#nitpicks

[kvotheunkvothe]

The timeline in Dune pt 2 just does not work for me.

Stylistically, I can see the emphasis being on Jessica as holy mother consolidating Paul's power that way, and not adding another character to the mix except through her or through future visions.

In the book, a few years pass. Enough that Alia is born and grows to be a (creepy) child with a fairly active role at the end of the story, and Paul has a kid of his own.

But in the movie, Jessica is still pregnant at the end. This means everything, everything, we see in the movie takes place in under nine months. This includes: not just becoming totally accepted as a Fremen, but learning sufficient ways of the desert to ride a worm and become their united leader under all the sietches; completely disrupting spice trade as the Fremen haven't yet been able to do in all the generations so far, such that the operation is switched between the Baron's nephews and they're getting pressure from the emperor and the spacing guild; allowing the myth of Muad'Dib to grow to epic proportions well beyond Arrakis; and allowing both Jessica and Paul to go through the ritual with the Water of Life.

This occurs in over 3 hours of screentime but that is way too fucking fast to happen in just a few months.

And I don't understand why. It might make a somewhat more intriguing story with Chani (although that ending will certainly make some things going forward harder...). But it lessens some of the Fremen mystique, makes them kind of seem like dopes for not pulling this off before Paul got there, and makes their complete conversion as Paul's holy warriors seem a little easy (all occurring in LESS THAN NINE MONTHS). Also, the movie takes away one of Alia's coolest moments to give to Paul, which is just rude.

Unless we learn that Reverend Mothers in the movie-verse gestate their fetuses over the course of like 4 years, I'm just not happy with this timeline.

[hidden-clue]

more nitpicks over The Seven Keys (mild spoilers, mentions of getting stuck):

When a puzzle annoys me or exhausts my mental capabilities, I need to be able to walk away, play a mini game, cool off, annoy some characters, then come back and work on it with a fresh outlook on the world. Except in this game when I try, the doors are LOCKED, I am TRAPPED with an impossible PUZZLE that won't let me WALK AWAY the crystal puzzle got to me okay that wasn't good for my self esteem

I got STUCK for HOURS because in the real life, when you get a piece of paper, with a handwritten web address on it, you can't just click on it, because it's HANDWRITTEN. on a PAPER. you can't hand me a LINK on a piece of paper. So HOW was I to understand that if I click on a piece of paper, it would open a website on my phone?? On what grounds? I was looking for a freaking computer, trying to steal the one someone left in the cafe trying to reach this freaking website because my phone didn't even offer a browser or any browsing options (which, it would have been so helpful if it had!) because there was no indication my phone could even open a web address, there was certainly no way to open any kind of browser or internet app. There were no signs!!!! I thought the game was bugged!!!

they won't let me CALL PEOPLE WHEN I WANT. All phone calls are timed! Even text messages! Even NED won't pick up unless it's important for the plot in that moment for me to have a conversation with him! Also I assume they couldn't get the voice for Carson in the game even though he was necessary for the plot so they play it like he's too busy to talk to Nancy but not to busy to relay all messages trough Ned which is difficult to believe, just have him TEXT NANCY. And let me call my friends at me leisure!!! Maybe I wanna chat about my day!!! Maybe I wanna ask them what they're up to! If I want to make a call I don't want to hear Nancy say 'it's not the right time' IT'S THE RIGHT TIME WHEN I SAY SO

since I'm complaining about calls and texts, they're triggered by absolutely nonsensical triggers. For example, you can't get Ned to text you back until you pick up the alchemy book in the cafe. The game can't progress until you do get that text, but you won't, unless you know specifically to go to the cafe, browse all of the bookcases which there are many of, and pick up inconspicious brown book.  Is this Stay Tuned For Danger again? I thought we learned this lesson before? Don't make the triggers ridiculous so people don't get stuck forever without understanding what they did wrong? Everyone is referencing STFD too, it's like they went back to that game and decided 'we need more like this'. The game at one point tells you to grab a laptop charger, and then if you haven't talked to the repair-shop owner, you can't pick up the charger from the cafe. On what logic? How would you know thats what you need to do in order to extend your hand a grab a physical object in front of you? It's nonsense.

I am in love with the environment, so much so that I explored every nook and cranny, every detail, and the copy-pasting of elements is killing me. I was so damn excited to enter the puppet repair shop and see all of the old-timey radios, tape recorders, video recorders, telephones, until I realized they copied each one of them about 3-4 times, and it's not even like they're next to each other like they're being sold, they're scattered to make clutter. And okay fne I would forgive them that. But THEN they also copied all of the tools from that shop, directly into the Marionette Theater, which, why would all that be there? Identical tool board but apparently Radek doesn't fix those dolls. Why does he have a saw? And then, as if this wasn't an insult enough, there was an identical SAW in the EXHIBIT. How do you expect me to suspend my disbelief there HER interactive? You couldn't find a way to create different clutter so you put a copy of the SAW in the CASTLE EXHIBIT? It didn't even belong there it was just there to make clutter! I am literally trying to figure out if this is something that has plot reasons or it was just randomly done with no thought to it, just for visual clutter reasons. My love of exploring has come back to hurt me.

[thestrange-dilema]

911 Lone Star is coming to an end but as much as I'll miss the characters... I won't have to keep looking at the fake tattoos on Judd's hands and that is a godsend. Not cause they're Bible verses but because for being years old and owned by a man always using is hands they are always TOO DARK and sometimes even shiny like they just stenciled them on with a Sharpie.

Edit: Didn't realize that was real oops. Still gotta wonder if they ever darken it for certain scenes cause the color is crazy.

[wistfxlwishes]

if you ever see me out in public wearing any of the following shoot me bc that’s NOT me and if it is me i would rather be dead than in that outfit

-low rise jeans -baseball hats -graphic t shirts (w/out a layer below or above) -ankle socks -ankle socks -ankle socks -ankle socks -those ugly fucking puffy winter coats -cardigans that aren’t knit or crocheted -ankle socks -if you can see more than half of my thighs it’s a safe bet

[shadouge01]

I’m back.

My discombobulated thoughts now that I have finished Sonic Prime SPOLIERS!!!!!!!

********

Okay so I watched season 1 in parts and season 2 when it came out and just watched season 3 today. I binged everything, so if I don’t remember something 100% correctly, that’s why.

Sonic prime is good.

I know, shocker.

Okay, I haven’t watched any of the other shows so I can’t compare it to X or Boom or whatever. But this seemed to have a darker tone than most other sonic media and I enjoyed that a lot. (I know I need to watch SATAM, don’t yell at me.)I’ve dipped in and out of this fandom a lot. And my participation is all over the place (I won’t be posting about Ken spenders anymore, I took my Kenspiracies too far when I had that stupid twitter account yeah, that was me) but ANYWAY

This show was great. Not perfect, the main flaw I found was the pacing is very fact paced and action heavy which is good for a Sonic show and good for a person with ADHD like me. However I found the first season took awhile to get going and was more episodic. I know it was to introduce the characters but I got bored a bit. I’ll say again I liked the episode in Season 1 with Thorn Rose but the Boscage Maze and especially No Place never felt that fleshed out to me. I still wanted them to be saved because I cared about Sonic and his friends, but the worlds weren’t very interesting.

I. Love. New. Yoke. The aesthetic of this place is perfect and VERY Sonic CD bad future-seque which is PERFECT. I only wish we spent more time there. Especially in season 3 which takes place entirely in the Grim after the first two episodes, which I get, I do, but the pacing again, I felt was too fast and too much action and not enough character moments. The he ending felt rushed, because I really wanted to see the rebels rebuild New Yoke after the Egg Council was gone (assuming the other shatterspaces didn’t freeze in time like Green Hill did, but I got the implication that was a unique case.) and I wanted to see the others return home as well. I guess this leaves it open to a sequel or expansion of some kind, comics, some kind of spin off media, I’d even love an animated movie if they fixed the pacing issues, but yeah, that was my only gripe. I guess I wanted more time with Sonic and Nine reconciled too before everything happened but that’s the painful thing in life, sometimes you don’t get that. We know the prism still exists so then interacting again some way in the future might be possible, if they know how to control portals and such, hell with the chaos emerald they might be able to go to other worlds anyway. I wonder where Shadow is keeping the prism. I wonder if Nine stays on the Grim by himself or if he goes back to New Yoke. He deserves friends, and I’m sure some of the others would come around to him given time. renegade Knucks was up there fighting with Sonic after all. It could work. I just want him to be happy :((

I guess those are small nitpicks in the grand scheme of things because I want to say that the tone and storytelling was GREAT, the music was epic and cinematic and fit the tone of the show very well, the contrasting color palettes of different worlds really helped make it pop. The 3D animation was fantastic and felt perfect for a show like this. Characters were VERY expressive. (Hey Sega, can you update your in game models please thanks, you know it’s bad when the SA2 models have more dynamic facial expressions). Anyway, I thought the voice acting was great. Shadow’s voice felt a little wrong but I’m probably just used to Humphrey and Griffith, I don’t like his voice in forces either but I digress. It worked for this. Sonic’s VA was amazing and really able to convey a wide range of emotions and I thought the other characters had good VAs. Nine was great. I do wish maybe he’d had a redemption earlier against a greater threat a la Zuko style but one can dream. Nine is still easily the best version of Tails, ever. I was lukewarm on Tails as a character before and Nine made me appreciate everything about all versions of Tails. Incredible. What I love about Nine is he takes things too far because he has serious trust issues and him and Sonic fail to communicate which as a neurodivergent person is very relatable. I think Tails in general and especially Nine, is very autistic coded, and I love that. I just wish season 3 Nine had more development before the end because his arc was perfect until the end of season 2 but I’m at least glad he did realize and did the right thing. He’s really just a scared kid who wants a safe place, don’t we all? Again I REALLY want to see more material with him in the future and what becomes of him with Sonic gone.

My other favorite side characters were Thorn Rose, Rusty Rose, and Dread, but I thought they were all great. I loved that the roses had a great character moment, as did Dread when he finally realized that saving his friends was more important than treasure. The Egg council was awesome, taking different traits of Eggman and turning them into a squabbling family was PERFECT. The fact that they met their demise because they were arguing over the prism was so real. Great stuff.

I want to talk about Sonic himself because this is one of the best Sonics I’ve seen. I haven’t decided if this is better than Movie Sonic, but I love both a ton along with Adventure. This Sonic is one of the most expressive Sonics with the most emotional range. Yeah, he’s still overly cocky and hilarious, and mostly always optimistic, but I love that he actually learns from his mistakes and comes up with new ideas. The fact he even took inspiration from the Egg Council to never give up was great. I loved the robots of all the main characters as well. Sonic was well written, VERY in character but still serious when he needs to be (unlike Archie Sonic (sometimes) and 06, which is bad).

Speaking of 06, this is the best written Shadow we have gotten since 06. I mentioned very early on in this blog how I love his arc through Shadow 05 and Sonic 06. Sonic is way out of character and the Elise thing is stupid, BUT, Team Dark was perfect in 06. It’s sad we don’t have Team Dark anymore, but Rouge on team sonic was cool, I just like Rouge in general and if they’re gonna make her part of the main cast, good. Okay, back to Shadow. His development in game is that he goes from being angry at the world and wanting revenge, to being emotionally numb and trying to figure out the truth, to finally realizing his purpose and knowing not to give up and kicking the bad guys when it hurts. He’s hard to crack, but he DOES care about his friends, as you can see through subtle actions, rather it be Team Dark, Sonic, whatever. He’d never ADMIT to Sonic that they’re friends, but I do genuinely think he cares for Sonic.

Anyway, Shadow has been stagnant as a character since then, the best writing was in Forces with him vs. Infinite but it didn’t do much to further his character. He hasn’t been in a lot of media lately like Frontiers (although maybe they knew they couldn’t write him well for games and wanted to see how he went over in prime and the upcoming movie). Prime Shadow made me more excited for Movie Shadow, because if we got one of, if not THE best Sonics ever in Prime as well as the movie, I’m expecting good things from Shadow in the movie, considering they really nailed Tails and Knuckles in Sonic 2, imo, and now knowing that Shadow is allowed to have feelings again is so good. He’s very in character, overly serious, and cold, but he is incredibly dedicated to the cause and unquestionably a hero, like 06 Shadow. Prime Shadow reminds me a LOT of 06 Shadow and that’s GOOD. He’s also just great with his subtle nod to Sonic when Sonic talks about his friends, their excellent back and forthing with Sonic cracking jokes “I didn’t know you were a hugger” and Shadow responding with his straight man persona “do you want me to save you or not?” It was great stuff all the way through. I thought he was decent in Season 2, but Season 3 was AWESOME. I guess I had to trade Nine for Shadow, sigh. Nine did come back around in the end which GOOD, if they kept him as a villain the whole time I would’ve been pissed, but I digress. This might be the best Shadow since SA2, he’s SO GOOD YALL and I could keep raving about Prime Shadow all day. I loved when Dr. Deep called him an edge lord, it’s great meta humor, and in character for Deep who actually is an edge lord. Really hope SEGA takes the positive feedback from this and makes Shadow better in upcoming games/comics. LET FLYNN WRITE A GOOD SHADOW FOR GOD’S SAKE!

Ahem.

Anyway, I’m glad I watched Prime, it gave us the best Sonic Shadow and Tails maybe ever and it took the darker tone that Forces tried and really fleshed it out. Good job guys.

[thisweeksobsessionis]

Lucy's intro. (and my problem with it)

okay so this is a petty minor grievance. that you get with tv shows when you start to nit pick. i don't like or hate Lucy. she's very meh, and felt more like the early 2000's "Men in woman's body, cool girl" Archetype. i was meh on the kiss, didn't think it needed to happen but i like how she kept professional after.

my minor nitpick however is how her character was introduced by making bucks character take a step to the left. not out of character but not right either.

So for her intro in 5x11 they have to jump onto a speeding car to evacuate a family with a bomb underneath it. Lucy and buck are the ones chosen to jump into the bed of the truck.

we go to buck first where he's stalling at Ravi, going "you know i, i can do it i just got to figure it out first" and immediately it felt wrong for bucks character.

he has never hesitated in jumping into dangerous situations he doesn't stall, he runs in head first and figures out the solution as he goes. the only other time he stalled was in season 1, after Devon's death (the roller coaster fall) and he wasn't hesitating cause of the danger or fear for his own life but because he was struggling with failing to save someone.

back to the 5x11 scene, were as Buck fumbles around Lucy just jumps straight onto the bus no hesitation and you know that's wrong, not because Lucy jumped right away, but because buck didn't. the writers messed up. They needed to emphasize the fact that Lucy was this badass female firefighter character who jumps straight into danger like buck. however they did so at the expanse of bucks characterization in order to over emphasize Lucy's. they could have simply had Lucy get their first so she jumped first and than buck right after. or the 118's firetruck had to swerve out of the way of a pothole or something, or they could have had a cool moment were they jumped at the same time landing side by side to show how their equals in their competent recklessness (even though it makes sense to jump one at a time, so you don't risk hitting each other, it's tv and would have been a cool shot)

like i said it's a minor nitpick, i know. and one i could easily forget. But I've watched enough shows that it clued me in on what her personality and storyline was going to be. And unfortunately I was correct. it was a small moment that hinted at the bigger issue.

[young-royals-confessions]

I agree with too many close up shots in some places of s3!! it was great anyway but I wished we had gotten wider shots in some places like anon said :)

🎥

[clairedelune-13]

If there’s one thing I CAN’T STAND in Andromrda, it’s the overused “600 years” joke.

“I’ve been takin’ it easy for 600 years.”

“I feel like a 600 year old popsicle.”

“We haven’t spoken in centuries.”

Fuck you, go airlock yourselves.

[isagrimorie]

I swear I do like Strange New Worlds, it just hasn't fully tipped me to love yet, except for that amnesia episode... which I've made the rounds of Trek podcasts and forums most fans apparently didn't like. So... I guess my taste in Trek really is misaligned with most of the fandom.

Anyway, I do like SNW, I do. But the visuals just continue to niggle at me, like this itch I can't reach.

Let me get to my other bugbear-- how spacious everything is in SNW.

Namely, the frelling shuttles. Specifically the Stamets class shuttlecraft.

Look at how spacious these are!

The Academy students in the 23rd century would have cried at this much space.

B'Elanna would fall on her knees at how spacious it was.

I mean look at Voyager's shuttlecraft -- and they're the BEST at making shuttlecrafts.

Look at this class 2 shuttlecraft:

They're all cramped in there. They even have a term for it: Class 2 Claustrophobia.

Even the Delta Flyer which was built specifically to be more spacious doesn't have the Stamet's class's space!

Stargate Atlantis was right -- shuttlecrafts should be called and be like Puddlejumpers!

Anyway, I checked on Discovery and the shuttlecrafts there weren't that spacious too.

One thing I do love is that the old shuttlecrafts have a physical yoke like the Delta Flyer:

I love that part of the Stamets class shuttles.

Right now in our world commercial jets are phasing out the control wheel yokes on commercial planes. Airbus planes have moved to control sidesticks old school Boeing planes are the few that have the control wheel yokes.

This isn't hate but it is a weird nitpick. One that's personal to me, but cockpits that large and spacious just don't feel right, dammit.

[greatwyrmgold]

Yes, it's funny in the context of the walrus-and-fairy post, but...do none of you know what an elephant seal looks like?

There’s no way..

[trek-tracks]

Jim, texting Bones: Spock is stressed and driving all of us crazy please come to the bridge and say something deliberately stupid

Bones: on my way

five minutes later

Bones, striding on to the bridge: wow that nebula sure looks like cotton candy! Yessiree I bet it’d taste delicious

Spock, instantly turning around like he’s controlled by springs: Doctor, as you well know—

Entire bridge: sighs in relief

[friend-crow]

The birds eating the Gavle Goat are jackdaws, which are corvids, but not crows.

People also call the family corvidae the "crow family" but that family includes ravens, jays, rooks, magpies, etc. So, I guess you could call jackdaws crows if you really want to, but if you're going to do that you should commit to that classification and call bluejays crows as well.

The jackdaws are, however, very cute, and very good for taking up the mantle of destroying the goat.

[young-royals-confessions]

S3 nitpicks: I have many, but in the interest of brevity, just submitting my biggest one: The romcom fairytale ending. It didn't fit the tone of the series as a whole, imo. A lot of ppl have written, and I agree, that it would have been better if the main story ended in the car. Then a time jump that has them meeting again (whether by serendipity or intention) sometime in the future. 💜

OK, adding one more, because it's also big one: Too many close up shots in the wrong places. In specific scenes, mid- to wide-angle shots would have revealed important details.

.

[titans-thoughts]

A quick aside: The Flag Code is more suggestions than actual laws. Though that's more "No one will fine you for flying a torn flag or for throwing it away rather than burning it." But it does govern how, well, government conducts themselves.

Damn, Republicans are petty assholes.

Jimmy Carter deserves respect. Veterans deserve respect.

A virtuous person like Carter really puts the sick mind and vile behavior of Trump in perspective.

Mike Johnson shredding decorum and precedent for a felon rapist says it all.

[backdo0r]

Arts and Crafts 👌

[saeiken]

🔆🔆🔆🔆