#one year and i'm still obsessed about this franchise as i was in the beginning. nothing has changed. here's to more 🥂

[eightyfours]

The Karate Kid (1984-1989)

dir. John G. Avildsen.

[imagopirateversion]

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales; Why It Shouldn’t Exist

Or how I invested time and energy into an analysis of a relatively dead franchise instead of doing it for my actual media analysis university course.

An essay by: a bitter and obsessed PotC fan since they were 7, with a lot of free time.

Lads, this is going to be long. You have been warned.

The Beginning

At the very beginning of the movie, we see a young Henry Turner looking for his dad.

Now, we're not talking about characterization problems or how likely it is that a ten-year-old child would risk his life to look for a man he technically only saw once; we're talking about plot problems, actual logical fallacies. My questions are:

How? The Flying Dutchman is a legendary ship, impossible to be found unless She wants to be found. The only reason we see Her in Dead Man's Chest is because Davy Jones himself is looking for Jack to collect his debt, and in that occasion the Dutchman's captain wasn't even doing what he was supposed to do, so he was most definitely in the living world. Will otherwise, he's doing the job Calypso gave him, so he's constantly in between. Is the movie trying to convince me that a kid was able to do something no one in the history of piracy was ever able to do? And even if he did, why hasn't anyone explained me how? He simply looks at a map and throws himself on the bottom of the ocean. How did he know The Dutchman was there? How did he know it would've come to surface?

Where is his mom? We got to know Elizabeth in the first three movies; we know she's a smart woman and we can assume she's an attentive mother. She didn't notice her son preparing himself for a trip in the middle of the ocean to go look for his dad? Was she distracted? Was she outsmarted by a 10ish-year-old? Or is she just not contemplated in this scenario?

Why does Will look like that? Will is doing his job, so... why does he look like he's slowly corrupting? That kind of corruption is the punishment Calypso reserves to The Dutchman's crew when the captain fails her, which isn't the case. Did they forget about it? Was the idea of putting algae on Orlando Bloom's face just impossible to resist to?

Alright, this isn't actually from this movie but it's bothering me, so I have to write it; also, it would make this whole movie unnecessary, so it's somehow related to it. Why (and I can't stress this enough) can't Elizabeth be on the Dutchman? Why can't they do the job together? Is it because she's not a pirate? I'm pretty sure se actually is. Is it because she's a woman? Last time I checked she was the KING. She wants to stay with Will forever, Will wants to stay with her forever, they can literally live forever on the same ship. Why aren't they?

Whatever the Hell Happened to Jack Sparrow

Imagine creating a character that is so iconic whenever you ask a person who was a kid in the early 2000 to imagine a pirate, they imagine said character.

Now imagine fourteen years pass and you decide to ruin that character by making him the most hideous, annoying, idiotic person in the whole saga, and we're talking about a saga that has Philip the Missionary in it. Why? Jack Sparrow is THE anti-hero. Never on the right side, but never on the wrong one. You can tell he's doing something morally questionable, but you still find yourself rooting for him. He's stupid enough to make you laugh, but he's secretly clever enough to always get away with it. Now he's just... drunk. And that's not even an excuse for this horrendous new characterization, because he was always drunk. The guy FORGOT HE WAS ROBBING A BANK, the same guy just one movie earlier was able to escape from the King of England's palace and steal a lady's earring (by pretending to be a literal slut) in the process. He just switched from the iconic drunk bi bestie everyone loves to my cringe uncle that drinks too much at Christmas parties and makes everyone uncomfortable. Please, if the risk is ruining an entire generation's beloved character, either don't make the movie or find a better explanation than "Bad luck dogs you day and night".

The Pearl in The Bottle

So... what you're telling me is that Jack Sparrow, the guy who was able to defeat Hector Barbossa, Davy Jones and Blackbeard thanks to his slyness, and who loves his Black Pearl more than anything else in the world, had said ship in a bottle in his pockets for FIVE YEARS... and he never thought about breaking the bottle to free Her. That's what you're telling me. This is the pivotal point upon which the entire Jack's plot hinges. I... I don't even know what to say. Was this supposed to be funny?

What an Incredibly Lucky Coincidence

A guy needs a treasure to save his father. To find it, he needs the help of a notorious and legendary pirate. He looks for him everywhere, sailing on dozens of ships just so he has the remote chance to stumble across the pirate. The last ship he's been on has sinked, he's the only survivor. He's been found in the middle of the ocean and someone brought him to the nearest city. Which city? I mean, the one that has both the pirate he was looking for and a lady who's the only person in the whole planet who's able to find the treasure he was looking for! And, oh my... he finds the both of them! In that same city! Without even LOOKING FOR THEM! A hell of a coincidence, if you ask me. Also known as lazy writing.

What's Wrong With the Guards?

Now, I know Pirates of the Caribbean isn't exactly known for its accurate historical reconstructions, but why are the guards in this movie acting like they're some sort of hellhounds ready to kill anyone in sight? Even pirates and traitors as Jack and Henry were supposed to stand trial before being sentenced to death. It would've probably been an unjust and barbaric trial, but there should've been one. We literally saw it, in the previous movie. Why's Jack been sentenced to death for simply existing here? He gave pirate vibes and they decided that was enough?

Paul McCartney

This is not an actual point of the analysis, I just wanted to remind people that Paul McCartney is in this movie and that's the only valid reason to watch it.

Salazar

I am confused. Once again, I have questions.

El Matador Del Mar was so good at his job he had almost defeated piracy. "The last ones joined together to try and defeat me". The last what? Pirates? There were no pirates left? This happened when Jack was young, so a lot of time before the first movie, right? Where were, I don't know... Blackbeard? Davy Jones? Barbossa? All the other Pirate Lords? I might be wrong, but I guess Salazar didn't kill them, did he? Why weren't they there during that "last battle" in which "the last ones joined together"?

The Devil's Triangle. I just don't understand what's the logic behind it. So, this is a cursed place. Whoever enters there, can't get out. One would think it means that if you get there, you die; and Salazar does die, but he somehow also becomes a ghost whose only purpose is to find Jack Sparrow and have his revenge. So, do people become ghosts when they get in The Devil's Triangle? We have to assume people have gotten stuck in there before; otherwise, there wouldn't be legends around the place. So why isn't it like full of spirits ready to haunt people? Why are Salazar and his crew the only ones?

Poseidon or Calypso?

What's the Trident of Poseidon? Does Poseidon exist? Isn't Calypso the Goddess of the sea? Breaking the Trident, you break all the curses of the sea, so the Trident must be more powerful than Calypso, which leads to a question. Where is she? She IS the sea, right? So she must have known someone was about to find the Trident and brake all curses, including her one. She just decided it was okay? It really feels like someone decided to suddenly change the world's mythology without giving explanations.

The Compass

This is possibly the most blatant plot hole in the whole saga. Probably the most blatant plot hole I've ever witnessed, and man, I watched all the Harry Potter movies. In Dead Man's Chest, Jack meets Tia Dalma in her "shop" and he tells her he's looking for the Davy Jones' key. She asks him "The compass you bartered from me, it cannot lead you to this?", making another pivotal point of Dead Men Tell No Tales factually senseless.

That man couldn't have given his compass to Jack, because that wasn't his compass.

So either Salazar is lying while telling his tale or they forgot about that line in the second movie. Anyway, let's pretend that line doesn't exist; even if that captain gave Jack his compass in that exact moment, why would it be the key to free Salazar, exactly? How is the compass in any way related to The Devil's Triangle or to Salazar? In the movie, they try to explain it with a sentence: “if you betray it, your greatest fear comes true”. So, is Salazar Jack's greatest fear? I really doesn't seem right, Jack almost didn't remember Salazar when Henry mentioned him. To Jack, he's only a guy he outsmarted decades earlier. Also, Jack technically already gave the compass away, twice: to Elizabeth in Dead Man's Chest, to make her find the chest, and to Beckett in At World's End, when they're negotiating.

That's... That's Just Body Shaming, Mate

Let's talk about her. So, the woman's ugly. It can happen that a woman is ugly. Was it necessary to build an entire scene around some blatant body shaming? This scene wants to mimic the similar scene in Dead Man's Chest: Jack's on an island, running from the main villain, and he's forced to do things he doesn't want to do until someone saves him, then it was Will, now it's Hector.

Except in Dead Man's Chest it was LITERAL CANNIBALISM he was facing, and yet he looked LESS TERRIFIED and DISGUSTED. What's exactly the message here? Lads, is marrying an ugly woman worse than cannibalism? I don't know... that was just bad.

Justice for Hector Barbossa

If you know me (you probably don't, but if you do) then you know about my obsession with Hector Barbossa. I truly believe he's the best written character in the saga, and he's in my top five of the characters I love the most in all media. I watched The Curse of the Black Pearl when I was seven and I am autistic, so I had all the time to develop a literal relationship with these characters in my head. As much as Geoffrey Rush's interpretation was impeccable, as always, it really hurt to watch Hector in this movie. He just doesn't sound like him. First of all, why isn't he on the Queen Anne's Revenge? Why's he letting someone else sail around on his ships? He would've never. Why's he just sitting on a throne and shooting musicians instead of, I don't know... being a pirate? Being a pirate is the only thing that matters to him. He says it at the end of On Stranger Tides, and he even says it in this movie, to the witch. "I'm a pirate. Always will be".

So, why isn't he pirating? What happened to him? And what about the pact with the witch? He made her curse all his enemies; that's honestly the most out-of-character thing he could've done.

Seriously, watch this movie, and then The Curse of the Black Pearl and tell me he sounds like he's the same character. Then there’s his death... was it necessary? And I don't mean if it was necessary to the plot (it wasn't), but the way he died, did it make sense? He takes the sword and sacrifices himself to kill Salazar, but WHY? Salazar was back a mortal. They could've brought him to surface and then shoot him. What was the point of his death, Disney? I will never forgive you.

I would've preferred if they never showed him again. He's alive and living his best life in Tortuga, if you ask me.

How does Carina Smyth exist?

Let's do the math. Carina Smyth has approximately the same age as Henry Turner, who was born around nine moths after the end of At World's End. At the end of that movie, Barbossa once again stole the Black Pearl (he's iconic we stan a legend), so we have to assume it is during that time (between the At World's End and On Stranger Tides) that he conceives Carina. He stays with this woman during the whole pregnancy, bacause he says he was there when she died. So nine months, at least, right? Except; Jack makes it clear that he and Barbossa met Carina's mom, Margaret, together.

When, exactly, did this happen? It can't be between On Stranger Tides and Dead Men Tell No Tales, because Hector himself says only five years passed between the two, and Carina doesn't look like a five-year-old;

it can't be between At World's End and On Stranger Tides, because we know Jack and Barbossa weren't together, and Hector was too busy losing a leg and planning his revenge by working for the King of England; it can't be during At World's End, because Barbossa was too busy rescuing Jack and then slaying (literally and metaphorically) Beckett's men to save piracy; it can't be during Dead Man's Chest, because he was dead; it can't be during The Curse of the Black Pearl, nor during the ten years before it, because he was... he was a skeleton, I hardly believe he could reproduce, despite what’s written in some fanficions; it can't be before, of course, because Carina would be too old. The only chance, but it's a stretch, is that Hector and Jack met this Margaret Smyth years and years before, and that at a certain point (while he was still busy slaying, losing a leg or planning his revenge), for some reason he decided to come back to her and accidentally had a daughter. That would mean that Jack remembered Margaret Smyth's name DECADES after he met her.

The Post-Credit Scene: What?

WHY'S DAVY JONES BACK? The Trident technically broke all the curses of the sea. He is THE cursed man of the sea. AND HE'S DEAD. The only answer I was able to give me, is that the moment the Trident broke the curses, the curse that said if you stab his heart he dies was also broken, so he technically didn't die, but it makes even less sense, because if the curses just aren't real anymore, then a man shouldn't be able to... carve out his heart and put it in a chest, right? (Which by the way, makes Will Turner being alive senseless as well). Even if so, Davy should've come back as a human.

My conclusion is that this movie should not exist, and we, as a community, should pretend it was never made. Hector is alive. Bye.

Imago

[ponytailzuko]

writing down my overall thoughts on the live action

first of all, i walked into my step dad watching it of his own free will - and then me and my entire family sat down to watch it. both my step dad and mom had never seen the cartoon in their life, so this was a first time viewing for them. they enjoyed it. my mom even asked where season 2 was. so i think the live action served its main purpose - get new people who haven't watched or wouldn't have watched the cartoon into the franchise. they did it! yippee.

anyways, my own thoughts have an inherent bias due to having seen and loved the cartoon. i believe my parents when they say that from their perspective, it holds up on its own. obviously, i don't think it was ever going to be better than the cartoon, but wanted to write my opinions what i liked, changes i enjoyed and changes i didn't, etc.

putting it under a read more because this sucker is long:

i don't know anything about film making - set design, props, fashion, cgi, etc. nothing particularly stood out to me in a way that ruined the show, and i only really pay attention to it when it serves the story. so i'm just not going to comment on it for the most part. most of this is about writing choices i liked or disliked. anyways here we go.

the good:

aang was a highlight for me. i know some people have problems with moving his backstory to the very beginning of the story, but i liked it. it immediately made me get in aang's shoes and feel his connection with his people, his home, and gyatso - and made it very easy to connect with his grief when he woke up from the iceberg. live action really emphasizes the last airbender part of the title throughout, and how aang feels isolated in his duty as the avatar, as the last airbender preserving his culture, and by being from another world - lost in time.

i liked how he sought out his past lives so often. really makes him feel like a child who doesn't know what he's doing and had the rug pulled out from under him by losing gyatso too soon. he's looking for adult guidance, and kyoshi, roku, and kuruk are all there telling aang THEIR version of how to be the avatar. feels like good set up for later when aang gets to define HIS version of the avatar, and how he wants to bring peace to the world. we already see it with their versions of the avatar feeding into aang's feelings of guilt and self-isolation - that he needs to do things on his own. it gets concluded with katara and sokka declaring him family, and they won't leave no matter what.

in that nature: adding more emphasis on katara's grief as well, since it was APPARENTLY not enough for people watching the cartoon and called her whiny for mentioning it. in general, it feels weird that katara's flashback to her backstory happened in season 3 of the cartoon when there was a whole episode dedicated to aang and zuko's backstory all the way in season 1, another one for zuko's backstory in season 2, and then bato of the water tribe elaborated on sokka being left by hakoda. glad to get katara backstory earlier. love you katara <3

and from that: sokka and katara's conflict being about if she should waterbend. feels very natural and something they would fight over. it is a vital aspect to their culture, but also if word gets out there is a waterbender in the village, there could be another raid.

aang stealing zuko's notebook is another highlight. it is both such a petty kid thing to steal and be upset about someone reading your diary, but also it actually serves a purpose in giving aang a guide for his avatar journey. the show sacrificed paralleling aang and zuko's backstories like the storm, but they still intertwine aang and zuko's story through this notebook and the connection aang makes with zuko through it. very sweet.

in that note: the set design adding little things such as those little statues in zuko's room. feels like it really was lived in by someone obsessed with finding the avatar for 3 years. i really liked details like that they put throughout the show

suki extrapolation with her mother and her conflict of being duty-bound to her village but wanting to see the world, and how this relates to sokka. made me genuinely invested in their relationship in a way i wasn't from the cartoon. i also loved the actress' portrayal of suki, she's so awkward and i love it. need to see more of her.

iroh in season 1 of the cartoon feels less like his own fleshed out character and more of a comedic relief expansion of zuko's b plot. he's made to make zuko's slice of the show more fit for a fun kids show by giving him someone to talk to and be funny with. he's a fun tea-loving uncle, but it's hard to parse what he really feels until later. live action iroh keeps that fun tea-loving aspect, but he has his own baggage and its GREAT. i think i genuinely enjoyed live action iroh more than the cartoon. he has so much more growing to do. could talk about this version of iroh (and his relationship with zuko) forever. i need season 2 just for him.

iroh and aang's prison arc together.

making zuko's crew have issues with him earlier and making them 41st division was nice. i really liked that change.

secret tunnel with familial love between katara and sokka was so cute. enjoyed it.

the ???:

azula and ozai's addition is a 50/50 to me. i think the sick power plays ozai is doing between his two children are genuinely interesting. the change in how ozai doles out praise and the dynamics between azula and zuko is also interesting and i enjoyed it. but i also find their screen time unnecessary. could be used to further the dynamic between the main protagonists, or they could be saved for season 2 or 3. did like how azula used zhao to thwart zuko and it fucked zuko up immensely in the head. very nice. also not sure how i feel about azula being good at archery, feels like getting good at a nonbending discipline isn't something that meshes well with her character for me, but that's a nitpick.

combining plotlines such as jet and the mechanist in omashu + the change with bumi was... fine? it served its purpose. liked some aspects and didn't like others.

the spirit world stuff was really cool and i enjoyed how koh preys on people lost in the fog. very interesting concepts that got us to be able to experience katara and sokka's backstory first hand. felt immersive to me. but also wtf, wan shi tong? katara and sokka being gone from the plot for so long? come backkkkkk! COME BACK! DO WE HAVE TIME FOR YOU TO BE IN SPIRIT JAIL WHEN I HAVEN"T SEEN YOU GUYS INTERACT ENOUGH? i did like yue being in the spirit world and interacting with sokka. that was cute as hell.

northern water tribe and yuekka had parts i liked and parts i didn't. they kept the sexism and arranged marriage but also yue opted out? feels detrimental to yue and sokka's relationship and how they connect to each other out of their sense of duty. did really like hahn being nice, it would have been really interesting to see how yue felt stifled with an arranged marriage even if hahn was perfect. also liked yue being able to waterbend and the little scene with yue and sokka making dessert, so cute. yue freezing sokka to the ground before sacrificing herself.... didn't like that. wish they let sokka let her go, understanding it was her choice.

katara in the nwt as well. katara fighting master pakku and losing, but everyone watching thought she was SO COOL. loved the guy asking how she did the ice disks and she has to teach him. but confused on the fact that pakku doesn't take her as a student, and we don't see her being taught but people still refer to her as a master. i'm going to assume she learned waterbending by learning from her fanclub and also teaching them her moves.

why did they almost kill momo?

the bad:

everyone and their mother has said the exposition is bad so i won't hammer it home too much. this isn't actually much of a problem for me because it was actually necessary to get the point home to my mom who was watching it for the first time. i was also told that screen test audiences asked for the exposition to be added in the first episode after production, so i don't have much to say there.

aang's decision to leave home not being running away but due to the fact that he was stepping out to get a breather. this felt like a weird change to me, since the rest of the show hammers in about aang running away from his problems and his duties in a way the cartoon doesn't. would have felt WAY more heartwrenching to see the temples under attack while aang runs away from being the avatar and it would have hit harder when gyatso tells aang to let go of that guilt and pain... that it wasn't his fault. it was harder to feel the root of aang's guilt when i know that he didn't even plan to leave for very long. alas!

continuing from that point about aang's attribute of 'running away': lack of episodic plotlines. everyone and their mother has also hammered home about the lack of them from cartoon. i don't actually hate the change, but i do think it does some disservice to aang's character that they didn't adjust for. i'm being told that aang runs away, but i haven't been shown aang doing so. i've been seeing aang do his duty as the avatar and research it every episode. give me a reason to believe why this is a character flaw that aang needs to face.

similarly, i think this does a detriment to katara's role in book 1. since aang is more focused on what he needs to do as the avatar, katara becomes more his partner in finding out more about what it means to be the avatar instead of pushing him to be more motivated into doing so. (ex: 'we need to continue on our journey and not stay on kyoshi island' or 'we need to help haru in this village')

aang, katara, and sokka get separate plotlines so much that they don't feel like a solid dynamic. again, detriment of the lack of the smaller episodic plots. does make more sense that katara says aang is family at the end of season 1 instead of the beginning for this reason, though.

katara feels like one of the weakest aspects of the show to me. katara doesn't get the narration. katara isn't the first thing when aang gets out of the ice. and katara's rage just feels lost. i think a simple script or direction change in ep 1-2 to make katara's actress play her with more of that rage during her arguments with sokka would've worked wonders. katara has this feeling of anger at injustice that motivates her throughout the cartoon and i don't feel it here. also miss some of her sass - katara should've hit aang in the head with an acorn.

sokka's weird engineer arc? he's a warrior. why are you saying it's okay to not be a warrior when he is - what is up with setting up sokka as a disappointment to hakoda? HELLO? DOES ANYONE HEAR ME? i'm confused where they're going with this, please tell me that sokka has misinterpreted and created that memory due to insecurity. this is where my bias is totally coming in. this worked fine for my parents who hadn't ever seen it. BUT WHERE ARE THEY HEADING WITH THIS?

kinda wish information about zuko's situation was dropped more subtly throughout instead of zuko being like "my father banished me and i need the avatar to get back" like episode 1. like ok give me a moment to just be like "ugh this zuko kid is a fucking BITCH" before i have to feel for him, damn.

also zuko going straight to barbecuing feels weird to his character when they're also trying to tell us that zuko's capable of kindness and also has a strict honor code? zuko is against using bounty hunters in a way he's not in the cartoon. he talks down on the terrorism in omashu since its not 'honorable', but he also was about to burn katara who was down on the ground. of course, realistically if you're throwing fire around, you are going to burn people. but there was a suspension of disbelief in the animated version that isn't in the live action. zuko does things such as immediately resorting to fire instead of hand to hand in his fight with sokka. in the live action, i'd expect zuko to use MORE hand to hand in comparison to fire, not less. plus the fact they took out moments such as zuko not burning zhao in the agni kai or holding his hand out to save him during the north. weird dissonance at points with his character for me.

[jennilah]

I think i started to follow you bc of tiny!cas, like eons ago, let me tell you seeing you get into different fandoms over the years has been a delight.

I remember seeing post of you going like 'hey these slasher film kinda go hard' and look at you know.

I mean this in the best way possible, I feel i've been watching a house plant grow, every now and then catching my attention and being amazed by the changes

omg thats such a sweet way of describing my... well happy autism awareness day everyone, its a nice way of describing the way i naturally transition through my Special Interests lmfao

actually, for the holiday, let me infodump about this very aspect of my brain to anyone who isnt aware how this works for me. (also every autistic person is different, so this is just how this symptom manifests in me)

ill say "phases" to simplify, though thats an unfair word because it implies im "over" my past phases. 99% of my past phases are pretty much there for life, but in the back of my mind. (So long as I didnt have a "bad breakup" with it for some reason, which is rare but happens) The ability to become a raving lunatic about it is dormant until someone asks the right question.

There can only be one interest (sometimes 2, with one being the less dominant one) at the forefront of my brain at a time, though. that defines the "phase".

so for example, my recent Halloween phase is "over" and I am 100% fully into Saw now, but I still absolutely love Halloween and Michael and Jason and all those guys. as evident by me still happily sharing gifsets and art and buying merch etc if it tickles my fancy. They're just hanging out in the background of my mental display case.

yea whoever follows my tumblr for a very long time has watched it happen in realtime. the transition between interests. i know for a fact which phase I started this blog on. if you're here from the beginning, youve seen, in order:

-Durarara!! -Deus Ex -Supernatural -Godzilla -Detroit: Become Human -There was like a few weeks where it was HLVRAI -And then it was plants. There was a year-long stretch with no Special Interest and I was latching onto odd things (and I was very inactive here) -Halloween & Friday the 13th -and now, Saw

I have many other things I love, but they don't clamp around my brain in quite the same extreme way.

my phases can last any amount of time, anywhere from a few short intense months to 5+ years, its completely random, completely unpredictable. even the interest itself is impossible to predict. its not something i choose, its something that happens to me.

sometimes i avoid watching things for a long time because im still very emotionally attached to my current phase and im genuinely afraid the shiny new thing will replace it. all art or fic ideas for the previous phase? theyll be abandoned. all I will want to create will be related to the new thing. (though I will sometimes draw it anyway, like digging up old toys to play with once in a while. The likelihood just drops considerably)

which is why right now i pretty much put a pause on the other franchises I plan on watching. I'm genuinely gripping onto Saw like someone is tryin to take it from me.

and then sometimes im like "haha yeah right. ill be fine. ill eat my shoe if my brain latches to this" and then put on the movie and by the credits roll im a new person (yes thats what happened with Saw. I really had no idea.)

this is also why im terrified of even just "checking out" things that have, like, a toxic fanbase or something, because i cant stop a new phase from happening if it does. and its really hard to keep it to myself, fuck

(do u know how mad i was when i realized i was attaching to hoffman the evil dirty cop??? i was so scared of drawing him, dudes. but thankfully everyones been cool abt it and we're all very aware of his awfulness & we have fun w it)

and every time my brain changes and i do get obsessed with some new thing, i get really scared and worried and hope I dont bother everyone who followed me for something else :(((( and yet, every time, im absolutely floored by how many people choose to tolerate my newest nonsense and stick around anyway

anyway ive lost the plot of what point i was making here OH YEAH thank you!

tl;dr: that would be the autism! thank you, it WILL happen again! that is a threat! 🥰

[roxannarambles]

wait. wait wait wait WAIT. WHAT??? Julinemo is a RAREPAIR? I ship those two since the beginning of my playthrough. I genuinely didn't knew??????

Admittedly 'rarepair' is a subjective term, but considering how massive a franchise Pokemon is and that Nemona is the primary rival of the newest Pokemon game, I'd say the fact that Nemona/Juliana only has 114 works listed on AO3 at the moment (only 92 if you remove Explicit ones) is pretty shockingly low. Although the # of fics there that pair her with the other main characters are also low (only 35 for Nemona/Arven and 70 for Nemona/Penny); the most popular pairing seems to be Nemona/Florian (163), by these metrics at least

In terms of Tumblr, I definitely get the impression that Nemona x Penny and Nemona x Arven are topics that get far more posts than Nemona x Juliana. Now that's just my impression, but I've spent over a year obsessed with Julinemo and searching tags, and I think I have a decent sense of how much content is out there on Tumblr. (Still, if folks have other perspectives, please do chime in and share!)

Nemona x Juliana is definitely more popular if you expand your search online to Japanese artists. Also, I personally believe that the majority of Nemona x Juliana fans do not create fan content for the ship or original posts about them, based on the number of interactions & reblogs I see on Julinemo posts. So, I think there are a lot more Julinemo fans than it initially seems, they just aren't super active or talkative in fandom spaces. When the Yoasobi music video came out, it especially highlighted this; I saw SO many people losing their minds on Twitter, super excited about the ship, but many of those seemed to be people who normally didn't make posts otherwise.

So, yeah! That was probably a more wordy reply than you wanted, lol, but in summary, they do indeed seem to be rarepair, relative to other Scarlet/Violet ships and especially relative to the fan content you can find dedicated to ships in similarly-sized fandoms. But like I said, I think there are a lot of Julinemo fans out there who just aren't super active-- I'm hoping Julinemo Week helps encourage more participation! :)

[janeaustenluvr13]

Book recommendations for autumn

Although the temperature outside is shockingly high, I have already stepped into my autumnal state of mind. I can't think of a better fall activity than writing a Tumblr post with a list of books one can read while drinking a pumpkin spice-flavoured coffee while snacking on biscuits and listening to the rain.

Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie (or any other criminal novel, preferably read by night while covering yourself in your favourite blanket.)

Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen (a brilliant parody of gothic novels and delusional teenage girls, perfect spooky vibes)

Dead Poets Society by N.H. Kleinbaum (gay teenagers study poetry under the most magnificent teacher in entire literature)

Twilight by Stephenie Meyer (It's even more cringy than you remember it from your middle school years)

The Secret History by Donna Tartt (Obnoxious terrible characters study antiquity while losing themselves in the process)

If We Were Villains by M.L.Rio (The same as the Secret History but make it Shakespeare-obsessed theater kids).

Harry Potter and the philosopher's stone by Remus Lupin (A classic, as long as you don't live under a rock you've probably read it already, nonetheless it wouldn't be an autumn book list without this novel, although it's a love-the-franchise hate-the-author situation)

Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo (This book will make you regret not being a posh kid who can afford to go to YALE, it makes the idea of joining a secret society extremely appealing).

Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky (A broke law student kills a usurer, which is the beginning of an avalanche of disaster. Spoiler, The book ends with him becoming a catholic while dating an ex prostitute).

Little Women by L.M. Alcott (Watch Greta Gerwig's adaptation for an extra fall vibe, the book is wonderful as well. Makes me regret not having sisters).

Jane Eyre by the one and only Charlotte Bronte (Aka why romanticizing Victorian England is an indicator of idiocy).

Persuasion by Jane Austen (A novel that will gaslight you into believing that if you're twenty-seven your bloom is gone, you might as well never leave the house again if you're not married).

Frankenstein (This book freaks me out so much, it's gorgeously written.)

Macbeth (The moral of this drama is to never trust three witches you meet when strolling over Highlands).

Wuthering heights (I could write an entire essay about how superior Mr. Darcy is to Mr. Rochester, but Wuthering Heights still is one of the best novels I've ever read. The spooky vibes are immaculate, it made me want to travel to Haworth during fall).

The picture of Dorian's gray (Dorian Gray would've hated the "aged" TikTok filter.)

The invisible life of Addie Larue (The first line of this book is a summarization of its plot, for the entire novel "A girl is running for her life.", However, we grow to love her in the process).

That would be it. Autumn is one of my favourite seasons, and I can't wait to get the most out of it. I'm sorry in advance for the person I'll become after drinking Pumpkin Spice Latte for the first time this year. May the Christian Autumn Girls rise and sweaty, sun-burned summer preferring children fall.

[gaymer-hag-stan]

Fighting Games is a genre that I have always loved because they allow for unique player expression like no other genre. You get a wide selection of characters to choose from hailing from various different countries and practicing different styles of martial arts or even wielding melee weapons.

We've been lucky to have gotten tons of different games to choose from, and I have personally singled out the nine most vital franchises to the genre; the pillars of the fighting game community, if you will. Unfortunately, I only get ten options per poll, so games like Killer Instinct, Marvel vs. Capcom or Injustice have been left out. But that's why the tenth option has been left free of choice, as I'm sure that some of you will have the most obscure niche options in mind and will immediately comment "why is X not here" so there.

I'm also not deliberately ignoring Super Smash Bros., I just have traditional fighting games in mind and it's kinda not. But it's very much still a fighting game.

I'm also specifically talking about series of games and not one offs so that's why no Skullgirls and so on.

Anyway, at the end of the day vote for whatever you like, just don't bust my balls about "excluding" your fave 🤣

Really wish I could add:

A. More options

and

B. Images to the options to make them look prettier.

But overall I think polls have been a great addition. Good job @staff 👍😁👏

Here's a few general thoughts

I have a weird relationship with Mortal Kombat. My earliest memory of it must be some older kids next to my grandma's house playing MK4 and letting me watch them play for a while. Then I definitely remember the PS2 era games' covers and the video store, the dragon logo is so cool, but I never actually bothered to pick any of them. Until I got the 2011 game when I had a PS3. I liked it a lot, I kinda liked the story but I never understood the normies obsession with it? And here's a hot take; NRS stories are not that good, certainly not any better than any other fighting game like Tekken or SoulCalibur. The only key difference is that they have relatively good writing, while the rest of the major game, which are mostly Japanese, have cringey anime dialogue that absolutely does not fit the dramatic NRS storytelling everyone has been trying to copy post 2011. I wish they would straight up drop it and go back to having a decent, eight-level minimum arcade mode with character endings and stop trying to do what NRS does, because it's not that great to begin with. Anyway, I have since developed a love-hate relationship with it. I got both X and 11, and while both are objectively good games, with 11 FINALLY even making the characters look not ugly for the first time ever, but I think I've kind of moved on from MK. I don't have any attachment to the overall plot, I only mostly care about Mileena, Kitana and co., I mostly prefer 3D fighting games in general and I'm not that good at it so... Yeah. Still a fan series though, both the Reboot Trilogy as well as the, mostly underappreciated, PS2 trilogy.

I was born in 1997 and arcades weren't really a thing in Greece? I remember only having seen a Tekken 5 cabinet at a bowling alley in my entire life, so I never got to experience the "birth" of fighting games with Street Fighter, and Street Fighter itself was almost completely absent from the PS2, save for a few Alpha and SFII rereleases I think. So I finally got to play Street Fighter during the later years of it's fourth iteration when I got Ultra Street Fighter IV for the PS3. I was VERY frustrated at the beginning like, I was used to Tekken, DOA and SoulCalibur style gameplay, all of which are 3D but also combo-heavy games. Street Fighter was not that at all and I thought this made it a bad game. But I decided to give it a second chance with Street Fighter V. SFV is, perhaps notoriously, more simplified in both it's inputs as well as it's overall difficulty, so it helped me appreciate the series a lot more. Most of the characters no longer look ugly too (heavy emphasis on MOST) so that helped too. What's more, I can now actually play IV a lot better, and I even had money to spare to get Super Turbo II HD and Third Strike for the PS3, though I do struggle a bit with those too still, Third Strike in particular. Street Fighter X Tekken is also my guilty pleasure, don't @me. My only real issue is that I seem to be mostly interested in the "less regular" characters in the series like Elena or Poison or Laura which means that I have to find a new main in every single game and... I really don't care for most of the cast, especially the ones who seem to be featured on most of the games and never skip an entry.

I've been playing Tekken since I was 8 or 9 years old and got Tekken 5, the first fighting game I ever owned and I've been obsessed ever since. I love the gameplay because I feel like the four-limb system feels so natural, you know? If you press the X button you get a left kick, if you press the Δ button you get a right punch. It's so simple. Nina Williams is probably my favourite video game character ever, after Lara Croft, and I just really the series as a whole. It's also the only game I feel confident enough to play online atm.

For some reason I was always vaguely aware of The King of Fighters existence since around 2010-2011 but I never felt the desire to play it? Mai was added in Dead or Alive 5 however and I absolutely loved her. I played so much as her. But as far as picking up her own games... Well... KOFXIV looked like shit and I'd heard that XIII, and KOF in general, was very difficult so that was a bit off-putting. After falling out of love with MK however, I had to feel the gap. And along came KOFXV! I was still not completely sold, but I had money to spare and I got the game and I now love the series so much? Definitely my favourite 2D fighting game series. I wasted so many years gatekeeping myself out of playing the games but, honestly, while I sometimes buy things on impulse, the money I can spend on games is a very specific and limited amount so I always try to actually buy things that I will actually play and enjoy. XV is fun, but it turns out the "ugly" KOFXIV and the difficult XIII are even more fun! Shout-out to KOF for having an amazing cast of characters too. Even with Tekken which has been with me since childhood there are TONS of characters I straight up hate or just don't care about. KOF has over 90 characters and the ones I actually hate are probably fewer than Tekken's. This is certainly not a quantity over quality case (the yearly release for the first decade of the series was insane though, I don't know why they thought that was a good idea)

SoulCalibur is another series I loved since childhood but this one I didn't personally own until my late teens. A friend's uncle had a Dreamcast however, and when he would visit him in the summer he would bring it over and we would play SoulCalibur a lot! I have several reservations about Namco basing the series entire marketing on "who's the guest this time?" and later on the character creation. The sole focus should be on the characters themselves, because SoulCalibur has the most detailed and complex backstories in fighting games. Period. But because SoulCalibur has devolved into an overglorified character creator and the guests get the only media focus the game is gonna get during its promotional period, I feel like the brand itself has lost its mainstream appeal. SoulCalibur I is one of the best fighting games, and it has zero guests and no customization, other than being able to choose different weapons for each character. Have your guests by all means, I personally had tons of fun with Ezio and 2B, and Haohmaru even peaked my curiosity for Samurai Shodown, and customization can be fun too, but don't make it your main selling point. It has evidently not been working as well as Namco wants it to. Tekken and Mortal Kombat have guests and customization too, but they're not the games main selling point, they only help bring in additional fans.

Dead or Alive is the booby pervy game, sure, but it's also a great fighting game? The fast-paced gameplay is extremely fun and satisfying, most of the cast is actually pretty interesting, despite the sexy outfits and bikinis and beach volleyball, and whenever there's a new DOA in the market it it will always be the best-looking fighting game available at the time. There's no contest. I had tons of fun playing DOA2 as a kid and I had tons of fun playing DOA5 as an adult, because since DOA became Xbox-exclusive for a while, I never actually owned DOA3 or DOA4. I wish I could have had more fun with DOA6 too but the game is just... Soulless, and that's a shame. The fact that both DOA and SoulCalibur are unlikely to get sequels any time soon is also very heartbreaking.

I was way past my anime phase when I became aware of Guilty Gear's existence, so I was at first hesitant of checking it out. However, a chain of events led me to eventually get Rev 2. See, Haohmaru was a guest on SoulCalibur VI, and Baiken was a guest in Samurai Shodown and I guess you see where I'm going with is. This is why guests should absolutely not go away, but it is much better they remain actual (fighting) video game characters first and foremost and not stupid horror movie characters that haven't been relevant for decades (fuck every single MK12 guest, but especially RoboCop) Rev 2 is so much fun. It's still hard however, so I'm not yet ready to fully embrace Guilty Gear, but Strive looks more and more appealing each day is all I'm saying. Jack' O and I-No may have helped.

Virtua Fighter forever revolutionized the genre by moving things for the first time in the third dimension. I only had a VF4 demo as a kid and I was creeped out by having to fight Shun Di, a drunken old creepy guy, in a dark cave on a raft as Sarah so I never touched the series again until 5. The game is really fun and I will forever be grateful for it because it eventually lead to Tekken and DOA's creation, but while MK having a "good" story mode does not automatically make it a good game, Virtua Fighter having NO story mode, not even arcade endings, doesn't help it's case all that much either.

I've been contemplating trying out BlazBlue lately, Rachel, Taokaka and especially miss Litchi look really promising, but I'm trying to let the thought mature in my mind first rather than making an impulse purchase. I haven't played enough of any of its installments to have an opinion on it, but I know tons of people love it so it must have a few things going on for it, right?

Shout-out again to Samurai Shodown, I love the "fencing" aspect of its gameplay, but I'm just not as invested to it's cast as I am in KOF's yet. I've also always wanted to try out Darkstalkers but Capcom seems to be hellbent on wanting to make this franchise DIE. I don't understand why they don't at least start adding it's cast in Street Fighter as "permanent guests", in the same spirit as Final Fight characters keep on coming back. Morrigan is too good a character to be left to rot. I'd also love to try Killer Instinct, but it's another Xbox exclusive so RIP. Finally, I do own the first Injustice, but American comic book super heroes have always been morbidly boring to me (except Spiderman and Batman & co.) so, consequently, both Injustice and Marvel vs. Capcom are of no interest to me at all.

[shadow-schemer]

REALLY OBSESSED with the art direction. I could stare at the Environs and Card Animations for Hours. Yes even the Fantastic Beasts movies are illustrated as well!

I'm gladly sorted into Hufflepuff like always 👍

(Story Pace in comparison to Beta version)

Story and pace wise there are a lot of immersive things I will miss from the Beta version. But I guess they have to fast track the plot to get to the gameplay immediately.

You can choose your dialogue options when talking to Hagrid and the NPCs as soon as you finish your name input. Your responses throughout the Diagon Alley segment will influence the House the Sorting Hat will pick for you.

Ivy was introduced right away in Ollivanders. This is a major improvement for both Plot Establishment and Gameplay Mechanics! So when she goes missing during the Sorting Ceremony, the player can actually care because she's been with you since the beginning.

Harry will help you find and go through Platform 9 3/4. The MC doesnt know who he is but it's A Moment for me. Since the game is now for PC as well, I guess they had to remove it?

The entire Sorting Hat Song cutscene that introduces you to the four houses and their qualities. I saved it for safe keeping. They shouldn't have cut it out though. It's a nice song that fits the feel of EA Games' run of the Harry Potter franchise.

Speaking of the soundtrack, it does feel close to Jeremy Soule's but is still very distinct on its own.

The main cast is named one by one (Robyn, Kevin, Lottie, Daniel, Cassandra, Fischer and Colby) in the Sorting Ceremony. In my opinion it was the perfect segment instead of the one currently.

Cassandra's mean personality got drastically toned down in my opinion but it does show her fair and mature side more. Though I miss how MEAN she was in First and Second Year! Third Year was when the Main Cast's attitudes get subdued because of Dementor Presence and the Ministry Inquisition grilling the student body for NOTME.

The entire Dance Ball segment in general. It was an Event TM! In the Beta Version, the Dance Ball opens only after Ivy is found which, in my opinion, is the better pace compared to the one currently. The choice for partners were Ivy and Daniel. Cassandra only becomes available in Third Year. In the Beta version, it shows more of Daniel's real personality as Shy rather than the Mean and Stand-offish attitude he shows to others ("I have to hold hands? And talk?? What am I supposed to say while dancing???" And regardless of gender MC will say "You can hold hands and dance with me and talk about Potions so you won't feel awkward with anybody else!" "Yeah let's do it!"). With Ivy, she is still flustered because she was The Missing Student since the Sorting Ceremony. So MC, regardless of gender, will ask her to dance and take her mind off of her anxiety before she eats the entire table lol.

Plus the Camera was stable.

[fnaf-confessions-acc]

Oh hey would ya look at that! A fnaf confession blog that's actually active! I'm gonna abuse this blog!

In my opinion I think the steel wool era of the games is, well, I wouldn't exactly call it peak. I wouldn't call it a VAST improvement, I wouldn't call it the best. But I sure as hell do love it. I've been here since the beginning, sort of. I've been here ever since FNAF 2 was first released, and it's been an on and off obsession ever since then, the last time I was OBSESSED with the game was when Security Breach released. I remember really liking it, I loved that it was so different from any game we've ever had before, the games I grew up on, the games I held, and still hold, so dear to my heart. I sure as hell was going to miss the old point and click style, but I was happy about the change nonetheless. I loved it. But it was when we didn't know much at all, so I was unsure of what to think of the lore. I just assumed it was going to be, a spin off, of sorts.

The FNAF movie pulled me back into my obsession, and it's.. So interesting, how the series has evolved. It's not the story I grew up with, it's not the story I hold so dear to my heart- it's something entirely new, and I enjoy that a lot. The old games will always be my favorite, but I love the steel wool ones. I think The Mimic is a great character, I think they're very promising. They're giving this series a bit of extra spice, I love that! I think the main reason people are so skeptical about them is because they're still rusty. It's apparent the new story they're making is still a work in progress, the turn they're taking with the story, they're still working on it. So, of course, things are going to be a lil rusty. Who knows, maybe when it's more polished, I'll decide I don't even like it that much, but so far I think it seems very promising.

I understand why it's not popular with.. A lot of fans. One of the biggest appeals of FNAF were its paranormal themes, and it's clear that that's not the approach they're taking anymore. They're doing new things, and that can be intimidating, especially since Five Nights at Freddy's as both a franchise and a story BUILT itself on those themes. Even people who are completely unfamiliar with the franchise usually know that it's about ghost children, and it's not anymore, and that's pretty big, so I understand why people are skeptical and why some just straight up refuse to acknowledge it. But I accept it with open arms.

On a side note, I wonder what younger me would think about what FNAF has become. I'd love to be able to tell and show 8 year old me all of the newer stuff. I think she'd be absolutely ecstatic to know there's a movie and they're working on a 2nd one, currently. I think she'd love it!

Confession#23

also "Oh hey would ya look at that! A fnaf confession blog that's actually active! I'm gonna abuse this blog!" oh god pls have mercy

[90shaladriel]

My son just watched the Star Wars OT for the first time and some observations.

Ok this is a bit of cross-fandom random thoughts, but I wanted to put somewhere.

I'm a child of the 80s-90s. I grew up with Star Wars, was legitimately obsessed with it from ages 3-7 me and my brothers endlessly rewatched the Original trilogy (or just 'Star Wars' as it was known then) on VHS tapes in those years. I remember being so excited for the theatrical re-releases and later the prequels.

My son (4) doesn't watch a lot of non-educational TV or movies, partly we don't show him much, but also he tends to be easily frightened by any tension or scary villains. Probably the scariest movie he had watched before this was Cars 2 (which was weirdly violent!) I also thought that maybe the violence would be something he wasn't really prepared for, none of his books or TV shows really shows graphic deaths. The worst thing he's seen are clips from TV News about the war in Ukraine which isn't often.

Last year I picked up some old children's books from my parents, and I had a stack of books that were the Star Wars read along books (that used to come with a small vinyl record) for the OT and a Star Wars ABC books. I would occasionally read these books at bedtime and my son gradually became enthusiastic about them, so we would get other Star Wars books from the library, most of those were either Prequel-era or even now Sequel-era stuff which he seemed to like and get. I think what's important is that going into actually watching the films he had been "spoiled" somewhat on the basic storylines and characters, like he knew Anakin Skywalker became Darth Vader, but honestly I think at his age he doesn't follow stories that well, so knowing all the characters and places upfront probably helped him enjoy it more I think?

So I thought with this I would just sort of give some observations about my son's experience and also my own re-watching the films for the first time in years. I had the Blu-ray Special Editions that were released maybe 5-6 years ago?

A New Hope

On rewatch this is by far my favorite, it's funny, gritty, action packed. It is pretty violent, dead bodies seen in the first firefight on the ship, Vader force choking people, Owen and Beru's burnt corpses, but overall this didn't seem to be harmful to my son, we did talk a bit about it being a war and that people were 'hurt'. He seemed most affected by the death of Obi-wan, and kept asking where he went. My son seemed to like Luke and R2-D2. I will say a lot of the audio was kind of uneven on this edition, I had trouble hearing dialog and my son can't read subtitles so I was explaining stuff and then the action or score would be super loud.

I think that the special edition CGI additions are the weakest in the trilogy, particularly the ones on Tatooine. IMO they don't add much and look fairly cheesy by today's standards. To be fair a lot of the Cantina alien costumes also don't look the best now in HD resolution.

Sadly one of the areas I feel suffers the most now is the continuity with all the Prequels and series. Like the way Obi-wan talks about the past makes it sound like 30-40+ years ago when it was really more like 18 and, now with the Kenobi show, things like him meeting Darth Vader was <10 years ago. I'm only 40 and events 10 years ago feels like nothing. So Vader's line "I sense something; a presence I've not felt since..." just feels like doesn't carry the weight it should. The Jedi shouldn't be an "ancient religion" they were still be hunted down in recent years and Han would have been alive when the Jedi were fighting in the Clone Wars I would think? I kind of think George Lucas backed the franchise into a corner a bit by setting the Prequels too close to the beginning of the OT, I get why to somewhat explain Luke and Leia's ages. I dunno, I would have rather ret-conned them to be mid-20s or something.

Empire Strikes Back

Very enjoyable still. Son liked the Hoth battle scenes, loves AT-ATs. Kind of less interested in some of the Dagobah planet and Yoda scenes. He didn't understand at all what was happening in the Dark side cave which was pretty scary for him, eventually the explanation that stuck was "It was a robot Darth Vader, not the real Darth Vader" that Luke killed. He had little or no commentary on the Han-Leia romance, something I remember feeling cringey about it as a boy that thought girls were like the enemy, he doesn't seem to care, but doesn't like it either as far as I can tell. My son was shocked when Vader cut off Luke's hand, because the Read Along picture books sanitize this as "Vader slashed Luke's lightsaber away" or something more PG. These are violent movies!

I don't remember as much additional scenes or CGI in this one, the old models of Star Destroyers and Rebel ships looked amazingly good I thought, I think Executor and generally imperial navy scenes overall are so good still. I think they added a few shots of the Falcon flying around Cloud City and maybe the snow monster scene looked a bit cheesy now?

Something that struck me on this rewatch in particular was how good the lightsaber duel between Vader and Luke was. I always remembered it as Luke losing pretty badly. Which is true, but he seriously held is own for most of the fight, counterattacking even getting a few glancing blows on Vader. The fight was way more intense than I remember it being and super fun to watch especially with how later jedi duels in the prequel movies get a lot of praise. This really held up in my opinion.

Which is impressive with what we now know Vader to be, like the greatest Jedi warrior ever. Again some continuity stuff bothers me more about the prequels, especially in Kenobi the Darth Vader vs Third Sister fight where in the how Vader could basically force block her lightsaber, and she was pretty much fully trained in the force. Similarly the hallway scene in Rogue One he can toss people around, it's hard to imagine Luke being able to compete with him at all. I kind of prefer the OT Vader without the prequels, strong with the force yes, but not superhuman powerful.

One nitpick though. Several times The Falcon is being chased by TIE fighters, why didn't Han or Leia go back and use the turret cannons to shoot them down like in ANH Death Star escape?

Return of the Jedi

Confession, growing up this was always my favorite Star Wars movie. On rewatch for me it kind of felt the weakest of the three. I guess you have to be an adult to kind of see it?

My son seemed to get a bit bored at parts. I think the Jabba Palace scenes were a bit more subdued and slow-paced than I remember, and so was a few of the middle scenes with Yoda or Luke's revelation to Leia, very quiet and somber, but definitely nothing like what we saw in ANH or ESB in terms of action-pacing.

My son thought ewoks were kind of silly and funny, but doesn't seem like to make an impression on him since we watched, unlike the AT-ATs or some of the human characters. He was afraid of the emperor, on some level I think he "got" the dynamics between Luke and Vader as it's clear Vader is his dad and Vader used to be a good guy (Anakin) in contrast to the truly evil Emperor so that all seemed to work well for him. I have to say, as a Dad now myself the final fight scenes and what Vader did hit way more deeply than anytime I've watched before, definitely teared up a bit. One question I got from him which I struggled to answer was "What does it mean to turn to the dark-side?" I'm not really sure I have a good answer other than "be tricked to do bad things" which is as good as I could explain it to his level. I guess that is a pretty abstract and fictional concept for a 4 year old.

Overall I loved the Luke - Vader rematch, again, Vader seems to be slowing down with age or wear and tear when compared to even Rogue One or ESB but Luke is getting stronger. Since Luke is the only Jedi left at the time, it was never clear how strong he was supposed to be, also being physically a small guy he doesn't seem as impressive a hero but more of an underdog in the saga, yet he took on Vader 1 on 1 and defeated him, so maybe the Force is stronger with him than I used to give him credit for? The fight was good, emotionally intense, I almost wish the actual lightsaber battle was a little longer.

One new takeaway that never really struck me before was that the ultimate climax to STAR WARS was the hero throwing away his weapon and choosing Non-Violence and ultimately being saved by (a father's) Love. That's kind of a radical notion for the 2020s let alone the 1980s. Props to George Lucas for that unconventional twist there. I almost feel like this doesn't get talked about enough compared to other aspects of Lucas' philosophy or themes in the films.

The Battle of Endor still is one of the best space battles I've ever seen. I do think the Battle of Scarif in Rogue One is probably on-par with it, but for the 1980s it's so impressive what they were able to achieve with the technology then. Also my favorite minor character of the series is Admiral Ackbar. I'm glad my son enjoyed him as well (also I felt his costume held up better in HD than the ANH alien rubber mask costumes). I wish he had his own spin-off show or movie tbh.

Overall Thoughts

I was so happy to finally be able to share this treasured part of my childhood with my son, and he seemed to take as much enjoyment from them as I did. He still asks to read the books at bedtime and we have been trying to branch out and get more Star Wars books about the Prequels and Sequels. As far as toys goes, he likes LEGO in general so we've got him a couple of Star Wars LEGO sets. It's a far cry from the collection of action figures and space ships I had in the mid-80s, but he enjoys it.

Next Star Wars to Show Him

I think that I would like to show him some of the Prequels next. Those were never my favorites, but maybe they will appeal to him at his age? The prequels were released when I was in HS/College and already had a lot of head-canon for what I thought would be in them from the EU and other sources. Maybe the Clone Wars animated show would be appropriate? I've never actually seen it myself so don't know if it's good for him to watch, maybe it's more for older kids?

I think Rogue One is also a natural fit with the Original Trilogy, but that's probably a bit too dark/adult for him right now I think. I do wonder if there are any good sanitized kids picture books about it though 😂

[ryanmurf1013]

Marvin and Miranda and future adaptations

----

So I think it's pretty obvious that new adaptations of Roald Dahl's Charlie and The Chocolate Factory are going to keep coming for quite a while. It's easily one of, if not the most famous book Dahl has ever written and its two major film adaptations are classics in their own right. Hell, in the past ten years alone we've had a few new adaptations, from the West End musical, to it's admittedly inferior Broadway counterpart, an animated remake of the 71 film co-starring Tom and Jerry (eugh)eight, an upcoming prequel film staring Timothée Chalamet and an announced animated series (along with a Glass Elevator and Oompa Loompa origin series) directed by Taika Waititi (though admittedly we haven't heard anything about it in two years and considering Netflix's seeming distaste for animated series, who knows if that's still happening) and no doubt more on the way (especially if the prequel does well critically and financially).

Enter Miranda Mary Piker and Marvin Prune, two of the bratty children who found their way on the chopping block and wound up cut from the final book. Miranda is the school obsessed daughter of a Headmaster who hates fun and happiness that ends up getting sucked into a machine that makes "spotty powder", with the chapter showing her fate having been released to the public quite some time ago. Marvin on the other hand is a bit of an enigma, as all that's officially known about him is that he's a "a conceited boy" with an unknown fate (due to his chapter being lost), and the fate hes popular for (via Perry Plumb Faeries) being created by deviantart user SeismicInventions (link here: https://www.deviantart.com/seismicinventions/art/Marvin-Prune-and-the-Perry-Plum-Faeries-427902555 ) and further popularized by @danguy96 's take on CATCF. Both characters have grown to be quite popular, them now being the unofficial sixth and seventh kids on the tour of Wonka's Factory

Now why bring these two up in a talk about future official adaptations of the book?

Simple, I think it's quite inevitable that a future adaptation will include them in some capacity.

Theres a few reasons why I think this

Originality

It goes without saying that the more times something is adapted into another media, the more that has to be changed or added to make it stand out. Even most of the other adaptations that already exist do this. The 71 film makes several notable changes (whether it be because of what was available at the time, for advertising purposes, or to make the story jell better on screen). The 05 film tells a more truer to text story while also modernizing it (whether it be technical aspects or Violet and Mike's faults), and expanding on several aspects of Wonka himself. The 2013 Musical further modernized the characters faults as well as leaned more into the black comedy, being as true to the text as it was radically different. Even if it's not out, the 2023 Wonka film, rather than adapting the story, will serve as a prequel to it, and even the Tom and Jerry film (despite being the most derivative of a previous adaptation) still scores points of originality by being the first animated version of this story while also being a crossover. The franchise has been trying new stuff with the original story since the beginning is what I'm saying, and as time goes on, Studio's will realize that in order for their version to stand out from the rest, more radical changes must be made. Thus I think it's likely that the most logical change would be to add another kid to the tour. And while some could argue that these filmmakers will just invent entirely new kids with their own vices for their versions of this story, I find it far more likely that they'll use children deleted from the book, especially the ones already popular, which brings me to my next point...

2. Miranda and Marvin's popularity within the Fandom

Like I said before, these two are pretty much already the 6th and 7th kids from the Fandoms perspective, so I think it's probable that in the near future they'll be officially in the story again. For God sakes, both of them have (admittedly small) character entries in the CATCH character page, and I'm not saying the adaptation specific page (where Miranda alone sat for quite a while), I'm talking within the bratty children page itself, which tells me they're popular enough for potential movie producers or scrip writers to notice. Miranda was known to the public for around a decade and both she and Marvin "exploded" in popularity (relative I know) in the mid 2010's when Danguy96 decided to use them in his rewrite of the story (that sadly seems to be discontinued) especially with the art drawn by @jamesandtheblog . With that causing the two to grow to become the unofficial kids number 6 and 7, making them the official 6th and 7th kids could be an easy way to please fans and make them want to see a new version and intrigued people who don't know about them.

3. Just how much we know about then

Admittedly, this applies more to Miranda than Marvin, since of the two he's less likely to appear than her considering that most of what we know him as is fanmade, which could complicate the matter of including him. Miranda, on the other hand, has far more known about her that comes from Dahl's pen itself, and I not only think it's likely, but inevitable that she'll appear in some CATCH media in the future (at the very least a simple name drop though I think it's more likely she'll be an added tour kid). We have the chapter containing her fate, we've known about her for a while, and her hate fun love order schick could be easily be twisted around to fit the current times of any adaptation. Marvin, while less details about him from Dahl are known, is still rather likely to be included due to the nature of his vice. While I think it's likely any future movie producer will be able to track down SeismicInventions and ask/pay for the rights to use his idea for his fate (assuming they just don't take the idea without asking, which is sadly very likely), but even if they don't take that interpretation, the vice of being conceited is such an easy vice that can be twisted to suit their needs.

Overall, unless the Dahl estate forbids producers from bringing previously deleted characters into their adaptations, then I think it's not only likely, but probable that Marvin Prune and especially Miranda Mary Pikey will be appearing in a future attempt at adapting Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

[puccafangirl]

Happy 10th anniversary to Ice Age 4: Continental Drift! So sorry this took me so long. I overslept way too much and was only able to draw this near the end of the day. Not to mention the fact that I'm a slow artist. Anyway, now to go into detail about my history with this film as well!

Y'all, the hype I felt for this film was so real. After I watched Ice Age 3 and fell in love with the franchise, I eagerly awaited a fourth Ice Age film for a long time. When the first official poster was released, I did so much squealing and felt so much excitement that I called my Mom late at night just to express my excitement over it.

And when the first teaser came out featuring the tradition of showing a scene with Scrat at the beginning of the film, I couldn't stop watching it! I even gushed about it to my teacher Jenn Cancino for a while because I just had to talk to someone about it!

But one other really fond memory I have is when Blue Sky announced the release date of the next trailer of the movie and how when I got to that day, I spent the whole time at school just anxiously and excitedly waiting to get home just so I could watch it. And then I watched it and my excitement grew!

After that, I pretty much spent a huge portion of my teenage/high school years obsessively looking for any news or new clips I haven't seen yet that I could find. Even when that "We are Family" song came out, I instantly downloaded it to my iPod and listened to it at school pretty much all the time. Same with the "Chasing the Sun" song. C:

It was just on my mind every single day and I just could never stop thinking about it until I saw it! And once July 13th finally came and I got to see it, I was legit sweating from excitement that's how hyped I was. My leg was also bouncing practically the whole time I watched it.

And the thing is, I know that a lot of people dislike Ice Age 4 and usually say that that's when the franchise went downhill. But me personally? I loved it. Not just because of the nostalgia I associate with it, but because I think it did a really great job at portraying the relationship between the herd and how far they've come as a family since the past films. And of course Scrat's scenes were super fun to watch. Need I remind everyone how hard I stimmed when I saw Scratte's cameo as a siren for the first time? eue

I think this movie was what also introduced me to the talented Nick Bruno. Cause he was a supervising animator on the film and he did a spectacular job on that. That's when we started talking a few times and when I of course expressed my love for how the film came out thanks to him and the rest of the talented folks at Blue Sky. ^^ I think I got a little closer with some other people at Blue Sky too so there's something to always be thankful for!

So yeah, while Ice Age 3 is still my favorite and the one that gave me the most fond memories, Ice Age 4 gave me a lot of fond memories too. It was one of the most exciting events of my life and I'll never forget all the positive experiences it gave me. <3

But anyway, on to the picture. I know that Gupta looks terrible and it's definitely one of the many signs that I've drawn Scrat and Scratte WAY more than the other characters, but I still tried my best. I hope this is still a decent enough tribute to the film. Thanks for making such a wonderful film as always Blue Sky! It'll always hold a special place in my heart along with the rest of the franchise! ♥

[anamoon63]

REMINISCING ABOUT THE SIMS

SHARE HOW YOU DISCOVERED THE SIMS FRANCHISE & THE VERY FIRST SIMS GAME YOU PLAYED  (E.G. TS2)

Thanks dear @nocturnalazure for the tag, my apologies for the delay.

Let's see, the first time I saw The Sims game was in an Office Depot store around 2002. I went with my husband to buy computer stuff.

At that time I only played Tomb Raider, and I was always looking for a new TR game, but then I found The Sims De Luxe... The pictures on the box caught my eye. You know, I'm an adult, well over 30 at that exact time, but as a child I always liked paper dolls, barbies and dollhouses, and I liked to make stories while playing, so I thought The Sims would be something similar, but for people my age, lol. So I didn't think twice and bought The Sims not knowing that this purchase would change my life completely.

At the beginning I just played (no storytelling). One of my first sims was called Johnny Dreams (which was a sim with Johnny Depp's face, imagine that). Remember in The Sims 1 you could literally paste the face of an artist to your sim, almost all my sims were famous people, but Johnny was the first one, lol.

Chatting with my sister one night, I told her about The Sims and what happened in my game. She knew how much I love to write so she told me: 'Why don't you write a story with all that happens to your sims?' And I said: 'That's not a bad idea!' But I didn't immediately start cause at that time I was writing a novel.

That's how I discovered The Sims and which was the very first sims game I played. If you are interested in what happened when The Sims 2,3 and 4 arrived in my life, continue reading under the cut, just be warned it's a veeery long story.

When The Sims 2 came out I became obsessed with taking pictures of my game, thought I could make stories out of them and share them with other players. So I joined a forum and introduced my sims there. Before I knew it, I had my own story thread with lots of views and comments. Unfortunately, in 2009 I had problems in that forum so I had to leave after almost five years of activity.

Then came The Sims 3, with its open world, and its thousands of possibilities. And - not immediately - but it got me.

A friend and I had promised that we would never stop playing The Sims 2, that The Sims 3 would never replace it, but TS 3 was too good to be true! My friend wouldn't accept it despite the novelty of the open world, he thought nothing could beat TS2, so he would stick with it.

I was still fond of my Sims 2 characters, it was hard for me to leave them cause you know how you get attached to your sims, and they were already 3 generations. I tried to create them in TS3, but it didn't work, so I thought it was better to create new characters and stories in The Sims 3. Those characters grew on me and I ended up getting attached to them.

That's how, around 2011, I started the foundations of the 6-generation game that I'm still playing, from which my main story From the Desert to the City as well as my other stories were born.

I still wanted to share my photos and stories, but I was no longer in the forum (plus that forum didn't exist anymore), so, in 2013 approximately I started my blog Los Sims de Ana (Blogger, in Spanish), which I managed at the same time as MyPage in the site thesims3.com where I had made some new friends with whom I shared the Memories of my game. It was precisely this TS3 Memories option what gave me the idea of publishing photos of my game in real time. That's how my story " The Travels and Adventures of Tony Langerak" emerged. The blog also included downloads of my sims and an occasional tutorial. Some of my friends from thesims 3.com. subscribed and used to leave kind comments. For about a year everything worked great for Los Sims de Ana. But then...

Yes, The Sims 4 arrived, and all my (few) subscribers left to go play the shiny new game. I bought it myself, tried to play it, like really tried, but something didn't feel right so I immediately went back to The Sims 3 and then later on I made me a Tumblr account to continue sharing stories and gameplay with other TS3 fans.

In 2018 I tried to go back to The Sims 4, recreating my TS3 characters, but it turned out to be a disaster. I stopped playing it for good in October 2019. I haven't opened it since, except to do the updates and see that everything works fine.

Don't get me wrong, TS4 is quite entertaining, and the characters funny, but I feel like its style doesn't go with my stories, (cause for me the game isn't just about playing but about making stories!) It's a shame, but TS4 just didn't work for me.

Around that time I repurchased the complete collection of The Sims 3 on Steam and said goodbye to Origin. Since then I've played The Sims 3 exclusively while I wait for The Sims 5, although I don't have high hopes for the latter.

Now, that's all. Sorry for the wall of text. I'm not tagging anyone cause I think everybody has already made this post, but if any of my mutuals hasn't and wish to do so, consider yourself tagged. 😊

[they-them-that]

A ramble about my problems with Scott Pilgrim Takes Off (And Scott Pilgrim overall)

I know this will come off as nitpicky because it semi-is but I also had a hard time getting into the series with how much tired and sexist tropes were compacted into it. Although some of my complaints may seem to go against the entire antithesis of Scott Pilgrim (the "it's supposed to be that way!" argument), I also think that just means the entire comic and it's extended projects has always had a sexism problem. That doesn't mean you're wrong for enjoying it though! I fully understand the appeal and I'm not actually against the playful concept of gender dynamics in romantic relationships. But Scott Pilgrim Takes Off is the latest works of the franchise that reimagines the comic's story thus, potentially being a better, more educated version of itself and is in some ways it is, but is still ignorant in many others.

Good Changes:

-Todd's bisexual awakening

-Knives gets to be mostly happy

-Scott isn't there most of the time lol

Ok now the problems.

Wallace was a treat the whole series and I enjoyed Todd's bisexuality arc but Stephen's romance and coming out was shafted. As someone who didn't read the comics, I had no idea he was a gay character and it felt like we were trading one m/m development for another.

Kim makes out with Roxie instead of Knives in the anime (thank god) and I found the close up of them french kissing to be... Off putting, especially when Todd and Wallace's makeout, even with tongue involved, did not get the same voyeuristic treatment. This lends itself to an issue that's also in the comics which is the fetishization of w/w relationships for the pleasure of men. Even if we argue it's also for queer women, women are usually above just watching two girls frenching each other and no matter what, it's still a fetishistic scene.

Julie is written to be stuck up in the comic with misogynistic undertones. She's quite literally called a "bitch" and throughout the comics, she is constantly defined by the sexist term.

(source: wiki. Even if this plot summary could mostly be a fan's interjection on Julie, it still shows how her personality is antagonized in a uniquely misogynistic way by the comic)

In the anime, Julie gets together with Gordon Goose, formerly known as Gideon Graves (also retconning his ten year age gap with the main cast for some reason). He quickly crashes at her place and their relationship reflects an incredibly exhausted trope of the pessimistic woman and freeloader man. I found their relationship more interesting when they were both being evil together because it didn't feel parasitic but for the most part, their relationship was playing on a patriarchal and toxic dynamic that's nothing refreshing or cute.

Knives whole situation throughout the Scott Pilgrim franchise is deeply upsetting, especially because it never gets properly confronted in order to withhold accountability from Scott. Scott sees her when she's a minor and although it's pointed out throughout the series, it never actually gets addressed by Scott or Knives. Despite her being taken advantage of and then cheated on, Knives is portrayed as a crazy obsessed girlfriend and soon after, a bitter obsessed ex.

Although the comic and anime lampshades about the age gap problem, it also tries to minimize the situation through excuses like how Scott never made it official, he hasn't gone further than holding her hand, he had no real interest in Knives to begin with, and so on. This doesn't negate what he's doing and in the comic, he even asks for sex from Knives when she becomes of age which is blueprint grooming.

I find it suspicious that the protagonist we're meant to root for is the character who dates a 17 year old and hardly faces consequences for it. In the anime, we don't get to ruminate on the problem at all.

Scott disappears quickly and Ramona, despite hardly knowing him and frankly leaving little to be impressed by, searches for him throughout the anime where Scott gets painted with this unearned endearment of being a "good guy". When Scott returns, he gives a weak apology to Knives, saying "Apparently, a 23 year old dating a 17 year old is frowned upon by society" that actually fails to acknowledge why. It ends up coming off as down playing Scott's action and I can't help but feel that in a way, Bryan Lee O'Malley is also justifying dating minors as just some reckless mistake a guy can make.

Kim also makes out with Knives in the comic and it even seems to hint at those two being an item in the game which entirely negates the age gap issue the comic pretends to recognize with Scott.

Ramona's relationship with Scott is frankly NOT CUTE. Although it may have a more compelling narrative in the comics, I just find it difficult to support the relationship when Scott has such cishet energy. He fetishizes Ramona's bisexuality but then becomes jealous and insecure when he learns that Ramona actually dates women and doesn't just have sex with them. He's shown to groom and cheat and in the anime, it's pretty much one of the first things Ramona learns about him which should instantly be a red flag. Despite it, Ramona is head over heels for Scott, even when she learns how future her leaves him and he becomes a hellbent bitter ex himself with no sense of responsibility for how his actions drove Ramona away.

There is quite literally nothing about this guy that makes him appealing to me yet the series romanticizes their gendered dynamic, the movie being used as one of the biggest examples of a stale white wonderbread boy and a manic pixie dream girl by media analytics.

When we meet older and even-older Scott, we get told his age as well as see him visibly aging. With Ramona, there is essentially no visible aging even when she's in her 50's and we get the sexist gag of "don't ask" when it comes to how old she is, leaning into the harmful shame in being a woman above 25.

Although I understand that the entire concept of Scott Pilgrim is confronting Ramona's exes, knowing the anime was an opportunity to finally flesh out many underdeveloped characters, it was disappointing to see Ramona still really only exist in proximity to her romantic relationships, including Scott. I hardly learned anything about Ramona as an individual and I didn't get any sense of character progression. She started off as this mysterious woman and ended that way too.

In the end, the series just felt very cliche and heteronormative to me, even with its abundance of queer characters. Although it's not terrible by any means, it definitely still has issues I can't look past.

[themaninthepit]

I don't really play enough games a year to create a personal top 10, so here's my Top 6 Games I Played in 2023.

I'm only including games I started playing in 2023, as well as only games I completed (or played a lot of). May contain minor spoilers for games discussed, so just be careful.

6. Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes Played this with my friends recently, and holy shit it's a nightmare (affectionate). I was the bomb defuser and my two friends were on the manual, and it was one of the most stressful moments of my life. After the first few bombs, you start to get into a good rhythm and eventually we were doing two modules at once to save time (and even that wasn't enough sometimes). Overall, it's a really fun time to test just how strong your friendships are.

5. A Normal Lost Phone Played this back in January without doing any research on it. It was cheap and on sale, so I bought it expecting it to be some kind of horror game like SIMULACRA. A phone with a missing owner, a family member being in some kind of 'cult', a tumultuous relationship with former friends; I was very worried about what the result would be. The reveal, then, of the owner's truth was genuinely heart-warming and heart-wrenching in different ways; it left an impact on me that stuck around for this entire year.

4. Fire Emblem Engage I've been a fan of Fire Emblem since Awakening dropped (like many people, I'm sure). Every time a new game drops it becomes my obsession for a few weeks, and this time was no different; Engage was really a joy to play. Now, is it perfect? Absolutely not. I think the story is the weakest part of the game by far, with a lot of it being guessable from the beginning, alongside some of the more just... badly written moments. But the characters and gameplay make up for it by far, I feel. I replayed the game in order to make sure I used every character and did all their supports because I was curious to learn about them all, and the new gameplay tweaks make combat feel a lot more fun to play.

3. Pokemon Infinite Fusion On a purely meme-basis, this is the most fun I've had with a game this year; I played it through with my friends, and it was truly a spectacle whenever we found a custom sprite to fuse. Outside of the pure meme potential, it's also just a really well-made fan-game; fun side quests, a good story, lots of exploration. I can't think of much more to say outside of the fact that fusing nightmares and trying to create broken Pokemon was incredibly fun and I highly recommend it.

2. Life is Strange: True Colors Life is Strange and I have always had a strange relationship. When it came out I was a big fan of the first game, but as I grew older and looked into it more I started to dislike more and more about it; I still think it's got a lot of good stuff in it, but there's also a lot more bad than I remember. I didn't bother with the franchise until I was getting into The Stupendium's music and found their song on True Colors; I quite liked it and so decided to look into the state of the franchise, finding out about the empathy power of Alex. This made me actually want to try the game out, and I had an absolutely lovely time. The story was wonderful, I liked just about all of the characters, and Alex was a really compelling protagonist I genuinely cared for. If you plan to play this game, PLEASE don't read the steam description; for some stupid reason, it spoils the first big twist of the game and would totally ruin the suspense of it. I didn't read it, and I was better for it.

1. Dead by Daylight I can't really put anything else here, as since I started playing in March this game has absorbed more of my free time than any other game. I've always been a fan of it, watching YouTube content and reading lore, but I was never able to get into it because I was afraid of trying to learn it solo. Luckily, one of my friends and their group of friends got hugely into it so I had a free pass to learn and play with a group. Despite playing with some absolute dipshits sometimes (like any online game), I have so much fun playing this game. I'm not very good at killer and prefer survivor, but genuinely I just love this game so much. As a horror fan, it's everything I wanted and more.

[kitchfit]

Year in Review: Games Pt 3

My penultimate list of games contains a rather random grabbag of obsessions I bounced between over the summer and into the fall. And for this list I do mean obsession. Most of these titles took over my brain for at least a week until I was able to stave it off with something else.

The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past Randomizer

I don't often think too much about the structure of traditional Zelda games when I look back on them. Recently, in an interview, Eiji Aonuma expressed a lack of interest to return to the traditional styled Zelda games, stating "Why do you want to go back to a type of game where you're more limited or more restricted in the types of things or ways you can play?" I understand that sentiment, but I believe the restrictive structure of older Zeldas actively curate the gameplay experience rather than hinder it. There's something to be said about how linearity in a game can be in service to a better story, but in Zelda, the linearity turns the entire map into something of a puzzlebox. There's a reason this franchise inspired Metroid.

These are the thoughts I had while figuring out exactly how Zelda randomizers worked and actually getting one to function properly. A Link to the Past, the game the solidified the Zelda formula. Compared to Zelda I, this game is considerably more linear, each mark of your progression hindered by a Key Item that progressively unlocks more of the world around you until you have free reign of the map. The OG makes this progression path relatively intuitive, but in a randomizer the path still exists, but its been altered. All of the keys are behind new locks, and the experience of finding those locks is almost like playing Alttp for the first time.

Familiar items from the beginning may be moved towards the end. I didn't even find the sword until around the halfway point, and had to get creative when dealing with bosses, but near the end, when I had everything, the game was identical to its original counterpart. In this way, the restrictive nature of the game made it more compelling than if I had free reign of the map from the get go. But I guess the Zelda team just isn't interested in that type of gameplay anymore.

Super Mario Odyssey

This is foreshadowing a much more psychotic stage of this review, which I'll save as the last update to this Year in Review project. The is my first time playing this! Can you believe! I'm apparently something of a "gamer," but one of the most beloved Mario games of modern times remained unplayed and alone... I had to rectify this. And damn, yea. This is the perfect advancement in 3D Mario since the time of Mario Galaxy. The controls are a perfect mix of freedom and control; I was never agitated with Mario's movement. The Moons allowing simple exploration and puzzle solving to be rewarded without booting the player out of the level. Finally, after all this time, Mario has reached the heights of the first Banjo Kazooie game.

This is a lot easier to qualify with hindsight, since well... You'll see! But during my time with the game, what I was most impressed with were the environments. You're exploring entire communities! New sections of the Mario world that we've never seen before that fit perfectly with everything we've seen before. Classic themes with a twist. The Sand Kingdom is a normal dessert level that has been frozen over with an icy curse. The Wooded Kingdom seems at first to be a standard grass theme, but is actually a defunct industrial zone upkept by robots who like to garden! Even New Donk City with its hyper realistic Business People, which seems a wild setting for a Mario game, hearkens back to the older games like Donkey Kong 94. For the first time in a long time, this game got me interested in the lore of the Mario universe, and that would have dire consequences...

Fire Emblem: Awakening

This is one of those franchises I have a lot of love for despite the fact almost every entry has something that makes me stretch my face into a comical frown, like Wile E. Coyote realizing he's been thoroughly duped by the funny bird that goes fast. The Fire Emblem games are already thoroughly difficult tactical rpgs, which are hard enough to invest yourself into without tearing your hair out. Awakening is the game that brought the franchise back from the brink of death, at least in the west, and part of that, I believe, was because of the reintroduction of a mechanic from FE4 I affectionately refer to as "the breeding mechanic."

By slamming your anime chess pieces against each other like action figures to make them kiss, they can get married and have a kid. That child can then be recruited into your army after some goofy time travel antics, and their stats, class options, and abilities are decided based on those of their parent units. This means breeding your units like livestock to create the best child units is the most effective way to play the game, which, I won't lie, is just simulated eugenics. This grossed me out as a teenager when I bought this game, and combined with how hard the game was for me at the time, I put the game down for an indefinite hiatus.

Returning to it after all these years, I am sad to say abusing the breeding mechanic is fun as all hell. Okay, maybe equating romance options in a video game to actual eugenics is a bit harsh. It's not like the game encourages playing like that, it really is just letting you ship your favorite characters together, which is present in every FE game these days. Pairing the units up based not only on chemistry but on available skills allowed me to have a nice time with a pretty fun cast and absolutely WRECK HOUSE through the chapters to the point that difficulty became something of a joke. There's also a story in this game. It's fine. Time travel is in it.

Fire Emblem: Binding Blade

This is lauded as one of the most difficult FE games to ever exist, but it isn't usually said with a happy face. Every map is a "seize map" meaning the primary objective is always to kill the boss and bring the Lord (in this case, Roy) to the place the boss was sitting. Roy stagnates at level 20 around the midpoint of the game, and will not promote until the second to last chapter, meaning he's basically useless in the latter half of the game but still required to use in every chapter. Reinforcements appear to a genuinely goofy degree, and will sometimes capsize your run without any warning. You cannot get the true ending of the game without keeping certain fragile ass characters alive (sometimes on the ENEMY TEAM) that unlock hidden chapters with even more bullshit difficulty. Full disclosure, I had to use a guide + a hack that removed fog to get through this game.

Despite ALL OF THIS, Binding Blade has been one of the most engaging and thought provoking Fire Emblem experiences I've ever had. The plot follows a World War esque scenario. On the relatively peaceful continent of Elibe, the country with the strongest military, Bern, has suddenly broke treaty and attempts to conquer all neighboring states. Roy, a 14 year old noble boy on a quest to deliver reinforcements, is suddenly thrust into the role of general after the commander of Lycia falls in battle against Bern troops. And THAT is why the game's difficulty feels so appropriate! It's an uphill climb from day one, Roy is in no way prepared for this, he's FOURTEEN. He should be playing Animal Crossing on his Nintendo 3DS, consarnit! There's also an interesting twist at the end that calls into question our celebration of history and responsibility of the past, which I might get into if I replay it. And I probably will! There's a very lovingly made hack that remakes all of Binding Blade in FE8 with qol features that made me excited to come back to it in the future.

Pikmin 4 pt 1

I'm still having a hard time believing this game exists. I feel like I'm taking it for granted. Just last year I remember cynically telling my friend this title would probably be in development hell for another half a decade at least. But it's here! And damn what a fantastic return. Similar to Pikmin 2, 4 foregoes time limits and resource management in favor of exploration and isolated challenges, without turning to the bullshit difficulty 2 would occasionally throw your way. There's just so much stuff in this game! Caves are back! Piklopedia is huge! Two new types of Pikmin! Like 6 enormous maps to explore!

I do have a few reservations on it. Instead of following the previously established continuity, Pikmin 4 reboots the series, repeating Pikmin 1's plot with the caveat that Olimar never made it off of PNF-404, and it's your job to save him. Along with sixty other tiny alien people that are apparently also prone to crash land in dangerous areas like Olimar before them. It's hilarious, really, the only reason your (custom made) character is in charge is because they're the only one who made it through the atmosphere without shitting themselves.

The caves overall have stronger themes than Pikmin 2 ever managed, and are extremely well designed in their layouts, and the plot and characters are super charming as well. Louie is back and bastardly as ever. He is such an asshole in this title, I love him so much. This is marked as part 1, not only because I'm excited to jump back into the extensive postgame content, but also because of the amount of detail put into the Piklopedia that I want to read EVERYTHING, but due to circumstances I wasn't able to at the time. I know these lists may come off as unemployed behavior, but astonishingly I do have a job that holds back my GAMING POWER just a little bit.

Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance

I took a slight gaming break after Pikmin 4, but it wasn't long before the gaming urge enveloped me like a holy fire. I considered replaying Zero Mission, but if I start one Metroid game I will play through all of them into Dread, which I didn't want to start. And then I remembered there are like 10 Metroids that I've never played, and they have vampires in them! I guess, rather than a Metroid, you could call them a Vania. I've only really played Castlevania 1 and 3 on the NES before, but it's a series I hold pretty close to my heart, and this game works as a good introduction to the series, if you'd like.

The plot follows Juste Belmont, the fruity grandson of Simon who follows his boyfriend into Dracula's Castle to find their girlfriend. Juste has the typical whip finesse of a Belmont, but his direct lineage to Sypha Belnades from Dracula's Curse gives him skills in elemental magic that he slowly unlocks throughout the game. The element Juste is equipped with pairs with his secondary weapon that each unleash a different spell type, which are super fun to experiment with. Dracula's Castle is also split between to dimensions, like the Light and Dark world from alttp, and while it's always fun to explore old areas with new differences, I don't think it adds too much to the aesthetics. Both versions of the castle are nearly identical in terms of artstyle, with the "B Castle" taking on a slightly darker palette.

Juste also collects random shit he finds in the castle to decorate an empty room he found, which is tied to the true ending for some reason. I have a friend who picks up random trash off the streets and brings it back to his house as "trinkets" that he shows off to people when he has visitors, which I found myself reminded of when Juste picks up what must have been Alucard's childhood teddybear to hoard back in little nest.

Digimon Survive

This is a fascinating game. If you have any love for digimon as a series, or if you love visual novel horror games, this is a fantastic deal. From what I remember it faced some backlash when it was revealed it wasn't just a digimon tactical rpg, and even more criticism when players found out how involved the visual novel aspect was. For me, this game perfectly marries the two genres. Your choices in the visual novel structure and treatment of your units during these sections decide not only how your digimon evolve and grow, but which units Survive to the end of the game. There are also four branching paths the story can take that genuinely feel influenced by the choices you made, even though they mostly come down to a rather straightforward morality system.

The plot is similar to season one of the Digimon anime, but with a more mature feel. Eight kids at summer camp are whisked away to the digital world, where the laws of physics are altered, a vague facsimile of human culture can be found, and tons of wacky creatures show up to either aide or harm our protagonists. Except in this version some of them may actually die. I made it through the game with losing only two characters, but they're absence was felt all the way to the end of the game. You don't have to know anything about digimon to appreciate this, but it is a fun new way to enjoy these classic creatures, or be terrified of them, in a certain Bunny's case...

Final Fantasy VII

I don't mod a lot of games. I do look for fan games and improvement patches for older games, but I got a hankering to seek out some stuff a bit more high tech. On Nexus it turned out there were a lot of cool HD graphic mods for an rpg I hadn't picked up in eight years: FF7, baby! I originally got a quarter of the way through this game on steam and put it down for a bit, and then never picked it back up. I remembered being annoyed and confused at the plot and the setting, but going back to it now (with clearer visuals, lol) I enjoyed the hell out of this complicated mess of a story! Honestly, it's not as convoluted as people made it out to be, but maybe my brain has been fundamentally altered by Kingdom Hearts. There's a central mystery present around the six hour mark surrounding a memory Cloud has that doesn't make any sense, and the truth behind that memory slowly unveils itself in a fascinating way.

I was surprised how much I liked Cloud as a character. He never really impressed me in Smash or KH, but in his original game he's this goofy, anxious dork who tries too hard to be cool in front of pretty girls. I can relate to that. AND he has motion sickness. I can relate to that even more.

There are a lot of playable characters in this game, but only 3 of them are allowed in your party, who naturally will level up a lot faster than the benched boys. This is good for replayability, I guess, but if I go back to it anytime soon, I'll have a hard time not picking Barret, Aerith and Tifa as Cloud's best buddies. The other characters are cool (Yuffie is still more of a KH character to me), but I got so damn attached to those three. I also went to the effort of Chocobo breeding for the busted endgame materia, which was a surprisingly fun sidequest, despite its esoteric nature. I did this totally legitimately too! EVERYONE CONGRATULATE ME FOR BEING SO COOL!

Final Fantasy IX

I think this is the easiest Final Fantasy game to recommend to someone. All of the FF games I've played have this compelling found family aspect present, but it's executed in the best way in this one. The characters seem to have this genuine affection for each other that gets more and more real as the game progress and they develop as people. It's also hilarious in a very Shakespearean way. The main character, Zidane, was raised by theater kids, so the goofy, dramatic irony stage gags are very appropriate. All the characters were super compelling with great designs as well, and I had a hard time deciding which three would be in the final party. I settled on Vivi, Freya, and Dagger, but I used Quina and Steiner quite a bit.

The story pulled out tears from me towards the end. This is a tale about grief, identity, and the acceptance of death, and it handles those themes with depth and grace. Zidane and Vivi are unsure of who they are, where they come from. While Zidane looks normal enough, by FF9 standards, Vivi is forced to confront the fact he is probably not human almost immediately upon encountering his puppet brethren, and his reflective journey on accepting this and the fact he does not have long to live is the strongest emotional through-line of the game. But what moved me to tears was (SPOILERS FOR THE REST OF THIS PARAGRAPH) Zidane's drive to reach Kuja before his unavoidable fate. To reach out to his brother and risk life and limb just so he could offer this man comfort in his last moments, to have the last emotion he felt be the tenderness he never got to feel during his long life. Idk it got to me.

(SPOILERS OVER) The Chocobo mission in this game is a lot more fun and intuitive than it was in 7. Instead of breeding, you play a hot and cold mini game that's frustrating as hell at first, but gradually gets faster and more fun. The games lore makes a lot of references to earlier titles, though I really only recognized the call backs to 7 and 4. This inspired me to make a Libre office spreadsheet of all Final Fantasy games lore, plot and recurring elements in an obsessive and ultimately futile attempt to tie the first nine games together in a neat timeline. I'm filling it out as I go through them, so I may never actually release my findings, but it's still been a fun project, similar to these Year in Reviews!

Final Fantasy

This is the GBA version. After 9, I wanted to go through all the FF games I hadn't played, starting of course with 1. According to Legend, the team that worked on this were about to go out of business went all out on one Final product to make or break the company, thus "Final" Fantasy. I think it may also be named so for the amount of cliche fantasy tropes played out through the story. There are elves who's prince has been put under a sleeping curse, dwarves that love to mine and forge, mermaids imprisoned by a sea monster, there's even a floating dead civilization inspired by Castle in the Sky complete with still functional robots. All of this makes for a pretty fun setting, and seeing where most of the recurring aspects of the FF series originated was delightful! A few of them even threw me for a loop; Bahamut lives underground and gives you a class upgrade, I didn't even expect him to be here!

The combat is simple. The gba version reduced the amount of random encounters, and the world design is relatively intuitive (except for the airship, which is hiding underneath a super esoteric sidequest the game barely tells you about), so the challenge was mostly limited to the boss encounters, who can be cheesed with elemental magic from a decent mage. I played with a Black Mage, a Monk, a Fighter, and a Red Mage, so my healing options were pretty limiting. I didn't realize until near the end of the game that monks are strongest without weapons, so at the last moment my little Monkey boy was FUCKING SHIT UP while he had been dragging his feet for most of the game. The final boss fucked me up in return, however, and I almost grinded (ground doesn't sound right) levels for the first time in this game before discovering the Titan Gloves.

The final boss is (spoilies) the first boss from the opening of the game, who has been transported 1,000 years into the past to manipulate the conflict of the game, including his own initial defeat. This means defeating him for the 2nd time breaks this loop, stops him from creating conflict in the first place and retcons the entire events of the game, allowing your actions to fall into obscure legend in the cultural consciousness. This provides a nice explanation for the main cast's lack of identity. This story is being told second hand as a legend. These people are only remembered for their actions in a myth and thus their true names have never been known...

Final Fantasy II: Dawn of Souls

Before playing this game I had it beaten into my head from video essayists and game journalists that this is the worst Final Fantasy with dogshit mechanics. Maybe that's true, I haven't played all of them yet. These mechanics were cool as hell to me, though. Your stats are decided by usage instead of building up through leveling up, meaning your magic stat is trained by using more magic, attack is trained by attacking, etc. In the og NES game, this also applied to HP, which was trained by getting hit, but that was changed to a more steady leveling curve in the GBA version, and thank God for that. There are also several weapon types like swords, axes, and spears you can train your party members with, though you're forced to specialize early on, lest you be under-leveled later in the game. I think this system is incredibly ahead of its time, inelegant as it may be, as it lets you customize your characters' stat builds in a way that's now standard for modern rpgs.

The story kind of rakes you across the coals. It follows a group of children who have joined a rebellion against an empire dead set on taking over the world. Almost every victory is met with an equal degree of tragedy. You might defeat the enemy commander only to be too late to prevent a city being wiped from the face of the earth, you might find one of the game's macguffins from a tough dungeon only for a party member to be brutally killed off at the last moment. Even defeating the emperor comes with a slap in the face, as his death only leads to a portal to ACTUAL HELL where the emperor has seized control of the afterlife. It makes the ending very satisfying in my eyes, though there are some story developments (like Leon) that feel pretty undercooked. There's also a bonus story featuring all the dead characters exploring hell! Cool! I didn't play this, since it drops everyone back at level one, but I may return to it as a separate game someday. I just gotta know what happened to all the dead guys! They died??? Oh shit!!

Fatum Betula

I discovered this game watching Any Austin talk about games you can get on the Switch for $2, and can you believe my luck? It was only $1 on sale packaged with Paratropics! After playing it, I think this game is worth more than $2, though it is pretty short. The opening of the game is unsettling. Through hints in the menu, you learn to stare out into an abyss until a face with too many teeth tells you to fill a vial with liquid to feed to a birch tree.

And that's all you need to do! Find several different liquids hidden in the beautifully rendered polygonal environments and give to the birch to change the fate of the world. I only figured this out through a lot of trial and error. There are several endings depending on which liquid you choose, around 9 in total if I remember right, including poison, blood, liquid bone. Some of them are received as rewards for exploration and experimentation, while the true ending is done through a series of bizarre tasks that I honestly had to use a guide for.

The endings have a good range of philosophical to comedic, my favorite one being liquid bone, which transforms everyone in the world into funny dancing skeletons. There are so many characters in this world that delight and intrigue, and the writing blows my mind at a few points. It's a game you want to dig into and dissect its many angles, while still hitting you with occasional dialogue that makes you laugh pretty hard.

AND DONE! This list is a bit longer than usual, since I wanted everything on the final Games list to be homogenized. Dang I played a lot of viddy games this year. Next time I will be covering Shows. I was going to do a comics list but I haven't finished enough comics this year to merit one, maybe at the end as a bonus!