#military review

[carbone14]

Après leur arrivée à la gare de Klagenfurt, le Führer et Himmler passent en revue la compagnie d'honneur de la Division Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler – Autriche – 5 avril 1938

©Bundesarchiv - Bild 183-H04436

[if-you-fan-a-fire]

"REVIEWS ARMY BUT IS ALL FOR PEACE," Kingston Whig-Standard. June 14, 1933. Page 1. ---- Mussolini looks like a stern soldier here, as he reviews troops in Rome. In regulation uniform, he takes seriously the job of responding to salutes of passing regiments. But in diplomatic negotiations, he's all for peace.

[occidentaltourist]

bbc: Some sweet #Silvacre content for your FYP ❤️

[microcosme11]

Soldier hands Bonaparte a petition. From pinterest; looks like it's from an advertisement.

[lonestarbattleship]

USS Indiana (BB-1) at anchor during the Naval Review on October 3, 1911.

NARA: 55171560

[promithiae]

Bleh. I don't know what I want to read next. I've been on a history jag lately, but none of the books I've picked out (and are available) on libby are piquing my interest.

[thepastisalreadywritten]

[a-fantasy-lover-surfing-the-net]

Modern Cdramas I watched in 2023

This was my first year in Dramaland (both Chinese and Korean). And I have to say that for the most part I have enjoyed my journey in discovering the dramas. This list includes dramas that were released before 2023 as well.

9. Love of Replica

This one of those dramas with lookalikes where the female lead impersonates her lookalike and solves the mystery about her backstory. Also, it's a bodyguard romance so I definitely expected some things going in. It's full of cliches and tropes some enjoyable and some irritating. I have to praise Yu Yue (actress portraying the female lead), she really made me believe that lookalikes were two completely different people. The chemistry between the main couple is fire. I did not enjoy the secondary characters' romance. However the overall squad energy and their team dynamic was great. I kinda guessed the twist but was surprised by how dark the drama went. Overall, I liked most of it and I was disappointed how some of the characters ended up. If you want a bodyguard romance with kinda obvious twists with very good cast chemistry then you'll probably like it.

8. Parallel Love

This is a time travel drama (you'll see more of these in this list) where Lin Miao, the female lead travels from 2020 to 2010 and she must help Jiao Yang, who is the Vice President of Hong Yu, become the president of the company within 3 months otherwise she will disappear forever. What I liked most about is that Lin Miao is very competant and smart, even if she is not experienced for the task she will still try her best and give it her all. I enjoyed the romance and the dynamic of the main leads. It definitely has plot holes regarding time travel and the rules were not properly explained. They also did not really focus much on the time travel part and did use the potential things that they could do with time travel. However, the interaction between the present and the future Lin Miao was very well done and something that many people would be able to relate to. The business plot was medium and not very interesting. The main leads' personalities and character arcs was the reason why I enjoyed the drama. However, they left the ending ambiguous so if you don't mind open endings then you'll enjoy this time travel/corporate romance drama.

7. Love under the Full Moon

Another time travel drama with a twist that Lei Chu Xia (female lead), who has time travelled 10 years into the future can't leave Xu Xiao Dong side beyond a certain distance. Together they work to recover her memory to unravel the mysteries of the past decade. This drama has great romance, unique time travel premises further in the series, good character development for the main and secondary cast, an antagonist that seems like a real person which makes it seem like we could meet someone like them in real life and a plot with unexpected paths. However, it does have a bittersweet open ending which could make some people hate the drama. Despite that I really liked the drama.

6. Mr. Bad

One day, Nan Xing, an online novel writer makes a wish for an "unforgettable love" in a wishing pool. Then, Xiao Wu Di, the villain of her story, suddenly appears before her! She tries to avoid him, but Xiao Wu Di finds her and threatens her into taking care of him. Unfortunately for him, Nan Xing's wish comes with a special power: whenever she needs help, Xiao Wu Di teleports next to her to fulfill her wish. It's fun, fluffy and sweet with not much angst. The romance is cute and the dynamic with the secondary cast is enjoyable. The ending frustrated me but I assume they did it to pass the censors so I just pretend the last 7 mins don't exist. This is one of those shows you can watch when you just want to turn your brain off and watch a sweet story.

5. My Lethal Man

It's premise is similar to Love of Replica however here Shen Man Ning, an art student takes the place of Zhuang Xin Yan, granddaughter of a business tycoon. Yan Xing Cheng, the mysterious male lead is ruthless in pursuing the mastermind behind the threats and is not really sympathetic to Xin Yan but as they face the difficulties together they fall in love. The romance is so good and their dynamic is very different from typical ones. I found the secondary characters' romance weird and poorly done. The plot was really good and the pace kept moving along nicely. Except for the secondary romance, I had a great time watching it, I really recommend this one if you want a drama that balances mystery/thriller and romance and does a good job at both aspects.

4. Love in Time

A time travel drama again ! This is the last one though. This one is unique because the appartment in which He Zhen Yu has recently moved into merges with it's past one. This is how he meets a rookie reporter Chen Jia Lan who is a former tenant from four months ago, and through some miracle, they are able to see each other. When they attempt to prevent future misfortunes by changing the past together, their romance blossoms. Their romance was so good that I really ended up hardcore rooting for them to get their happy ending. I don't want to give away too much so all I'll say is that the time travel and its consequences were handled very well for the most part and the plot was interesting and took surprising turns. He Zhen Yu's character arc was very well portrayed on the other hand while in the beginning I related to Chen Jia Lan, in the latter part of the drama I was frustrated with her choices and how she didn't have a character growth moment. All the actors did a good job but I have to say that the main leads' acting was very good and made me very immersed in their story. All in all, I had a very good time watching it as the ending brought it all together for me.

3. Lucky's First Love

It's one of those office romances which has a light tone for the most part. Xing Yun is competent and hardworking who was there with Xia Ke when he started the company. They have been working together for years and have deep understanding of each other and work well together. Thankfully, Xia Ke is not one of those CEOs who are jerks and cold hearted. He may be reserved but he is quite caring (not in an overt way) not only towards Xing Yun but also his employees. Xing Yun does go out with someone else in the start but it doesn't last long and love triangle shenanigans are not long drawn out. The main leads' romance is sweet and depicts their daily interactions and they have great kiss scenes. The secondary couples are also great. This drama has character development for main and secondary characters, wholesome workplace and family dynamics, no over the top melodrama, lifelike workplace and relationship issues, slice of life interactions and very little angst. This is a great watch for when you need something short and sweet that's not too heavy.

2. Ordinary Greatness

The show mainly focuses on novice police officers that are starting their one year long mentorship. They soon discover that the grass-roots work is different from what they imagined, and, after some struggles, they're gradually moved by the sense of achievement and honour gained in their work. Throughout the show we explore their characters, their comraderie with each other, with their mentors and with other police officers at their station. We also get to know their mentors and other police officers at the station which immerses the audience in the show deeply. It is a slice of life type drama, where most of the cases are not major crimes. All actors knock it out of the park with their emotional as well as subtle portrayals. This show depicts how even small acts and seemingly tedious and insignificant work really have great impact on people's lives and that the people doing such grassroots work contribute just as much and are just as important to the society if not more as the people doing big acts like taking down criminal gangs. While some situations and cases are specific to China, everyone will be able to relate to majority of them. I must say this is a must watch drama.

1. Arsenal Military Academy

This is a Republican era drama in which Xie Xiang assumes her brother's identity to join the Chinese army and is accepted in the Arsenal Military Academy. While she is the main lead the story also follows Gu Yan Zheng(main lead) - a spoilt quarrelsome rich kid, the gentle and introverted Shen Jun San, Qu Man Ting - a famous actress and singer and secondarily other cadets, their teachers and other locals. It has great comedy, really good romance (including their hilarious bickering), enjoyable action and entertaining dynamic of the cast. All the actors did an excellent job here, the standouts being Bai Lu, for portraying being able to convincingly play the female role and the female disguised as male role all while knocking out her emotional and comedic scenes and Xu Kai, who can forget his electrifying performance as a lovable troublemaker. I have to warn you that the story gets serious in the last 10ish episodes and that the love triangle does drag out a little bit longer than it should but it's resolution is still good. To me the drama didn't seem overly patriotic so I didn't have a problem rooting for the characters and their goals of protecting and improving their country. This ranked first because it's romance, characters and their comraderie won me over completely.

You can also check out my costumed cdrama rankings.

As I'm still a newbie to cdramas and kdramas, I welcome your recommendations.

[hardcore-gaming-101]

Metal Gear Solid Touch

Console games and mobile games are often distinct experiences, and what works on one doesn’t necessarily work on another. A high flying big budget game like Metal Gear Solid 4, for instance, doesn’t really translate well to a small screen. In 2009, Kojima Productions put out Metal Gear Solid Touch, exclusively on iOS devices. It’s a rough approximation of the PS3 exclusive, becoming a shooting gallery rather than the stealth action the series is known for. Compared with some of the other mobile experiments from Konami at the time, it works as a pick up and play game, but ultimately ends up uninspired.

Read more...

[we-are-ignited]

CW: negative book comments/opinion

Fourth Wing is really just not fucking good.

This isn’t even about the author sucking (as a person).

Like, craft wise? I think it was badly written.

Paragraphs of info dumping instead of actual world building.

“Violence”

The War, which this whole school is about, is not really well described or thought out.

I know it’s really annoying to hear “show, don’t tell” all the time but my good fucking god this book doesn’t let you figure anything out.

All of the modern language, like “clusterfuck” and couple other phrases

Also I think a lot of ableds are calling this book “disability rep” but I’m gonna be so fucking for real? It’s…like really bare minimum.

I think that’s a stretch.

[sillytriumphdragon]

*"Sometimes bad things happen. And there’s no blame to be placed. You can’t reason with the universe, no matter how sound your logic is … We are imperfect people made that way by an imperfect world, and we don’t always get a say in what shapes us."*

~Rebecca Yarros, The Last Letter

[bekah-reading]

84

4/5

I was listening to this as background noise all week while I did things.

It was okay. I found the writing a bit simple. The narrators were really good and I found listening to this book very entertaining. Rocky and Lucky have such a good dynamic that makes their banter funny and engaging.

This was a military sci-fi. The action was immersive and I think that’s where the author definitely shined, because his writing style fit it very well. If you like Halo (the video games, aka my love), Mass Effect, and the Alien movies I definitely recommend giving this book and its series a shot (pun was not intended but welcome).

This was very much a book that felt like the scenes with the marines during Aliens.

[if-you-fan-a-fire]

“The traditional Fascisti salute of the upraised arm is replaced by the upraised fist clutching a dagger as Premier Mussolini reviews former Italian servicemen now serving in the Fascist! militia during a recent Inspection in Rome.”

- from the Kingston Whig-Standard. January 30, 1933. Page 10.

[street-corner-felines]

Zero Day Director commentary - With actor Andre Keuck

[state-of-franklin]

All the people that think Oppenheimer is a propaganda movie actually make me laugh, because it is propaganda! Just not the nationalistic/patriotism kind.

It’s literally about a guy that lives to regret his most renowned invention, who wished more than anything it wouldn’t become a weapon, and when faced with his own guilt is told to suck it up and fake a smile.

This movie is trying to get the audience to understand the plight of the scientist that feels like he invented death. He was manipulated time after time by the US military and government, and truly was used for his genius more than he “used” anyone.

It is a 3 hour movie of pain, regret, and opposition between scientific progress and moral implications of doing so.

Don’t shit on a fucking movie because you read a tumblr post about it. Do your own fucking research and maybe go see the movie before you lay such harsh judgement on it.

[kithj]

havent posted but i finished the first Murderbot book and loved it. i love Murderbot........... i picked up the next 2 in the series and plan to read the rest once i've finished the other 2 books i'm currently reading. i wasn't sure how i'd feel about it because generally comedy in books tends to be a miss for me (sorry i just don't find most book humor to be funny lol) but i did think Murderbot was very charming and funny, there was a humorous voice throughout but it didn't overdo it. reminded me of Alex Easton from What Moves the Dead.

also just finished These Letters End in Tears by Musih Tedji Xaviere. i have kinda mixed feelings about this book? i don't really know if i liked it? but i didn't hate it, either. i just didn't really connect with the main character, and not in a "relatable" way but i just felt like she was very flat. i think it was more of an issue with the writing style than the story itself... considering it was meant to be very emotional, i just didn't feel it. and it lost the letter format very quickly, but i don't really hold that against it, most books written in letter format are like that. i wonder if that actually hindered it & the writing style.... all that being said, i still felt that the book was a privilege to read, when you consider the reality of the characters and the many lgbt people in similar situations that never get to tell their stories. this was a debut, and i definitely would be interested to read something else from this author in the future. huge trigger warning for violent homophobia/lesbophobia, the title of the book is definitely a warning.

i'm now reading Blessings by Chukwuebuka Ibeh, which was a coincidence (i was supposed to read and finish this book last month lol) but also an interesting read to follow These Letters End in Tears with. that one was about two lesbians in Cameroon, while this one is about a gay man in Nigeria, both places where "same-sex relationships" are criminalized. Blessings alternates between Obiefuna's and his mother's POV, who is very protective of him, and isn't told the real reason why his father sent him away to boarding school. i just started this one today so i'm not too far into it but i've liked what i've read so far.

i'm also still reading The Spear Cuts Through Water. honestly not gonna say much about this because i know i;m going to make a massive gushing post once i finish it because it is probably going to be my favorite read of the year 🙊