock Pikachu and Ash in unison.

Pikachu got OHKO'd by a Thundershock, furthering my misunderstanding of it's power level.

So Team Rocket thinks Pikachu isn't worth stealing if it loses to Raichu, but Pikachu loses to every new starter Pokemon when Ash goes to other regions. What even is Ash's Pikachu?

Joy just happens to be carrying around the Thunderstone as she "stumbled across Ash" as he was talking about Pikachu getting stronger.

I'm genuinely curious what Pokemon think about evolving and this episode only teases me on the subject. I really wish they would expand on this.

Pikachu slaps the Thunderstone out of Ash's hand but doesn't evolve when touching the stone. So do Pokemon have to want to evolve when they touch evolution stones? Is that why the Clefairy didn't evolve in the Mt. Moon episode?

Pikachu is gonna beat Surge to defend it and Ash's honor, part of me wonders if seppeku would happen should Pikachu lose a second time.

Brock drops a "perhaps there is a way" but doesn't explain what that way is.

Misty asks "how do you see a star in the middle of the day?" but the sun is a star???

The Challenger's Cheerleaders bit goes on for too long and I hate it.

The giant red R, crazy hair, talking Meowth, and first line of their motto wasn't enough to think Team Rocket would be recognized.

Raichu just starts whipping the fuck out of Pikachu with it's tail, either this is Tail Whip or some move not in Gen 1. Either way it shouldn’t hurt.

For Surge saying he taught Raichu all of it's electric moves it has only used 1 but 3 Normal type moves.

Raichu getting danced around by Pikachu is so dope.

Why does everyone in this show have inner ear problems? Raichu watches Pikachu run in circles a few times and ends up getting the faint eyes.

Raichu only has enough juice for literally one Thunderbolt and that's it.

Raichu and Surge are actually just punks.

The Thunder Badge looks like a sunflower.

5 people clapping sounds like an entire golf course for some reason.

Why does Pikachu just shock the fuck out of Ash for 20 full seconds of celebration?

Tan Jesse and James really creep me out, like, an inordinate amount.

I say rad all the time, thank you very much, Ash.

Every high-pitched "cool" trans-James cooed made me legit squirm.

First showing of Giovanni, weird voice distortion and Persian to Meowth jealousy. I'm confused on what they want Team Rocket to be in the anime. Sometimes they're just buffoons but here they're supposed to be serious criminals.

How do you look at the hardness of a Squirtle shell?

Spinning Tackle isn't a move, this trainer is stupid.

Somehow Super Fang knocks out Starmie even though that attack can only half the target's HP.

If Team Rocket does steal all the Pokemon, does that go agianst the 6 Pokemon at a time rule or would they be able to carry more like Damien?

Stun Spore almost KO'd Raticate from full  health...what?

MOTHERMAGIFUCKINGKARP

Magikarp seller guy is the definition of a pyramid scheme.

Ash said he put a lot of work into training Butterfree but he legit caught it, mummified some Pokemon, evolved to Metapod, hardened a bunch, fucked up a Beedrill and then evolved to Butterfree. He's done like, nothing with it had actually one battle.

DON'T YOU TRADE THAT FUCKING BUTTERFREE ASH

Knowing what happens to Butterfree down the line, I wonder what would have happened had Ash kept Raticate from this episode.

Giovanni's voice distortion is just a constant thing I guess? It still sounds weird even when he's not talking to anyone.

Why are Jesse and James left in charge of all of this? What past accomplishments would make it seem like they were qualified for this?

Some Rocket members just vaccuum up Pokemon but when it came to Ash and Pikachu they were politely asked to give up their Pokemon?

Recycled Pikachu jumping from a desk thing from the Pokemon Center episode.

The best way for Pokemon to combine attacks is in a pyramid formation.

Ash didn't even give Raticate a chance, it could've been in the top percentile, it could’ve been Alolan.

Ash gains full control over all the duplicate Pokemon for some reason.

You'd think Team Rocket would think about the possibility of an entire cruise ship of Pokemon Trainers fighting back.

Ash is a takesybacker on this trade thing.

The trade machine has the same buttons as a tape player? To trade you hit the record button.

What does a trade machine do in this world? Damien's Charmander willingly uncaught itself for Ash, what if Butterfee did the same for Colonel Sanders trainer?

This Captain just asked anyone who didn't escape the ship to say Aye...like, how did you get a job?

How did Jenny learn all of the main chars names? Were the tickets that Jesse and James gave out named or on a guestbook maybe? If it was the latter wouldn’t that have sunk with the ship too?

Brock and Misty are awfully calm for being at the bottom of the ocean.

We see fish in the water, are those Pokemon or are there real animals in this world?

James is the only person who takes being sunk seriously.

Jesse orders Ekans to use Acid to melt a hole in the floor, but they're upside down so is the floor the ceiling or is the ceiling the floor? Regardless it makes water immediately fill the room so they must have been right on the hull but have to spend the rest of the episode finding the hull.

Children's show gets really dark about dying in this ship.

FUCKING GOLDEEN WHAT DO YOU EVEN DO

Goldeen bringing something from outside the ship is weirdly reminiscent of the olive branch from Noah's Ark, a weird reference for a show based off evolution.

What better time for Ash and co. to battle Team Rocket then as they're all in imminent peril of drowning.

How fucking convenient is it that Misty once built a model replica of the St. Anne ship and thus knows how to escape??????????????????????

So bringing out Pokemon earlier made the ship rock back and forth, sending out Pokemon now does nothing.

James called Jesse, Jessica and that fucked up my headcanon.

What kind of grip does Bulbasaur have to fully support Ash, Misty, and Brock while just standing on a ledge? That dude has the most powerful suction cup feet of all time.

So they use Charmander, the fire-type Pokemon, to burn a hole through the hull instead of just using Ekans like before, leading to what I assume was supposed to be a funny Charmander running for it’s life scene.

These Pokemon used Waterfall and that wasn't Gen 1.

Team Rocket needs a water Pokemon and it's basically a Magikep Ex Machina, but it isn't an Ex Machina because it's a Magikarp.

300 dollars is apparently all of Jesse and James' salary for the next month? How do they live on that?!

OH, they actually reference Noah and the branch, holy shit

Pikachu is genuinely peeved Team Rocket didn't die at sea.

Why didn't they return Magikarp to it's Pokeball instead of just letting it splash on this floating platform they're on for a full day.

They all want to eat Magikarp, so is that a thing in this show? Do people eat Pokemon? What is meat in this world?

All it took for Magikarp to evolve was a day of splashing and a kick to the face.

"Careful who you call ugly in high school" moment as Gyarados shows up.

Why do they not just return the Gyarados to the Pokeball?

Meowth can understand Pokemon but doesn't know what Gyarados is saying.

It takes 5 Gyarados to pull off Dragon Rage.

Doesn't Dragon Rage only do like, 40 damage? This seems a lot stronger than 40 damage.