#or just in general they annoy me so bad when they show up during cutscenes like that

[onewingedangels]

FINAL FANTASY VII REBIRTH (2024) dev. Square Enix

[phoenixcatch7]

Totk end game/post credit spoilers

Me during the final blow and final cutscenes:

^ Link finally getting to beat up the guy that (caused the last century of problems, nearly killed hyrule, wiped out his friends and family, poisoned his friends homes,) took zelda.

^ me. The final dungeon (?) and battle was so so so good and I got to plunge my sword into ganons human body which I will admit I have missed. He tried to flurry rush me!! Failed but still. Rude. I styled on his soon-to-be corpse to show how it was done.

^ girls when the credits roll

^ girls when the credits finish and they see their favourite sage dying after showing her successors her favourite view and passing on the torch to the next generation ten thousand years late but assured a bright future free of suffering, oblivious to the curse of demise trapping hyrule in an eternal loop and link having to stand there and know better and then it cuts to the collapsed construct outside the temple.

^ girls internally when the door knocks and they've got to act normal about it for two minutes.

Notes about the fights:

The gloom shroud/Phantom ganon waiting outside was a pussy as always. Dropped his bow which I appreciated. The white moblin on the other side got shoved off onto his remains. Good build up to the main event.

The demon army was straight out of skyward sword, less satisfying given the lack of physical progress and implied time limit but it was still a fun treat. Didn't get to use any of my fun things though, and the sages made up for their lack of tactical usefulness and REFUSING TO LET ME USE THEIR ABILITIES and BLOCKING MY VIEW and INTERRUPTING MY ATTACKS by their sheer damage output, they deal with several monsters while I was busy. Then they immediately got pulled away by the temple bosses, which kind of dampened the mood. Bye, I guess.

Ganon was literally sitting in a malice hot tub. Straight up marinating in that hot tub like he was a washed up celebrity taking a fake candid photo at a blow out party he hosted at his oversized Beverly hills mansion months before he had to sell it.

Getting to fight rehydrated ganon was so cool! I will admit the way he built up the fight did something for me, the animators did a phenomenal job giving him a weight and power. I wanted to smash his smug face in so bad.

He was strong! Every hit from him knocked link over! But with his shield up it didn't do any damage, so I drew first blood! I always find that very important when fighting bosses XD. I actually had the biggest trouble with his sword, that thing was almost hilariously small on him and blended into the... Everything around link. When he switched to his club it went from worryingly hard to hilariously easy, I flurried literally every attack and didn't get a scratch! I was wary when he got his spear out but I'd gotten into a rhythm and took him out!

The demon king transformation was incredible! When that health bar just kept going I was so excited XD!! It's a fantastic trope/gimmick, love it every time! And the sages came back! And were somehow EVEN MORE HINDERING. He duplicated and everyone split up to fight one, which meant they were running all over the place. Unlike their vows these guys are fully opaque, and when three out of five are many times bigger than link it blocked out a significant portion of the battlefield, when I needed maximum vision to see and dodge the many shadowy ganons flitting in and out of view. I had a plan, I should have been able to pull it off beautifully - yunobo was closest so ram him into the nearest ganon to create distance to reach sidon and water blast through the forming line of ganons, climb mineru for a bullet time and fill everything with explosives.

What did not happen was all of that. I ended up taking the most damage by far in that portion of the fight. Instead of being a cool fight, a useful set of abilities or even an annoying but ignorable gimmick, the sages were active hindrances that blocked me at every turn, side rammed me with attacks aimed at the enemy, hid attacks aimed at me, and escaped my every attempt to reach them like their au was trained for that instead. The only success was reaching mineru to bullet time back flip from her, and by that point I was frustrated enough to use a significant portion of my ancient arrows. If I'd been using the vows I would have deactivated them barely a minute in and taken my chances with the phantoms! It was ridiculous! It was a relief when they got blasted away and it shouldn't have been!

But OH that TRANSFORMATION. I'd heard rumours of the dragon ganon, my own lack of blocking the totk spoiler tag being entirely my own fault, but it was still a shock to see him do what zelda had done, this time laughing manically, gladly willing to throw away even his mind and soul in pursuit of an ever foggy idea of power. (I can only assume he'd never actually seen a dragon before, and had only heard the myths surrounding then, because those guys are NOT designed for combat lol.) The fact that he went laughing as zelda went in pain and tears really cemented how far both were willing to go but how differently they saw it.

That evil dragon aesthetic was IMPECCABLE. 10/10 off the charts. The horns!! The eyes! The explosion! Forcing his way up through the castle with link trapped helplessly in a tooth! The giant claw emerging! The messed up dragon theme!!

And then ZELDA, my beautiful darling!!! I love her so much, even blind and empty, even gone and sleeping her dragon knew what to do against the thing she had been turned into to fight against. Oh she was BEAUTIFUL and so gentle with link, catching him on her fluffy head, she was so small in comparison! And link was absolutely tiny!!! Tiny boy!! She might not have known what to do herself, but she was pressed as close as she could get the whole time, darting about like a minnow in a pond compared to ganons barracuda thrashing. The sunset in the sky just made the whole thing look phenomenal.

The use of like like - esque stones instead of the calamitys eyes was inspired! The eyes would have been too much the same, and the introduction of likes trained us instinctively to hit the rock orb things as weak points. Unfortunately being that high up in the air and being so small comparatively meant judging distance was very hard, I wasted a lot of ancient and bomb arrows trying to hit them. It was only until the stone opened up (sir... Why did you put that BACK on your head?! Hide it in your body like the rest of the sane dragons!) that I realised you could land on him. In my defence he looked entirely comprised of gloom, which has spent the past month sucking my life out on contact so...

I was SO lucky to have my hero outfit on, ie the dyed travellers tunic and cap of the wild, it made every cutscene so cinematic! Sure felt like a zelda game! I took so many screenshots XD.

The final cutscenes though... I've been so worried about getting zelda back to human since I got the master sword glyph in eldin. I've been so, so determined to get her back. I would have done so side quests to do so - since she was a separate quest to defeating ganon I thought impa would give me the instructions! I was fully prepared to have to put in another ten hours or so and then fight ganon again to get the true ending!

And then Sonia and Rauru showed up again like 'that's our DAUGHTER' and gave link the power to rewind time over ten THOUSAND YEARS and turn her dragon soul back to a human ToT. And then they took links arm!! I was so mad! Give him his arm back?! Where did the flesh one even come from it got turned into a blackened lump on a pg screen! They can't even show blood! That arm was fully gone! You said yourself it was beyond - ohhhh they reversed time on his arm too. What is with Rauru and non consensual arm replacement?? I was a part zonai hybrid! The last piece of an extinct species! I could levitate and reverse time! Give me!! my arm back!!!

But Sonia finally got to meet link like she'd wanted and they got their closure after millenia and they said goodbye ToT.

And then link CAUGHT zelda. They landed in the pond he had all that time ago at the beginning, and he swam them to shore, and zelda woke UP and came HOME and SURVIVED after she'd lost all hope for herself and she got to come HOME 😭 (see pictures above for reference). And they SHOULD HAVE HUGGED NINTENDO, THEY SHOULD HAVE HUGGED.

I was crying so hard I literally couldn't see the screen ToT. I had to keep blinking and sniffling and I just SOBBED when the credits rolled. Wailing into the tissues. And then mineru and the sages! Dangit, not my favourite sage! Dangit, let me keep ONE zonai thing?? Thankfully I didn't burst into tears again but it got CLOSE.

All in all? 10/10 incredible showstopping unbelievable never been done before perfect amazing. Everything down to the camera angles were perfection made physical (or virtual). Just NEVER make me have to fight with the sages again.

[pan-of-light]

Yu-Gi-Oh! Sevens

Finally sat down to watch the whole thing, many disjointed thoughts below the cut.

TL;DR: sevens good.

Yuuga: Much like the last protag to wear a red jacket with a white neckpiece, Judai, there is something wrong with this kid. He's too okay with everything. He's the goddamn player character of pokemon SunMoon who never gets an emotion showing in cutscene on his model-

(and unlike judai, afaik, he never had electroshock memory wipes done to him before)

He's great. He gives no shits. He took a job at a major corporation that owns the town he lives in and everything in it, as an elementary schooler, bc hacking them was too annoying and it was easier to have them hand over the credentials so he could mess with their shit, while also being a head or more shorter than like everyone else in the show. I want to study him like a (lady)bug.

Luke: Yuuga's name is on the title(-ish), but this guy is the actual Hero of sevens. The actual Hero of sevens. It's important, so I said it twice. He's a bratty elementary schooler who I can't even call a chuuni because of how young he is, but he has the heart where it matters. And multistrike dragons. ALL the multistrike dragons.

Romin: The seven-colored light of redemption, though I feel bad about opening this not about anything about her so much as "first decent yugioh girl"... First decent yugioh girl. She's not nerfed, worfed, or shoved aside partway through the series, being a competent duelist with a sensible win/lose ratio like any other side character from previous series.

Her arc about embracing selfishness, finding new dreams, and never giving up on anything she wants are so good. And now with Tiger in the family to teach her martial arts, she will never stop.

Gakuto: were it not for the VA segments at the end of episodes I would never notice he's Nekobot Hanae. What do you mean goddamn Gakuting is Riddle Rosehearts. It makes perfect sense yet GAKUTING also makes me want to die every single time. Not as much as the translators probably want to do every time he opens his punny mouth, but close.

Roa/Nail: Spiky and Fluffy. Band Kid and Nerd. The first two main bosses and a genuine delight every time they take the screen. I am forcing them to share a list spot just like they were forced to share seats during the tournament arc. While I can't put them in a jar to shake, I'll settle for maining their decks in DL instead. I'm still convinced Roa, unknowingly, dreams of having someone punch his face in, and that's why he's Like That (terrible at every opportunity). His relationship with his boytoy vs Neil's funny themed henchmen (and butler robo dad) is also fun to think about.

Asana and the Cav Quartet: Asana was going to get her own spot but I can't separate her from her generals. She sort of reminds me of Kiriyuin Satsuki when I think about it, the militaristic antagonist with perfectly reasonable motives who joins the protag as soon as possible, except Satsuki doesn't have a goddamn pidgeon as a general. A pidgeon. Has his own ID card and documents and everything. The human is his brother, but the human was adopted into the pidgeon family, that also owns a company. I'm sorry Asana I love you and your bi energy but what the FUCK is up with those two.

Mimin: SINGLE MOMS REPRESENT, an anime mom that beats every dead and dying allegation. She's plot relevant, has screen time, and the narrative never actually forgets she's an adult with her own motivations and dreams, no matter how nice to the 10yos she is. That said, the tech she uses isn't that old Sevens stop trying to convince me I'm old, sevens!!!

Presidential Siblings in general: why do we not market ygo as a cyberpunk series when we have 'children raised in space in isolation bc they were chosen by a supercomputer to run the City-Owning Megacorp' as a normal thing that happens. That's not weird by modern yugioh standards. We crossed that bridge during 5Ds guys. This is our life now.

Yuuou: I want his musical theme. Also brings back the only good ED mechanic (/biased branded player) into the new era. Maximums are nice, sure, but Fusion is always perfect.

Swirly: I'm honestly surprised I saw some talk online about how he was 'forgotten' and 'never defeated' when like. Guys. We had two full cours showing his defeat. Living as Swirly with the Rush Club gang and being exposed to the kindness of humanity and the fun of dueling is what fixed him. Luke didn't even really need to duel him, he'd beaten the evil before he even stopped wearing the kigurumi.

That said, how the FUCK are you smaller than Yuuga. What the fuck did you eat in space that let you be so small. Illegal.

THE★LUKEMAN: remember how I said the presidential sibs were par for the yugi-course by now? This isn't. This is just pure What The Fuck. I've personally rewritten his entire origin story in my head because it was just that fucking stupid. And now i'm upset his cards dont have the ★ in their names in DL. What a waste.

Otes: Most of the Sevens cast is weird as hell. Not Seto tops them all. His deal is mysterious, he's evil from the start, but his loss ratio is so big I'm actually shocked he put up a fight as the final boss. I'm praying GO RUSH gives me some info because Yuuga's smile on reentry was too Otes-like for me. They have a connection beyond the Sevens Road and it's going to drive me insane. I need to put this man under a microscope immediately.

The -ko Girls: I also need to know their deal, but without putting them in a lab. They're so much fun to watch, they can just hang around.

[headfullofgalaxies]

Now that I’ve completed Pokemon Violet, I want to give an overview of my feelings on the game. The first part will be general feelings, such as playability and enjoyment. Then I’ll go into details about the story and characters under a cut to avoid spoiling people who haven’t finished yet or are waiting for the holidays to get their game.

I won’t lie- the game is glitchy. VERY glitchy. I wish they had delayed the release to polish up the game, because it is very rough. Luckily, none of the glitches I ran across were game breaking. They ranged from inconvenient (accidentally selecting the picnic button while surfing will punt you back to the shore) to hilarious (friends’ trainers showing up in cutscenes during multiplayer). There is, however, one glitch I ran across that is troublesome. At certain camera angles, the shadows in the game glitch and begin flashing in and out of existence. The flashing isn’t super rapid, but it is still very annoying. I don’t know if it is severe enough to harm those with epilepsy or similar conditions, but the game should be approached with caution nonetheless.

Music slapped, praise be Toby Fox. Except the glitch that made the first two measures of the Elite Four theme loop for all eternity instead of actually playing the track, screw that. Ruined my Elite Four experience and I am still salty about it. Like seriously, how does a mistake like that even happen?!

Navigation was alright but it wasn’t as good as Legends: Arceus. Riding, jumping, and surfing were fine and functioned the same as Legends. Climbing functioned the same, but the game didn’t give you the prompt to indicate whether or not a wall could be climbed, so there was a lot of me jumping and gliding trying to climb up walls. Not much of a problem, but a little bit annoying. Gliding sucked. It was just bad. Unlike Legends, where you descended at a consistent speed, this glide begins descending rapidly after a short distance, to the point where you just start falling. There is also no speed up or dive option. This means that gliding was okay for a short distance, but couldn’t be used to actually get anywhere, regardless of how high up you started.

I mentioned my frustration at the hair customization options when I was liveblogging, and my complaint still stands. Some new hairstyles are unlocked at the salon, but none of them are long styles. I don’t know why Pokemon can’t make long hair styles. They don’t seem to have problems with them on npcs, and if it’s an issue with the backpack, there are long styles that could easily go around it (like Miku-style pigtails. I loved those in XY). Also, clothing options were atrocious. I hated every one of the uniform options, as preppy just isn’t my style, and I hate how limiting the uniform was. I like my clothes to match, so the colors I had to work with for the accessories were limited to the colors on my uniform. Also I couldn’t wear a hat with the only hairstyle I actually kinda liked.

Picnicking was actually very fun. Sandwiches were useful for catching rare spawns and shinies, although, like everything else in this game, it’s glitchy and a bit clunky. Being able to wash your Pokemon was a fun and quick process. I did find the eggs somewhat annoying. Every time I picnicked with my Eeveelution team I ended up with dozens of eggs I didn’t want. Not extremely inconvenient, just annoying.

There is a lack of new Pokemon? Like, I know that’s not really the case, the actual numbers are about on par with other new gens, but driving through the region I felt like I didn’t see a lot of the new Pokemon. This wasn’t much of an issue in the earlier routes, but for some reason the later ones felt like they lacked any new Pokemon, and I’m not entirely sure why. Maybe it’s because a lot of these new Pokemon were single stage or rare spawns, idk. I’m still trying to figure out exactly why I felt this way.

Writing-wise, the game was very solid. Definitely in the upper tier of Pokemon games for me, although still beneath Gen V. I think a part of it was the split paths forced the games to approach their formula differently. There were also small bits of dialogue between characters that were charming and made the characters feel more present than the cardboard cutouts some of the other gens have provided us.

One final qualm was that there was no voice acting. Every cut scene in this game would have so much more impact if Pokemon would just give it voice acting. I don’t think I need to explain why that is- just think back to Piers “singing” in Sw/Sh and the reason becomes obvious. However, I get the impression Pokemon has no intention of adding voice acting to their games, and I don’t know why.

Next I’ll be going into detail about the story and characters. Spoilers are beneath the cut.

Victory Road was very standard with nothing particularly special or interesting going on plotwise. I did like the gym challenges this gen. They were a bit strange, but I felt they captured interesting aspects about the gym leaders and towns in most of them. These past few gens’ gyms have begun to feel stale to me- just differently decorated rooms where you go through challenging trainers. Each of these challenges felt distinct, and I can easily tell you which challenges and gyms went with each town. The gym leaders were a bit hit or miss. Some didn’t have much of a presence, but there were some that interacted with their towns and felt like a part of the world. Same with the elite four. Being introduced to them earlier in the game, rather than having their first and only appearance be the Champion exam, made them feel like more of a presence in the world.

Nemona was a rather standard rival as far as her role in the story goes. However, the game did some interesting things with her that I appreciate. Having her actually be a Campion-ranked trainer that is canonically going easy on you to help you grow throughout your journey was a unique approach to the rival character and one I appreciate. This made it feel like her confidence was earned. The friendly rival newbie that recent gens had adopted always felt like their confidence was somewhat misplaced- after all, they lost every single battle with your character. This trait made more sense with the older aloof and antagonistic rivals, because overconfidence fit well with their characters.

Starfall Street was a very good twist on the recent rebel-type evil teams. Generally, these people would just be rebelling against society, which is fine but rather nebulous. However, Team Star’s rebellion against ignorant school authorities and the bullies they enabled was very personal to the characters and easy to understand and relate to. The character writing really shone through here. Normally evil teams amount to nothing more than faceless goons, and their admins always seem to dislike each other and constantly bicker- when they interact at all. However, the interactions between Team Star’s leaders really sold their friendship. The short flashbacks demonstrated them trusting and supporting one another, with occasional friendly bickering but nothing malicious. Writing their bonds to be convincing was very important to selling the central conflict of this path, and the writers did a good job.

Penny was my favorite character, and not just because she has a team of Eeveelutions (although it is a factor). Hacker characters have a special place in my heart, so Penny was sort of a shoe in. She also reminded me a lot of Futaba from Persona 5- extremely skilled, extremely socially awkward hacker. Her determination to make her school a better place, rather than simply leaving and allowing the bullies to win, is very admirable. The final scenes of this arc were very cute and I enjoyed the conclusion.

The Path of Legends was the best path storywise, and not just because I’m happy angsty boi got his best friend back T^T. This plot was very tightly tied to Arven’s character and to the postgame plot. Of course, any story about a boy going to such lengths to save his fluffy family member will always feel satisfying. This is the path that most people cried at, and, honestly, I can’t blame them.

Arven is probably the most important character plotwise because of his connections with the professor and the legendary Pokemon. Due to this, they made him a rather solidly written character. His motivations are very relatable and easy to understand, and his reactions to the plot developments feel real and believable. Him gradually opening up to you during the main story makes the postgame plot feel more personal.

The Way Home is probably the best postgame plot I can recall (although I hesitate to call it postgame, as it felt very much like a core part of the story and happened before the credits rolled, but it’s the closest thing we have to a postgame story so  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯). The slow reveal of the Paradox forms was well-handled, and the small interactions between the three rivals who join you helps fill the space and makes them feel even more like actual people. The mystery of the Professor’s fate was also well paced, at least if you’re like me and interact with everything in a room before leaving. The twist even managed to actually somewhat surprise me, a rare occurrence in Pokemon. I know the games tend to have darker elements hidden in the details, but I didn’t expect the Professor to be straight up dead. I really enjoyed the AI Professor’s character, although the interaction was more brief than I would have preferred (but I’m a sucker for cool AI stuff, so maybe that’s a me thing). Allowing the player to figure out on their own to send out Miraidon/Koraidon in the final confrontation was very nice- normally Pokemon games are very hand-holdy, so figuring out the solution on your own was refreshing.

My one complaint is that there still seems to be missing pieces. There was no third legendary, despite an “egg Pokemon” being specifically referenced in the old book about Area 0. The potential trio legendary (legendary dogs or swords of justice) that is referenced in the book also does not make an appearance. I get that they’re probably holding that content for a DLC, but since this kind of content was never locked behind a paywall before, I find it somewhat frustrating.

Overall, though, I felt the plot and characters were very solid and enjoyed the game despite its (many, many) glitches.

[nitpick7]

Ayo anyone wanna see my essay on why removing Anybody Have A Map made the Dear Evan Hansen movie worse? It is slightly long

Disclaimer: I did like the movie (I cried three times), but I think they made some stupid decisions with it.

Dear Evan Hansen movie + musical spoilers under the cut, plus a fair amount of DEH neg/crit

Instead of Anybody Have A Map, they just have Evan's mom say "Hey are you writing those letters to yourself? Also you should ask the kids to sign your cast" before he goes to school and sings Waving Through A Window. They ignore every other part of the song and quickly insert the only thing from the song that's absolutely needed to understand the story so Evan can go be angsty at school. We don't even meet the Murphys until they meet Evan in the principal's office to tell him about Connor.

Disclaimer part 2 electric boogaloo: I complain about Evan a lot here. It's not because I think his experiences aren't valid and it's not because I'm trying to demonize people with mental illnesses or something. I know that his own struggles influenced his bad decisions. That doesn't mean they weren't bad decisions. He still did shitty things and he wasn't justified (listen to Words Fail), but I know it was influenced by his mental health.

On with the complaining!

First of all, the movie opens with Waving Through A Window? It feels like they're putting the most popular song first as a desperate grab for your attention to convince you the movie is good and like... they really didn't need to do that. Waving Through A Window is right after Anybody Have A Map, it's not like anyone's gonna walk out of the theatre after one (really good) song.

Anybody Have A Map establishes a few things: it shows us that both of these families are struggling so that we know immediately that the Murphys' perfect facade is fake, it shows us that Connor was a dick to his family (this is very important), and obviously it tells us why Evan was writing letters to himself. It also introduces us to the two main families at the same time so we know this story isn't just about Evan.

By starting the movie with an Evan solo song instead of the group song, they frame Evan as the one main character, the only person whose perspective we need to understand. But Evan is incredibly flawed, just like everyone else, and by making us think the story is only about him, it immediately makes us (the audience) more inclined to believe that Evan is always in the right and less inclined to consider everyone else's side of the story. Evan is an incredibly unreliable narrator, he's always going to frame his actions as correct, or at least excusable, even when he's actively hurting/lying to other people.

All of the Murphys get introduced through interacting with Evan instead of interacting with each other. This makes it seem like the Murphys only exist for Evan, but the entire point of the climax is that everything doesn't exist just for Evan! Evan is not part of their family, he can't just use everyone around him for his own benefit, and all of the Murphys have lives outside of him. When they're introduced through Evan, they're introduced as existing for Evan. Anybody Have A Map introduces them separately from Evan instead of attached to him.

Without Anybody Have A Map, we never actually see Connor being mean to Zoe, so she just looks like an asshole for not being sad about her dead brother. To make up for it, she's constantly having to tell the audience why she hated him, tripping over herself to talk about all the shitty things he did to her because we don't have Anybody Have A Map to show us their interactions. Zoe ends up complaining about her brother the entire time, so when it gets to Only Us and she says that she doesn't want everything to be about her brother, it seems out of character for her.

And with the removal of Anybody Have A Map, we don't ever see Connor interact with his own family in the movie. Anybody Have A Map is the only time we get to see Connor with his family. It shows us that Connor really was an asshole to his family, it justifies Zoe hating him, and it gives his mom more dimensions by showing her struggling to keep her family together even with everyone fighting against her. Without that, the writers ended up ignoring the most basic piece of writing advice - "show, don't tell" - to fill in the missing information from the song.

In the movie, all we get of Cynthia Murphy is... her being sad about Connor and refusing to admit that he ever did anything wrong. She's just boring and annoying in the movie, but in the musical, we get that bit at the beginning that shows her as an actual person with actual motivations! By cutting Anybody Have A Map, they made her into a more one-dimensional character.

So in a bit of a conclusion: Anybody Have A Map establishes the Murphys as main characters separate from Evan and shows us Connor's relationship with his family instead of telling us about it. It sets the scene for the story before just jumping into "Evan is sad and alone uwu anxious depressed soft boy" and makes everyone a better, more three-dimensional character. Getting rid of it meant that they had to do backflips to justify everyone's decisions during the movie instead of setting everything up at the beginning.

I do think the movie could've benefitted from Disappear but then again, it could've benefitted from the whole "Connor being the visual/vocal representation of Evan's justifications for why keeping up the lie is helping people" thing in general, but they got rid of that so Disappear wouldn't have worked. (I am salty that they got rid of that thing but whatever) The Anonymous Ones worked instead and it was a good song, so sure, why not I guess? /neutral

I could also complain about how they got rid of To Break In A Glove, Disappear, and Good For You, but none of those decisions actually impacted the story too much. To Break In A Glove and Good For You both got replaced with some tell-not-show cutscenes that gave us the same information in a less interesting way (and Larry got less character development without To Break In A Glove), and Disappear got replaced with an Alana song which was honestly pretty good so i'm fine with that one.

Now for some good changes that the movie made!

The Anonymous Ones was a good song, I actually really liked that. I'm disappointed that they got rid of Disappear, but they replaced it with another song that served the same purpose while also giving Alana more screen time and character depth! And it was a genuinely good song, I really enjoyed it and it made me like Alana more!

I really liked the ending of the movie. In the musical, there are literally no negative consequences for Evan, Zoe even forgives him at the end. She fucking forgives him for lying to her entire family about their dead son and and taking advantage of them because it "brought them closer together". And the internet never finds out what he did! He does all this terrible shit, lies to the entire fucking world, and gets away scot-free. And he never learns anything real about Connor. The movie changes all of that.

Connor's song was also a great addition! Every time we saw Connor in the musical, he was either being a dick or he was a fantasy version of himself made by Evan and/or Jared. Seeing that Connor can, in fact, be a nice person, that Cynthia's belief in him wasn't misplaced, was so satisfying. He really was just a meaner version of Evan a troubled kid lashing out at the world in self-defense. He wasn't an entirely bad person.

The Murphys still decide not to tell anyone what he did, but then Evan decides (on his own!) that he needs to own up to what he did. He records a video of himself admitting to what he did, shifts all the blame to himself, and then goes out of his way to fix his mistakes in any way he can. He says that his biggest regret is not getting to know Connor while he had the chance, so he goes online to find anything he can. He reads Connor's favorite books, tries to find anyone who might be able to tell him what Connor was like, and when he receives a video of Connor playing his song in rehab, he takes the time to send the video (through the mail, on a flash drive) to the Murphys, Jared, and Alana.

Evan doesn't contact Zoe at the end, she contacts him instead. She doesn't forgive him, and he doesn't ask for forgiveness. He knows what he did was wrong and he owns up to it and tries to fix it as much as possible, knowing full well that it could ruin his life. He does the right thing for the first time in the entire fucking movie (that's hardly even an exaggeration) and it's such a good ending. It makes more sense and is more satisfying than the musical.

The Dear Evan Hansen movie was not nearly as bad as the reviews say it was. It wasn't as good as the musical, it had its own problems, but it also made some good changes that I think made the story better. It wasn't perfect, but I enjoyed it and most movies aren't perfect anyway. It really could've benefitted from Anybody Have A Map, though.

[dalekofchaos]

Harbinger and The Illusive Man

Something I think would’ve fixed Mass Effect 3 while also keeping the plot and the dynamic of The Reapers and Cerberus as the main threat is making Harbinger the big bad and The Illusive Man as his puppet or as The Illusive Man could’ve put it his “partner”

My other ME3 metas

ME3 mistakes

ME3 ending fix

I cannot state how much I hate that Harbinger is almost nonexistent in this game. 

The thing that annoyed me most about ME3 is the fact that Harbinger is not the main threat. The Illusive Man is. Harbinger has been built up as the big bad since ME2. "YOU HAVE FAILED. WE WILL FIND ANOTHER WAY." He says as he discards the Collectors. Then his speech to Shepard as the base blows up. "Human, you've changed nothing. Your species has the attention of those infinitely your greater. That which you know as Reapers are your salvation through destruction. You will surrender your potential against the growing void. We return, and you will rise. We are the harbinger of your perfection. We will bring your species into harmony with our own. Your species will be raised to a new existence. We are the beginning, you will be the end. Prepare for our domination. Prepare for our coming." Then in Arrival, he came pretty damn close to unleashing quick subjugation and harvest upon an unprepared galaxy. Upon Shepard foiling his plans. "Shepard. You have become an annoyance. You fight against inevitability. Dust struggling against cosmic winds. This seems a victory to you. A star system sacrificed. But even now, your greatest civilizations are doomed to fall. Your leaders will beg to serve us. Know this as you die in vain: Your time will come. Your species will fall. Prepare yourselves for the Arrival." The perfect final villain right? Unfortunately, Cerberus was more focused on than The Reapers. My problem with Cerberus and no Harbinger is Too many Cerberus, too few Reaper forces in plot. We fight Cerberus more often than the reapers. Hardly any boss fight and the one with Reaper Destroyer on Rannoch was more an interactive movie than fight. During the Horizon mission in Mass Effect 2, Harbinger was solidified as the Big Bad. It was menacing and ominous, with just the right amount of annoying. It taunted us throughout the game, telling us how insignificant we were, and how our actions were pointless. It was willing to posses drones through the Collector General to fight us personally, and when we killed the host, it tossed them aside. Harbinger even gave the typical “You haven’t seen the last of me!” villain rant. It made any fire fight frustrating, and that made me want to kill it even more; I hated Harbinger. Many games fail to do that. Harbinger was an enemy which I looked forward to defeating. I had the desire to annihilate. In Mass Effect 3, I got a codex entry and a cameo. Harbinger just swoops in at the last second and blows my friends and I to hell(and lets the Normandy save them), then flies off. Personally, I would have loved to hear Harbinger’s menacing monologue, it drove me on. I would have felt a deeper motivation to take the fight back to Earth if it told me how much destruction the Reapers were causing, how many lives were lost. I felt cheated when I got to the final mission, only to suddenly realize it was largely absent from the game. Harbinger has been replaced. Replaced by the Illusive Man and Kai Leng. The former is an old acquaintance, albeit one now controlled by the Reapers. The latter is a space ninja from a terrible book.

I will admit. The Illusive Man is a worthy foe and someone worthy enough to be Harbinger’s Saren. Kai Leng however is a terrible counterpart for Shepard. 

Kai Leng. Sucks. Period. Here is a long in depth version on why he sucks. Even in the novels Leng is a terrible character. He’s a edgelord racist.  He couldn’t even kill Anderson, he almost got taken out by an aging Drell with stage 7 Drell cancer. Oh but he has snarky one liners and he sent that stupid fucking email after Thesia. KAI LENG SUCKS! He is not even interesting. I genuinely fucking sighed when he was introduced. When he killed Thane, all I could think of was “really?”. When he sent that little email I just rolled my eyes. When I saw him at the temple all I could think of was “not you again”. When he “beat” me on Thessia(I would have unloaded my N7 Typhoon and sent his whiny ass into oblivion, but game mechanics said I couldn’t) I just felt angry that such a stupid character ever made it past the writing board. Oh and BULLSHIT. Thane and Kirrahe would have killed Kai Leng. Even near his death bed, Thane could still kill Kai Leng. Kirrahe is a hardened veteran, he is AN STG MAJOR! Kirrahe would have killed Kai Leng in a blink of a fucking eye.  Here is my take on Kai Leng. He should have been killed on Priority:Citadel. If you do not save Kirrahe or don’t talk to Thane. Shepard should kill Kai Leng. If you saved Kirrahe but don’t talk to Thane. Kirrahe comes out of cloak and bombards Leng with Scorpion rounds and Leng blows up. If you talked to Thane, Thane would blow Kai Leng’s head off. The only reason why Leng is presented as a threat is cutscene logic and bad one liners. 

But back to The Illusive Man and Harbinger

To make Harbinger work as the big bad, we need to have Harbinger constantly “ASSUME DIRECT CONTROL” 

Near the end of the first mission, before Shepard contacts the Normandy, we would see Harbinger’s hologram appear like it did in Arrival. Harbinger taunting Shepard. that the harvest begins. 

Instead of suggesting Control, The Illusive Man is basically saying The Reapers can uplift Humanity and ascend them and dominate the other races. With Harbinger’s help, Humanity will be the ultimate force in the galaxy

Everytime we fight Reaper forces, Harbinger is there to “ASSUME DIRECT CONTROL”

Kai Leng dies on The failed coup on the Citadel. The Illusive Man does not care as he is close to finding The Catalyst 

On Rannoch, instead of a Destroyer Reaper talking to Shepard, Harbinger’s hologram will appear. Harbinger will continue to taunt Shepard, but Shepard shows that everyone is coming together to end the Reapers once and for all. Harbinger would not say that the Reapers are needed to keep synthetics from killing organics. He would say The Reapers are there to ascend and are your salvation through destruction. Harbinger’s end quotes from ME2 is basically the premise of The Reapers end goals. That's all it needed to be.

On Thesia, The Illusive Man will explain to Shepard that Harbinger chose him. After The First Contact War, TIM found a Reaper artifact. In that artifact, he was contacted by Harbinger. He lost his human vision, but awakened to the truth and because of Harbinger’s guidance, he founded Cerberus. Strength for Cerberus is strength for humanity. TIM believes he and Harbinger together they could uplift and empower humanity over the lesser races. The Illusive Man is to Harbinger, as what Saren was for Soverign. He will then tell Shepard, he plans on using the Crucible to finish what the Collectors started. Completing the Human Reaper. Then TIM sends a group of Phantoms, Nemesis and Cerberus Dragons to face Shepard in place of Leng. Thesia falls. 

Sanctuary is used to create Husks and harvest humans to help create the Human Reaper

At Cerberus Headquarters, TIM says Harbinger knew more about the Citadel than Soverign. There is more than one Conduit and he found it. Vendetta will reveal that the Citadel was moved by Harbinger and taken it to Earth to complete the harvest

The confrontation between Shepard, Anderson and TIM happens but we know how TIM is on the Citadel and if you read my ending fix, you will know that Anderson would’ve went to the beam with Shepard and they are transported to the same place

Shepard will ask “Why didn’t Harbinger kill me?” “Because, we need you to understand and we need you to believe”

Same confrontation ends with either Shepard shooting TIM dead or TIM killing himself after Shepard uses paragon or renegade to reveal that Harbinger used him all his life

After Anderson passes. Harbinger “Assumes Control” over TIM’s dead body. Harbinger will explain the purpose of the Harvests. The explanation is the original ending of Dark energy. The Reapers as a whole were ‘nations’ of people who had fused together in the most horrific way possible to help find a way to stop the spread of the Dark Energy. The real reason for the Human Reaper was supposed to be the Reapers saving throw because they had run out of time. Humanity in Mass Effect is supposedly unique because of its genetic diversity and represented the universe’s best chance at stopping Dark Energy’s spread. We have a choice either Sacrifice humanity, allowing them to be horrifically processed in hopes that the end result will justify the means or use The Crucible to destroy The Reapers and find a way to stop the dark energy from spreading and it shows it is hopeful with a united galaxy. However, if we choose destroy, Harbinger will attempt to stop Shepard. A Reaperfied TIM appears and Shepard fights him, while The Normandy fights Harbinger. If we choose sacrifice humanity, Shepard will be the final catalyst to completing the Human Reaper.  But obviously no one will choose that choice as the entire point of the trilogy is to destroy The Reapers. So we get a hopeful ending. The united galaxy will work together to stop the spread of dark energy, as Hackett said “If we can put aside our grievances long enough to stop The Reapers, imagine what we can do together” 

There, I came up with a way to have the best of both worlds. Harbinger and The Illusive Man as the big bads. 

I also made The Reapers motivation to actually work. They are there to control the chaos. The harvests end with a creation of The Reaper and The Reapers are the pinnacle of evolution Harbinger’s speech at the end of ME2 was enough for a motivation. The Reapers are our salvation from the coming void. They want to ascend humanity to perfection. That makes complete sense and makes more sense than destroying everyone to save everyone????? WHo fucking wrote this Starchild garbage???

The point is, The Reapers and The Illusive Man could’ve worked as the big bads collectively together. 

[deiliamedlini]

I did this Tier Ranking the other day of Zelda’s with the most to least amount of agency in their games, and I’m going to be honest... I’m still thinking about it. I was getting so annoyed when I played SS the other day because of something that happens that made me mad. So now, I’m going to rant about every single Zelda because she deserves better. 

This is my short essay on which Zelda’s have agency in their games and why. Omg if only I could have done that topic in grad school. 

So this was my list. 

Before you keep going, this is just spoiler central. So, if you haven’t played, say SS yet, heads up.

I’m going to start by saying I’ve never played the Four Swords games nor watched a playthrough. IDK why there are 4 of her, but maybe it’s just ironic to have 4 of them? But that’s my ‘don’t know’ pile. Maybe she’s epic, but I remember her being captured by Vaati in an intro to the GBA game, so I doubt it. 

~~~

Most Agency: Wind Waker Tetra, Sheik, and Spirit Tracks Zelda

I almost feel like this part of the list goes without saying. Tetra (WW) is a queen. She’s a captain, has a crew, goes where she wants, helps Link, hurts Link, literally, queen. 

Sheik should also go without saying. We don’t see a lot of Sheik actually doing things, but we know she’s doing them. She’s been all over Hyrule for 7 years training, and keeping the world spinning. During the game alone, we know she’s out there rescuing Ruto, trying to fight the spirits in the well, etc. So we don’t see it, but we know it. 

And Spirit Tracks Zelda! SHE’S YOUR LITERAL COMPANION!!! SHE’S WITH YOU THE WHOLE GAME, FINDS A WAY TO FIGHT, HELPS, IS FUNNY, IS ACTIVE IN THE KINGDOM, AND IS AN ALL AROUND UNDERATED ZELDA. She lost a little agency because she has no body, but she didn’t let it stop her. 

~~~

Good Agency: OOT Zelda, BOTW Zelda, TP Zelda

This is the “I’m in danger of being smited for including these three here” pile. OOT Zelda isn’t in it for long as adult Zelda, and she does get trapped in a crystal almost immediately, but you know she was training for years and managed to stay out of sight of Ganon. And at the end, she holds up an entire castle for you to escape. I want her on my team, but I’d prefer Sheik. Plus, this Zelda is one in SSB sooo does that count? I don’t think so but whatever. I wanted to put her lower, but I was thinking of her off screen and she managed to make it up into the ‘good’ agency pile. 

BOTW Zelda. She’s got a lot more agency in AOC than BOTW because she just runs around and basically commands the whole kingdom's army after a while, but in BOTW, she’s held back by everyone! She had the potential! She wasn’t a damsel, she was a smart cookie, she had character, but everyone was like nah girl. Go wander Hyrule doing stuff. And she did! Not because she had agency, but because everyone told her to. She wanted to work with the tech! Let her work with the tech!

And TP Zelda, my girl, I love the thought of this Zelda SO MUCH!! SHE HAS A SWORD!! SHE COULD HAVE USED IT IN THE GAME!! THE CUTSCENE WAS RIGHT THERE!!!!! But you know she defended Hyrule off screen anyway, literally fought with her soldiers to protect her people. Gave her literal life of her own accord, took full blame for things, like, no one told this girl no. She was full blown agency... except that she was locked in a tower for the whole game, then went poof, then got turned into a puppet, then only managed to show off her battle badassery in ONE SCENE aka one of the best multi-stage final boss battles. Just could have pushed her further. 

~~~

Okay Agency: Child OOT Zelda, SS Zelda, ALBW Zelda

Child Zelda. She’s a child. She gave Link an instrument and was forcibly (but thankfully) spirited away on horseback. She doesn’t really DO much at this point. But she WILL! So she’s cool, but she’s just a wee sprout still! 

SS Zelda: Don’t hit me! I love her, her general plot, and her relationship with Link. But she isn’t even allowed to hug him. She is dragged everywhere, captured MULTIPLE times, stuck in a big old amber crystal thing FOR I DON’T REMEMBER HOW LONG, nearly sacrificed, and is bombarded with memories of a life that wasn’t technically hers and she has to sort through being Hylia and not just Zelda. Poor bean. She’s not at the bottom because you can tell that before the game, she was top tier agency queen.  

ALBW Zelda is just... meh. She’s not as bad as ALTTP Zelda, but she doesn’t really do much and then gets stuck in a painting for most of the game. Points if we’re counting Smash Bros again though!

~~~

NO AGENCY: ALTTP Zelda, Oracle Zelda, OG Zelda, Minish Cap Zelda, WW Zelda, PH Tetra, Zelda II Zelda. 

ALTTP Zelda is just a sad, sad tale of ‘can you be more damsel in distress if you tried’? She: starts the game in a cell, hides in a sanctuary, is kidnapped again, is sacrificed, is stuck in a crystal, and finally, is chilling in the end credits. Girl. I’m so sorry for you. 

Oracle Zelda is apparently the same Zelda as ALTTP and it shows. She hangs out in a house and tells you the weather and then (you guessed it) is kidnapped and nearly sacrificed. This poor bean has gone through too much. 

OG Zelda literally pops up at the end of the game and is like HEY you’ve been trying to save me this whole time, in case you didn’t know. And Link’s like omg I have?? Because I don’t even remember her being mentioned outside the info pamphlet and the ending. 

Out of order, but Zelda II, she’s the most relatable, because she sleeps the whole game. She’s under a curse, wakes up, sees Link and is like damn you’re cute, and kisses him. If we use the info booklet, it gets worse and her brother used a spell to blah blah. She sleeps. That’s all she does. 

Minish Cap Zelda is so precious at the beginning of the game and you can tell her and Link are besties and I wanted more of that! AND THEN SHE’S TURNED TO STONE THE WHOLE GAME. But no, wait, she’s...... almost sacrificed in the process. Deja vu. 

Wind Waker Zelda was cool in the final scene, but she spent her entire portion of the game trapped in a basement against her will for her protection. No agency. That’s really all the poor thing gets to do as Zelda. 

THEN THE DIRTIEST OF ALL DONE DIRTY CHARACTER MOVES IS PHANTOM HOURGLASS TETRA! ONE OF THE BEST ZELDA’S REDUCED TO NOTHING! SHE IS CAPTURED IMMEDIATELY AND SPENDS THE ENTIRE GAME AS A DAMSEL IN DISTRESS WHO HAS BEEN KIDNAPPED AND TURNED TO STONE. I’m still salty and will hate Phantom Hourglass forever for many reasons, and Tetra being done dirty is one of them. 

I feel better now. If anyone actually read all this and has other thoughts on this, I’m fired up and ready to talk because who needs to sleep at 1:30am? Not me!!

[sonicringnoise]

Have a Jak 3 rant

Okay, I need to talk about Jak 3 and just...how absolutely janky the plot is. 

This rant is extremely long, so I put it under the cut.

First of all, I just want to point out, I love this game. I love it so much, and it’s my favorite out of the trilogy. But it just...it could have been so much better, guh.

And I know that development of this game was rushed (hell, it only came out a year after Jak 2), but I’m still going to rant about it!

It starts out just fine, with the Wasteland and Spargus and the arena, but it gets so weird as it goes on. Just...really disjointed.

We never really find out why Jak keeps going after eco crystals. Seriously, he gets a dark eco crystal from the Dark Maker at the beginning of the game, a light eco crystal from Seem, and just...starts collecting them, for some reason? Like, was he going to make a necklace? Start a rock collection? It’s never explained.

But whatever, it turns out those are needed later in the game to save the world. Fine.

After some Spargus-y missions, we then go...to the Monk Temple. You know, the temple. That’s never been mentioned before, and we didn’t even know existed, but we just went up there to explore and stuff and...

Like, how hard would it have been to have a line where Seem says, “We monks live far to the north, in a temple in the mountains.”

Then we’d at least have a reason to go there. But no, instead we just show up there and start poking around. 

This is one of my biggest issues with the game. In Jak 2, there are cutscenes that set up these missions, or even communications in gameplay that tell us where to go. In Jak 3, there’s just...a lot of that missing.

But, fine. Whatever, Jak has, like, ESPN or something.

At the volcano, Jak gets a dark power of invisibility, I guess. But only when he touches certain statues, and it’s only ever really used to get past a few traps and then never again.

Oddly enough, this was something that...made sense? I mean, invisibility is actually a power that dark eco has. Remember in Jak 2, there were metal heads who could turn invisible. 

But it’s never used! And that complaint holds true for almost every power Jak gets. You basically use the powers when a prompt comes on screen to get through a one-time obstacle, and then never again. 

Then we find out Veger is talking to the monks, but no one ever really expands on why? Or how? Like, for a city hidden in the Wasteland and forgotten, a lot of fucking people know it exists! 

Speaking of which...

We meet Ashelin in the desert and she begs us to come back to Haven City. Jak asks her how she knows Damas and she answers, “It doesn’t matter now.”

Excuse me??

It totally does matter! If Ashelin knows Damas, it begs the question: does she know that Jak is his son? Does she know the Kid is his son? Does she even know about the Kid? 

I mean, Ashelin would almost have to know that Jak is Damas’ son: during this scene, she gives him his seal back and says, “Don’t you remember who you are?”

Whatever. Add that to the list of things that are never mentioned again.

Jak says he’s not coming back to the city, because he’s an angry teenager and he likes hanging around with his Sand Dad. 

This is immediately followed by Jak returning to Haven City.

We head to the Monk Temple, again for no reason. This time, we open up some doors and Pecker leads us back to the city. 

There is no explanation as to why Jak has a change of heart. I actually think that the scene where Damas and Jak had a heart-to-heart and he mentions his lost son should be here: it leads perfectly into Jak deciding that the Greater Good is more important than his feelings.

Instead, we get nothing. Nada. Zilch. Just Jak heading back to Haven City because it’s The Thing To Do.

We reach Haven City after a boss battle and meet with Samos and Keira. Samos sucks, but that’s in character. Keira has no lines in this scene, and only makes goofy faces. Seriously, look: 

That’s it, that’s the character. 

Like, what’s happening in this scene? What’s going on with you, Keira? Are you okay? Are you making bedroom eyes at Jak? Are you confused? Did you smoke some of your father’s funny herbs again?

(Again, I know Keira’s role got cut down a lot because they changed voice actors, but it’s...so...jarring for a normally prominent character to suddenly get shoved into the background.)

We do some missions for Torn and eventually find out that Erol is the bad guy. Never explained how Erol survived slamming his Zoomer into dark eco and exploding in front of a huge crowd, but at this point, it’s whatever. 

We continue on our journey: Tess is a furry, Samos is useless, Torn is...Torn. 

We get a scene with Sig where Jak and Daxter ask him about Damas and his job as a spy and all that stuff. Fine, well and good, except the following exchange happens:

Jak: You’re playing with people’s lives!

Sig: Why not? They played with mine.

I’m sorry??

There’s a story there, and I’d like to know! What the hell happened to Sig? Why is nothing ever explained??!!

We get some Dadmas feelings, then we head over to have a chat with Kleiver. And this happens:

Jak: Kleiver, I need to find some very special Precursor artifacts, but I’m running out of time.

...Are you?? Has that been established?

So, in one of the previous missions, Samos mentions over the communicator (during gameplay, not in a cutscene) that to activate some ruins in Haven Forest, you’ll need some artifacts. But all he says is this:

Samos: Mar wrote that there was some ancient ruins to the west that were activated by five special artifacts and revealed wondrous truths. I'll see what I can find out.

That’s it! There’s never a cutscene where Samos says you need to find the Holo Cube, the Quantum Reflector, the Beam Generator, the Prism, and...by the way, there is no 5th artifact. Samos, you’re full of shit.

(Unless the Eco Sphere you get from Seem towards the end counts, but it’s very unclear.)

And, by the way, I had to Google those artifact names. The artifacts are never actually named until you acquired them in-game. Jak just finds random artifacts and is like, “Welp, this’ll do it! How convenient!”

Sigh.

Once we get all these artifacts no one told us about, we’re told to go take a cab down to the center of the earth. We don’t do that, and instead blow some shit up to visit our friends in person again. 

(Quarantine mood, really.)

And, again, I can’t get over how much of a non-character Keira is. Seriously, she just stands there and claps like a 3-year-old.

And we also come to my own personal pet peeve: the scene where Ashelin strips Veger of his title.

I can’t with this shit.

The biggest issue I have with this game, from a story standpoint, is how quickly the inciting incident is resolved. Like, Jak being banished is the whole reason we have a Jak 3. The city turned against him; his anti-hero choices in Jak 2 led to him being blamed for the war in Jak 3. It made sense.

But Ashelin decides, 75% through the game, to just be like, “Naw, Veger, fuck you. Get out of my face, buh bye.”

It just pisses me off, because if Ashelin had that power, why didn’t she use it before Jak was banished??

And why is Jak okay with this? Why is Moody McAngerface not even a little annoyed that she didn’t care enough to do this when he was dying of heatstroke in the desert?

Uuuuuuggggghhhhh guys I don’t understand.

So we see Vin again, blow some more stuff up, fight Erol, and get some tentacle wings. Seem acts all nice to us and gives us a present we didn’t know we needed. More Dadmas ensues, we see the Dark Maker ship for some reason, blow even more stuff up.

Finally, it’s time to head to the catacombs. We get into some trouble with Dark Makers (even though there’s only, like, three of them), and Damas busts through the goddamn wall in a car.

No idea how he got here, considering the Wasteland appears to be an island, but whatever, it’s a badass scene.

Then, because Jak can’t have anything nice, they get hit and crash the car all over Damas’ legs.

Seriously, dude, I get that you might be dying from blood loss, but why are you coughing, your lungs are fine.

So Damas dies, Jak is his long-lost son, it’s very sad, and Veger you piece of shit.

I will forever be salty that Veger, who was an overall excellent villain, was sidelined for Erol of all people. Admittedly, Jak 2 did the same thing with Praxis, but Kor was a much better Big Bad than Erol.

Regardless, we then get the Worst Plot Twist Ever, when we find out the Precursors are ottsels.

k.

Moving on from that tragedy, we then get to fight Erol. The fight sucks, it’s boring and I hate driving the stupid Wasteland buggies.

And then the end comes, and my blood pressure skyrockets. Somewhere, my PCP senses a disturbance.

The Precursors being ottsels is stupid, but Jak telling them to call him “Mar” is even stupider. First of all, Jak does not seem like the kind of person to get sentimental over his birth name. It’s weird, and I don’t like it.

Second of all, the ottsel leader calls him Mar once, directly after that. And then never again. 

Seriously, 90 seconds after Jak says he wants to be known as Mar, this happens:

I’m sorry, what’s that?

Why would you add that line in about Jak wanting to be called by his birth name, and then ignore it a minute and half later??!!

It just infuriates me. There’s a lot of stuff in Jak 3 that does this: it’s touched on once, then it’s gone forever.

And let’s talk about Daxter’s wish. I actually find this particular decision - where Daxter chooses to wish for pants instead of being human again - totally believable. 

Despite how much Daxter is regarded as the comic relief idiot of the duo, he’s actually shown to be pretty sharp. He’s definitely observant. And at this point, remember that he’s already seen the Precursors at work: he saw them turn Veger into an ottsel.

So Daxter probably realized that these guys were on some monkey paw, be-careful-what-you-wish-for bullshit and decided to wish for the most innocuous thing he could. Who knows what would happen if he actually asked to become human again? Might come out lookin’ like Samos.

And he’s right, by the way! Look at what those assholes did to my baby Tess. They could’ve just got her a size 6 pair of Levi’s and been like, “Here, boom, pants.” 

But nooo, they turned her into an ottsel, too, because why not why the fuck not nothing matters ahhhhHHHHHHHHH

...

...

Anyway, like I said, Jak 3 is my favorite in the series. It had such potential. It’s like a puzzle that’s missing pieces. I like it more for what it could have been, rather than the absolute mess it actually is.

[ramblings-of-a-mad-cat]

You say the story of Rescue Team frustrates you? How come?

Rant ahead. Rant ahead about a game I unironically love, but I spend far too much time overthinking the plot of, hence my grievances.

Maybe I just held it to unfair standards on account of playing it for the first time after Explorers of Sky. Which is easily the greatest pokemon game ever made, accept no substitutes. Nah, Rescue Team DX is addicting, the music is incredible as always in these games, and the gameplay has been massively overhauled and made far superior to the original, which while fun, was pretty buggy. And the game does have some pretty cool characters, too. Like...whatever I may yell to the heavens about Albus Dumbledore from HP, make no mistake that he’s an exceptional and three-dimensional character. Same goes for Snape. And that applies to this game as well. 

The main reason this game’s story irritates me comes down to Gengar and Alakazam. Again, they’re very well written characters...but I hate them. I despise both of them. I don’t know what it is, but Alakazam rubbed me the wrong way right from the start. Him and his whole team are so self-important, so arrogant. They condescend the MC and act like they’re the ruling body of the town square. Alakazam goes around telling people that he knows everything. That’s a god complex if you ask me. At several points, the characters make decisions based on the assumption that he is stronger than the MC, which you as a player never get to challenge. (Think of Leon from Sword/Shield, but a million times worse.) The Partner character is so in awe of them, so enamored by them. Yet behind MC’s back, Alakazam knows (or suspects) them to be the human of legend and doesn’t tell them “for their sake.” Which gives me strong Nozomi (SMT IV: Apocalypse) vibes, since later on he ignores all responsibility for having been "complicit" with the MC's secret. 

The Fugitive Arc doesn't make any damn sense. First of all, Xatu claims that the disasters, all of the trouble, are being caused by the Human from the Ninetales Legend. Ninetales later debunks this. When I first played this game, I legitimately thought Xatu would wind up being some kind of secret villain, that he had lied, and that the Fugitive Arc was all started by him. This doesn't wind up being true, and we never get an answer for why he thought the Human of Legend was responsible for the state of affairs, nor did anyone question his being wrong or acknowledge his role in all this. But the one who really started everything was Gengar. He doesn't really annoy me until the Post-Game (I'll get to that) but everyone else's reactions to Gengar's story bother me. He is a known liar, a known trouble-maker who no one likes. It's well known that he has a vendetta against the MC. He has no proof whatsoever of his allegations. And everyone just buys it, despite MC now having a great reputation, because...I guess MC didn't actively deny it? Which the player was given no agency in? And it doesn't stop the accusation from being ridiculous? 

Enter Alakazam. Apparently, everyone held a town meeting that must have taken all of ten seconds, to decide what to do about MC. They held this meeting without MC or the Partner present, because having them there would make too much sense I guess. Team A.C.T. prepares to...I guess kill MC? As well as the Partner, even though they're completely innocent. Before Alakazam hesitates and decides to give the MC a day to run away. Hold on, if he is so convinced that MC has to die to save the world, how do he justify letting them go? I guess the same way he justifies how he "knew" MC was the human of legend this whole time and said nothing about it? He bids MC to run, and throughout the entire Fugitive Arc, his team is the looming threat. Which was quite frustrating for me, already a Diamond Rank and probably higher leveled than Team A.C.T, because I would have been happy to settle things with Alakazam right then and there. It is beyond frustrating that the story denies me this chance. Not to mention, half of the town shows up to say goodbye when MC and the Partner take off. Like...okay, at least half of the town believes in MC. How in the hell is this even happening? Why do we have to flee when so many characters are on our side? When there's no proof? Why is Alakazam's word just considered law? If he “knows everything” how come he doesn’t know that Gengar is human as well, if he could sense MC’s humanity? 

You don't know how badly I wish there was a fight with Team A.C.T. when all was said and done. And the game could have done it, too! Just have it take place at the top of the Mt. Freeze, before Ninetales shows up. They have a skirmish that takes place in a cutscene, but even in the remake - there's no boss battle. Why not? It's not like this dungeon has a boss battle otherwise. Wouldn't it have been a fitting conclusion to this arc? Maybe I'm biased, maybe I just think it would have been cathartic to kick Alakazam's ass, to make him put his money where his mouth is...because again, the arrogance. He demands Ninetales tell him what happened, and that "depending on your answer, I may be forced to eliminate MC" Ah, slow your roll there, buddy. Ninetales already broke up the fight and made it clear that it's not going to happen. You're a guest in their domain. On top of that, Team A.C.T. basically forbids you from going to Magma Cavern to challenge Groudon. As if you haven't just proven yourself capable of braving dangerous dungeons. As if, after they chased you halfway around the world and were proven completely wrong, they have any right to talk down to you or tell you what to do. Again, I so, so wish we could have fought them and taught them a lesson. 

In general, this is a consistent thing with the other characters, following the Fugitive Arc. Everyone focuses on how happy MC and the Partner must be to have their names cleared, (Again, the Partner was accused of nothing. Like, literally nothing.) and no one stops to address that everyone in the Town Square should be falling to their knees and begging our forgiveness for what they put us through. Several of them tried to kill us. Upon returning to the Town Square, Gengar acts like MC is turning them-self in because they don't have any proof, even though he never had any proof to begin with, and it's only after MC is "cleared" by Team A.C.T. that everyone remembers that Gengar is untrustworthy. Reading the words "under the watchful eye of Alakazam" has always made me extremely salty. I don't have much to say about the Mankey brothers but they irritated me as well. Maybe I was just out of patience after the Fugitive Arc but I found myself wondering why we appeased them at all. Initially, we give them the chestnuts because they attack us if we don't. No matter how many times we beat them, they keep attacking if they're told no. I realize it's a staple in Pokemon games to have false yes/no choices, but those are especially noticeable in the games that focus on story. And sometimes the excuses are just pathetic. Meanwhile, the other pokemon continue to treat you as rookies, as kids. You are once again "forbidden" by...um, the other townsfolk, from going on the Rescue Mission until you talk them into it. It's like...guys. You put us through hell. We could have died a dozen times over, because you bought into the mob mentality for no good reason. How does everything just go back to normal after that? 

I don't mind Gengar at first. He's a villain, and a well-written one. He's got a clear personality and there's hidden depth in there as well. He's one of my favorite characters in the game, easily. And all of the stuff he does in the main story? Stealing the mail, manipulating Caterpie, and the stuff during the Fugitive Arc? That weird psychedelic sequence where he's dragging MC down to hell at the end? (Or whatever that was?) All fine by me. He's a villain. He's doing bad things. But sweet Arceus is Gengar annoying in the Post-Game. I wonder if this must be how Merula Snyde Antis feel, over in the HPHM Fandom. Because the MC has absolutely no motivation or reason to help him out. He just demands that they act as his bodyguard, offers nothing in return, and won't leave you alone until you say yes. Buddy, my team has like thirty pokemon at this point and they're all hanging out in the Friend Areas a few feet away. You think you can intimidate me? The only reason I'm helping is to progress the storyline. And throughout this entire storyline, you have to help Gengar even though he hasn't earned it. 

He does not deserve forgiveness, or a reconciliation with Gardevoir. What if I don't want to help him because I don't think Gardevoir would want to see him? What if I think that it would do her no good to see him? He's unrepentant and awful, the story does the bare minimum to suggest that he's changed. Now I will admit one thing: I love the moment that Ninetales first appears, sees Gengar, and simply goes "...What do you want." Like. Like that was the moment that I put it together, before he went on to tell the rest of the story. I love simple moments that make the big reveal crystal clear without needing to directly tell or show the audience. I've always dug that. But everything that happens after that is frustrating. Gengar demands the curse be lifted, despite having no justification to offer Ninetales. He threatens to attack them, but then clarifies that MC will be the one doing the fighting. Excuse me? Why would I ever do that? MC just found out the truth about Gengar, what he did to Gardevoir, and then how he pinned it all on them during the fugitive arc. Gengar, why would I attack Ninetales after this, instead of attacking you? Tell me I don't initiate battle against you right now? Thankfully MC doesn't have to actually fight Ninetales, but they are still forced to testify at Gengar's "trial" and it's a forgone conclusion because no matter what answers you give, it's treated as MC acknowledging his growth and he is forgiven at the end. 

Oh, I’ve just thought of something else. MC isn’t given a reason for why they have to leave the Pokemon world, or why they were able to return. Explorers gave a reason. Gates to Infinity and Super Mystery Dungeon made a whole post-game story out of their reasons. Here? We get nothing. MC’s “role” has finished and so they have to return to the human world. Never mind what they want. Not until after the dramatic moment where they have to leave has passed, anyway. That voice at the end who suggests that we may be able to see our partner again just by “wishing.” Who the hell was that? What did they mean? Look, by Pokemon standards, the Rescue Team story is quite substantial. By Pokemon Mystery Dungeon standards? It’s...probably the weakest story. I mean, to be fair, Super Mystery Dungeon had the endless schoolhouse arc that added up to nothing in the second act. But hell, that was still fun. And I suppose the Fugitive Arc and Gengar’s “redemption” were fun too. Just frustrating as well. 

[vanegranbluefantasy]

absolutely 0 of my friends want me to write an essay about how paimon is just a worse version of vyrn, so i'm going to do it here

the essay is under the cut if you want to read it

1. intro

First and foremost, who is Paimon? And by extension, who is Vyrn? How are they similar, and why would I want to compare them?

Paimon is from the game Genshin Impact, a popular RPG game that has been going around in the eastern gaming community. It's quite fun to play, but I got bored of it fast, but that is off topic. Paimon is a character that is introduced to you at the very beginning of the game. She's a in-game tutorial character, and also shows up in the game's pause menu. Even outside the pause menu, you see her a LOT in the game. The main quest has her talking quite a lot, and in character side-quests she acts as the main character's companion.

Moving on, Vyrn is apart of my favorite game right now: Granblue Fantasy. If you don't know what Granblue Fantasy is, it's a mobile game that came out in 2014 and is still quite popular today. It is a more visual novel based with an focus on teambuilding over combat. Back to Vyrn, he's also introduced to you at the very beginning of the game, and also acts as the in-game tutorial (somewhat, there are other characters who also guide you through the beginning of the game, but he is the one the player starts off with). Similar to Paimon, Vyrn is with the main character wherever they go, and although not apart of the pause menu, he has dialogue in many, if not the majority, of quests.

Both act as the mascot of each game, which makes each a better sell. They are both cute characters that are supposed to draw people in, which is why they're introduced within the first few seconds of each game. However, they're similarities go beyond that. Although their dialogue is not too similar for me to say that they have the same personality, they most certainly are both strange beings that float/fly, and go with you EVERYWHERE.

Why am I comparing them? The purpose of the essay is to see why I love Vyrn, but hate Paimon. You see, when I started playing Genshin Impact, I have already put months of my time into Granblue Fantasy at that point, so when I saw Paimon in Genshin, I said to myself, "Oh, this girl is cute. She reminds me of Vyrn! How fun!" Now, after putting hours into Genshin Impact, I've found myself to just despise her dialogue. First impressions are everything, but Paimon became more of a thorn in my side as I played through the game. Therefore, I'm here to analyze why.

2. Vyrn and Paimon's relationship to the player

Vyrn and Paimon's relationship to player is extremely interesting to me, and could be the reason why I don't like Paimon as much as I do Vyrn.

Paimon is introduced to the player immediately in the game, which is not a bad thing. Generally, every game has a tutorial stage to help the player figure out what to do and how to play, but Paimon is not a typical tutorial character. In many games that I've played, most tutorial characters are mentor types, and Paimon is not that. Paimon also does not know what this world is and is effectively exploring it WITH you -- not guiding you. This is not inherently bad, since the introduction is not what ticked me off about Paimon in the first place, but later on, it might become clear why I find this a sticking point.

Vyrn, in another game, is introduced very differently. He is introduced as "your best friend" which on it's own is quite weird, considering he's a flying lizard, but you're apart of a new world, anything could happen. He's been alive for an amount of time, so he generally knows what is going on. Not exactly a mentor type, but he gives much more clarity of the world the player is in, at least in comparison to Paimon. In the introduction, he gives a very clear picture of what kind of person the main character is and their backstory. Honestly, I came to trust him very quickly, despite him being a weird little monster.

These introductions in comparison seem really similar, which is why my initial reaction to Paimon was "Oh, this is Vyrn but again."

Now, what I find interesting is the beginning of conflict in both of the games.

Vyrn is introduced almost immediately. There is a beginning cutscene of the main character reading a letter from their father, and then the player meets Vyrn, who comments about the main character reading the letter again. This gives a backstory with Vyrn almost immediately. He knows that the main character has the asperation to get to the land of the astrals, and he wants to help to get main character there. It is only after this scene does conflict start: the Este airship covering the sun.

Paimon does not have this backstory. The initial cutscene in Genshin Impact is vague, to say the least. However, it immediately tells the player the conflict: the main character is searching for their twin. Paimon is not apart of the conflict whatsoever. Making her an outside entity, the main character does not express their troubles to Paimon as they explore this new world.

This marks a key difference in their introductions. Since Granblue Fantasy started the conflict WITH Vyrn, it caused me to be more attached much more quickly. It was clear through Vyrn's actions that he would stand by the main character's side no matter what happened. However, Paimon does not have that same connection. Since Paimon is not apart of the conflict whatsoever, I found a lot of my friends (who haven't played Granblue Fantasy) distrust her very quickly. Some jumped to the conclusion that she is going to be someone evil at the end of the story, and I don't blame them. So far, the only person the player can trust is the twin.

By making Paimon an outside entity to the conflict, it makes her very quickly a potential danger. However, with Vyrn being apart of the conflict, makes him a trustworthy ally.

3. Dialogue

Since the main characters of both Genshin Impact and Granblue Fantasy are self-inserts, someone needs to be able to talk. In Genshin Impact, Paimon is the stand-in to talk for the player, and in Granblue Fantasy, Vyrn is in a similar position. However, their dialogue itself is very different.

Vyrn and Paimon both create nicknames for people, which is why it's very easy to compare the two of them. Vyrn likes to give all of the crewmates nicknames, and none of them seem to mind it. Paimon also gives nicknames to the people her and the main character meet, but it feels less like a joke and more as an insult, calling her nicknames "ugly" and feeling bad when she finds out the nicknames she gives are to important people.

Vyrn's nicknames are generally playful like "Lop Ear" and "Sir Burnsalot," but can get insulting like "Miss Batter-For-Brains" and "Clefty." However, none of the people with the nicknames seems to mind it, despite him saying it very loudly and to their face.

However, Paimon keeps her nicknames almost to herself, as if she's doing them in secret. "Tone-Deaf Bard" and "Guhua Geek" are two of a few of these nicknames. None of the people recieving the nicknames seem very happy about being called that.

Don't get me wrong, both Paimon and Vyrn are being really rude by giving out nicknames to random people, but it's the reactions from the one's receiving said nicknames that gives clarity of the nicknames' true intentions. With the Granblue Fantasy crew not necessarily minding it and Genshin Impact characters getting angry, it becomes clear why the nicknames are created.

Both Vyrn and Paimon talk a lot of both of their respective games, but how the react to the this new world around them that tips the scales of me disliking Paimon.

Vyrn explores the new islands with you with little to no knowledge of the next island the player will fly to, and his reactions to each island are generally pretty on par with the player's. For example, going to an island that covered in mist, he's generally pretty cautious, expressing it in his dialogue.

However, Paimon keeps commenting on the obvious. Her dialogue is almost annoying because it is so obvious. I defeated a boss and she said something along the lines of, "That's it? Where's the treasure?" when there is clear newly-opened door on the other side of the room. The dialogue during the story is not as bad, but I find myself angry at her whenever she speaks anyway. Her comments don't add to the tone or the gameplay. They just frustrate me.

All of her comments and general rudeness make me really angry. She doesn't fight, and she doesn't seem like the one who would fight with me! She's only there to tag along with you, for some unknown reason! Her vagueness makes her worthless to me as the player.

4. Conclusion

The fact that Paimon does not seem like the type to go through thick and thin with the main character makes her frustrating to be around. Her introduction decided her fate of the annoying character that everyone continues to call "Emergency Food" rather than her name.

She's just annoying once you get to a certain part of the story because the constant reminder of her being an outsider is at every corner. She has not once mentioned a THING about the main conflict (finding the main character's twin), and even if she goes through the entire story if the player, she seems like she would run away from the final boss, if she herself ISNT the final boss!

Vyrn at least is like "Oh shit! Time to fight!" and generally is concerned about the main character's health and well-being. He's not much help in a fight, but at the very least he'll express that you need to heal. Vyrn is as much in this conflict of finding the asterals as the main character. He's a trustworthy ally, despite being rude sometimes.

In conclusion, despite being very similar, Paimon was sentenced to me hating her since the beginning because of her placement in the game's main conflict. Vyrn's placement in Granblue Fantasy's main conflict made him a much more trustworthy ally as the game continues.

Sorry for the spacing issues. I'm on mobile. Thanks for reading tho.

Play Granblue Fantasy, it's a good semi-visual novel. Plus, the mascot character isn't as annoying as Paimon.

[takirasu]

mightve scrolled throu your blog a little bit, so without wanting to be too noisy here futaba, akira and kawakami for the ask persona 5 ask game tell alot about someone i really enjoyed your content pls do more for the fandom xx

To be honest I had totally forgotten about this ask, since I wanted to answer it when I’m on PC! :(

Thank you for your kind words, dear! I’m trying to do stuff for the fandom. It’s just a little far from what I usually do so it’s a little complicated. For my other fandoms I install camera mods, reshaders etc. and edit to find either small details in games or show the cutscenes in a different way. Editing and video game photography have become a big hobby of mine. As for Persona 5, that’s a little harder. There is no PC version, so I took some screenshots from Scramble’s switch version and enhanced their quality. I want to do more cool stuff, but it’s limited TT Atlast what I’m planning to do is play Scramble on YouTube when it comes out! Also for Scramble the in-game cutscenes have become way better. I might be able to do something about it. But enough rambling

Futaba: Favourite Palace?

This will be very boring since it is a popular answer as far as I have seen, but Sae’s palace, the casino. Kamoshida’s and Madarame’s are very close, but Sae’s has everything to me. The casino aesthetics are so beautifully done and the whole concept was thought through. You enter and have to obtain a members card which I found very interesting. Instead of just letting you pass and do the cool puzzles, this is your first job. When that is done, you need to obtain the High Limit card. This is all very casino-like. You have to play games to obtain it, but it is rigged. It is impossible to win and it is a hell lot of fun to see the casino workers losing their shit about you actually winning since you let Futaba hack the control panels, which by the way are the only part I did not enjoy. I looked for the red or green one for ages and almost died, because I kept running and circles. I’m good at reading maps, so I was surprised. This was the first palace where I kept going in circles and couldn’t find my way back -  twice! I don’t remember a puzzle I didn’t like. I enjoyed both. The house of darkness as well as the Battle arena. The house of darkness gave me major amusment park during halloween season flashbacks. I love visiting haunted house, so this whole part just felt like something I would’ve loved doing in reality anyway and now I can enjoy it as a game with a fantasy aspect to it. It was really cool that without using Third Eye it was actually pitchblack - which I hadn’t expected from the developers. It was intriguing. When you went further, the casino lights came back, but enemies where around every corner. I loved it! The battle arena just felt epic to me. I liked how Joker had to fight alone, making it the first time the player is forced to do this alone, especially since you get tricked once again. The Phantom Thieves are told it is a 1v1 fight, but it’s not. Joker has to fight against two shadows, which is a major disadvantage. The boss fight was fun to me as well. It was the first one where I didn’t get angry, but felt like I was actually gambling. To think about if I put high risk high reward and might end up losing my life or if I play safely. Instead of just having to think about the combat strategies, you now had to think about how to gamble. Rather than getting mad, I got stressed - in a good way, what gamble does. Giving you adrenaline when you win, but making you fall even harder when you lose. I ended up playing safely and winning, so I thought let’s go high risk high reward - I died. Lastly, this palace is what ties everything together. This is what you see when you start the game and you finally get context to it on why Joker is running away - especially alone! - and how he gets arrested. The whole built up is nicely done and it feels satisfying, more than any other palace to me. Instead of just continuing with the story, you get so many answers on top and from then onwards the game takes a whole twist and becomes even darker.

I also really liked Madarame’s musuem, but hated the boss fight so it would never become my no1. For Kamoshida, I love the castle design and aesthetics. And since it is the first palace, you have so many memories with it. I started my second playthrough a week later and for some reason got all happy and excited during the first time you enter the castle. The beginning of Persona 5 just has a certain charm to it for me.

Akira: If you had a palace, what would it be?

Damn I never thought much about it. I read alot of headcanons for palaces for Akira and thought about them - I love the theater idea by the way, fits him a lot - , but never thought about my own. I think, without making this too personal, I would have a palace in this world. I definetely would. Probably an amusment park, an arcade or something along the lines of things going up and down, moods going up and down quickly as well as the way I view myself, my emotions and life. Just in general something where you can do a lot of different things and feel a lot of different, intense emotions but with an aspect that’s alot me. It would be a turbulent, kind of sad yet kind of fun palace. This would get hella personal, so I’ll stop here, but these two would be very fitting ^^ I might need to write it down one day for myself. It’s an interesting thought!

Kawakami: Most surprising scene?

It is either when you meet Akechi on Shido’s cruiser or the way end of the Yaldabaoth fight. As for the scene with Akechi, I was just exhausted. It was really late and I hated the mice puzzles. I died to the caretaker three times and was reliefed when he finally let us go. I thought Okay all that is left now is get back to the safe room and sleep in reality. My friend had warned me and told me to tell her when I’m in the engine room. After the caretaker fight being so hard for me, I thought this was what she had wanted to talk about. But well...then you leave the room and meet Akechi. I thought we would either never meet him again and he’d think Akira is dead until the very last minute or we meet him at the end somehow. It was surprising to me and seemed so random, until you find out Akechi’s real motives towards Shido. In general, I was just pretty dumbfounded at this scene. Didn’t die once against him, but it was a tough and kind of scary battle. Made me emotional and I went to sleep having nightmares actually. I felt bad for not being able to save him as well as I did in my dreams and cried in there. I don’t like him as a character, but stated in my analysis before that he is really interesting. My friend and I kept on saying ugh can he just leave or die he is so annoying, but when he died my first thought was that this ain’t how it was supposed to end. It’s not fair, not even to him. I wanted Akechi to attone for what he did. To get to jail with Shido together and then get help, but with  genunine concern. This is what I wished for this character. As for the Yaldaboath fight, I died three times and got pretty angry. I was pulling an all-nighter to finish the game, it was 5AM and I had been emotional all day. When I finally had him down enough, I thought the Phantom Thieves would just kill him like normal and that’s it. Then this whole scene happens where all the people cheer them on and Akira has his second awakening, unleashing some freaking demon god. I was screaming to my friend. It looked so cool and it made me so emotional. Also, unpopular opinion, but I love the anime scene a lot for this. It’s beautifully done (it’s an OVA which have better graphics so be sure to check it out!) and made me feel a lot.

Thank you for your message! It was fun to write this.

Send me a Persona 5 character name for the ask game if you’re interested about my thoughts!

[coe-lilium]

TroS reaction (1st view)

Necessary premise in bullet points:

- I liked TFA when it came out and still do but as I dug into the franchise/canon (Disney only by choice) my enjoyment of it became more lukewarm. Came out of it dreading a potential Reylo but liking the two charas on their own. 

- went into TLJ worried I’d hate it, came out with it being my favorite saga movie and sold on the Rey-Ren connection, whatever road it would’ve taken. Loved the “Rey’s powerful on her own/bc the Force wants to set Kylo’s wrongs right”. It felt good after two years of being bombarded with “this fucking Mary Sue can have any power only if she’s connected to powerful men of the saga, she has otherwise no right in being powerful” in forums spaces.    

- went into TroS non-spoiled, wary of Palpatine return but relatively hopeful if soured about the “JJ our lord and saviour pleease save us from evil evil Jonhson” (HA!). The rumors about lore from the tv series being featured into the movie had me excited.  

That said, here goes: [SPOILERS FOR THE ENTIRE MOVIE, ENDING INCLUDED, RIGHT OFF THE BAT]

I didn’t like it. I really hope to warm up to it more in future views, there’s absolutely stuff I liked or even loved, but as it stands now it was overall a massive disappointment on many sides and -worst of all- threatens to retroactively ruin my enjoyment in other previous stories. 

First, the positives: 

- Parentage notwithstanding, Rey was good. Her rage, her fears, her good heart, her commitment to the fight and the training, her longing for guidance… truly, if the bloodline revelation hadn’t retroactively ruined my investment in the character and themes I’d have fully, 100% loved her even if every single other part of the movie had been the same. 

Except for a brief war flashback to Starkiller game abilities (I lolled) I wasn’t even troubled by all the new abilities or their scope. Movies’ been inventing new powers since the beginning and the Force does what the Force wants. Again, fuck the genetics “twist”, garbage stuff. 

- Kylo, next to… 95% that involved him? TLJ did a great job selling him to me and surprisingly this movie added to that instead of retconning it away. More competent but still stupid and petty from time to time. I’m glad he came back, glad he choose right and glad he was allowed more time on the right side than Anakin. I love redemptions and he was portrayed as wavering the entire trilogy, I don’t even really care that it could’ve done better. I’m happy for him and his family, that’s all. The kiss got a laugh out me but not a malicious one, I was kind of running out of reasonable reactions by then. 

I’m just conflicted on how I feel about his death. Back when TFA was released I wanted him to survive to face what Anakin didn’t: justice (the kid-friendly setting prevented a death sentence anyway), atonement and growth from there, I still wish it happened and maintain that a different pacing would’ve allowed it. On the other hand, I’m also kinda okay with him dying. He righted at least a bit of his many wrongs, he saved a person he cared for, that his parents cared for and that could help the galaxy much more than he ever could and he was at peace. It was a good death.      

- Kylo’s vision/illusion of Han. A surprise but a very pleasant, well acted one. Would’ve I maybe liked Anakin more, as Ben idolized him so much and for all the wrong reasons and because I love that disaster? Yes. Does Han work much better in the economy of the movie and trilogy story and do he and Ben have a much rawer relationship and history? Absolutely. I am a teeny tiny bit baffled as  for why Luke didn’t also show up, but the actual scene was good enough I forgive it.  

- Rey and Kylo bond and connection was one of the saving graces of this mess and I utterly loved it. Both actors worked their asses for for all their scenes and it payed off, oh if it payed off. Their DSII duel was perhaps a tad long but great nonetheless (Republic era Jedi jumps!), the hurt and the sense of absolute loss and grief they both conveyed -and shared!- after Leia’s passing was incredible, Rey regretting the near kill and softly going “I would have stayed, had you renounced the dark side”. She cared, yes, but not to the point of ignoring the horrors (something Anakin never quite understood). The “dyad” stuff was a bit overkill, just call it a force bond, we can see it’s freaking powerful, but the Force Skype and sharing of objects that came with the package, that I loved. Surprise lightsaber, Ren fuckers! :D Bet Anakin and Obi Wan were really jealous, that would’ve come in handy during the war.       

- Finn was now fully invested in the cause, at ease, visibly happy to be with his friends, ready to bond and reach out, quick to plan, to act and to adapt to the situation, brave but cautious and calculating. I wish it was given a bit more focus, but I loved he found other young FO defectors. Also fuck yeah, he’s force sensitive and his ability is used, not just thrown in as a useless wink. Jedi Finn in future material, c’mon!

- Poe’s also grown. He was probably going to have more screen time with Leia had Carrie not died but there was nothing to be done for that. I’m not as happy as for previous 3 charas for the backstory retcon I’ll tackle in the negatives.

- Jannah was cool, the addiction of other FO defectors a welcomed one and the scene were she and Finn excitedly went over their “I broke free” moment was adorable. Good bean, I’d read more about her and her company. 

- A bit lot annoyed at Bloodline being kinda tossed outta the window but getting Leia with lightsaber was nice. Give me some ancillary material to deal with the clash and I’ll fully forgive it. 

- Jedi! MY GIRL AHSOKA MY MAN KANAN! I mean, I sure wish they were in a better movie, but hey, recognition for something more than the OT? No slandering of the Order but all of them collectively kicking Sidious ass once and for all? I’ll gladly take it. Anakin, my dude, I’m sorry your sacrifice was next to nullified but it was good to hear you again ;_;  I didn’t hear Ezra’s voice anywhere so I can still hope he’s alive, well and with the Ascendancy teaching all their Navigators. “I am all the Jedi” remains a terrible line. 

And now, oh boi. Here comes the long list of annoying - bad - stinking shit stuff: 

- If I wanted to watch a 2 and half long videogame cutscenes I’d have done that in the comfort of my home without spending money for tickets. Go to level x to retrieve related macguffin, move to next level to get next macguffin and so on and so on. I liked close to everything in the DS II sequences, but what would’ve that dagger pointed at if the wreckage had fallen even a little bit differently?   

In general, many plot points gave me the feeling they were stolen from the tv series and badly executed, like a mockery (or incompetence?). Case in point: Hux betraying the 1st Order out of personal, spiteful hate? Potentially good! The execution? A poor man’s Rebels Agent Kallus, already over in little more than 5minutes. 

- Palpatine himself is a poorly, ridiculously poorly executed Maul resurrection storyline from tcw and rebels. 

Because Maul was 1. explained and 2. got a good, long arc that made you forgive the undoubtably contrived ass-pull it took to bring him back while Sidious is just… there. You gotta accept it because the writer said so. 

How did he survive? We don’t know and fuck you if you expect an explanation (they really had the absolute galls to have him say the iconic/meme line from Rots and apparently it was supposed to be enough?!) How could he “have all Sith reside inside me” when canon’s clear that Sith do-not-get-to-retain-their-individuality-in-the-Force, do not work well together (lmao) and he as an individual never gave a shit about the Sith except when they could serve his own personal desires? His entire approach to the rule of two and other Sith stuff is “fuck that noise, everything in the galaxy exist to serve me”. He’s fine dying as long as “the Sith rule”? Who IS this character, because he’s not Darth Sidious (as presented in Disney’s own canon, mind). Oh, you wanted explanations? FUCK YOU, screams the movie. 

The mess gets somehow salvaged in the end as he comes to his senses and siphon the life out of Rey and Ben to de-rotten/revive himself to rule in person, now *that* was in character. Was he actually lying his ass off the entire time waiting for the moment he could siphon them? Hopefully but who the hell even knows.

In the end it just wasn’t worth bring him back. A holocron, a different Sith, even a hive-mind of old records/tainted wraiths of Sith (perhaps wearing Palps face to buy the old empire aficionados loyalty, idk) would’ve been better than “actually, Anakin suffered nearly his entire life and sacrificed himself for barely more than 25 years of peace and it still wasn’t enough to rid the galaxy of the monster who destroyed his and countless other lives”. But Johnson was the one shitting on beloved characters legacy and accomplishments, uh? Surely at least he’s got company. 

Ian was clearly having a blast, so there was… that? And the initial sequence being legit creepy and the Sith storm or whatever the fuck was that. That can stay, it was cool.     

- Poe, the latino character, got retconned from former Republic pilot (a backstory established before TFA came out and faithfully respected ever since) into a smuggler and gang member. Classy. What does Lucaslfilm have a story group for if not for stopping stuff like this from happening? Bonus Zorii being used for a “no homo! homo? no homo?” wink wink and for generally being a poor man Solo’s Qi’ra.   

- The movie makes you worry for a character death three (3) times in a row only to immediately backpedal on it. The survivors are grieving, the scene is sober… and then suddenly! they’re alive! isn’t it wonderful? let’s insert a comical scene now that we’re at it! Sigh.   

- The whole Threepio stuff was a contrived waste of time in a movie already full of more relevant plot treads that could’ve put that screen time to better use. 

- Rey’s parents apparently aren’t assholes anymore bc they sold her into slavery to protect her from Sidious, which is… supposed to make it alright, a sacrifice in the name of love? If they had been shown trying to give her to a trusted person and then she was kidnapped that wouldn’t had been their fault, just unfortunate, but the movie shows them leaving their 5yo daughter with her in-all-but-name slaver so?? 

- Rey Palpatine… Rey. Palpatine. Gesù Cristo benedetto che minchia mi è toccato di vedere. That hurt. That was so hilariously over the top bad I just…I started laughing. On top of the entire thing, thank you so, soo much for validating all those fucking assholes who demanded Rey be connected to a powerful man in the saga to accept her powers and value, you hack. Jedi were never about power of blood and then you went and reinforced the very opposite. She ain’t powerful bc the Force recognized her as worthy to stop evil and chose to aid her anymore, she’s powerful bc grandfather was. Lovely stuff. Hilariously, now she has a lot more legit “Mary Sue” traits than before. 

- Rose’s sidelining was a blatant bow to her and her actress haters whims. If in VIII she jumped at the chance of action, now she was fearful and “had to stay behind” studying maps. Fuck that noise. 

- Even if she rejected it, underline is that the Skywalker line is wiped out and the Palpatine one thrives. I… just… wtf wtf wtf. A final “Just Rey” would’ve been more powerful -because now it would’ve been reclaimed- and less corny and in poor taste than a Palpatine taking on the Skywalker name. I’m not sure if Sidious is more offended or if he’s laughing his ass off in space!hell. Probably the 2nd. Bad.      

- The final scene on Tatooine. It rang so empty because the planet brings warm memories only to the audience, not the characters. In-universe, that place brought nothing but misery to the Skywalkers: Anakin and Shmi were brought there as slaves and lived as such for years, Shmi was tortured to death and Anakin began his descent into the dark for crying out loud. Luke had to hide and saw his relatives murdered. Leia had no connection whatsoever to the place. The mera idea of burying Anakin Skywalker lightsaber into the sands of Tatooine and considering it a way of paying respect is… I don’t know, hilariously in bad taste? Rey, dear, what did you have personally against the guy? Put those sabers to rest on Naboo! Ah, but we can’t truly acknowledge the PT now, can we? Wack.   

- It’s not TroS complete fault, that “honor” mostly sit at TFA’s feet but for all its omages, copies and almost slavish references, from a in-universe point of view it’s like the OT barely occurred. 

The same evil man has been defeated (until next time?), the Republic must be rebuilt from scratch, a evil military is all over the place and must be dealt with, the Jedi Order has to be rebuilt… it’s depressing. A new evil taking advantage of the empire leftovers would’ve been one thing, but Sidious? He’s been effectively winning nonstop ever since he was elected Chancellor. He had all the power, all the influence, all the control and he maintained it all even as a rotten corpse in exile, the entire galaxy marching on his tune, controlled by his strings. And as the cherry on top of the cake he even managed to wipe out the family that could’ve, should have been his undoing! He effectively destroyed the Skywalkers. He outlived every Jedi, every survivor, every clone. I hate this. It’s sickening. I can’t even be happy Rex was on Endor anymore.      

In general, the best word I can find for this movie is: coward. 

So blatantly desperate to please, to be “forgiven”, to reference every single irrelevant thing -except the PT and the TV series in a intelligent way-, to throw fanservice after fanservice after fanservice no matter how nonsensical from all over that crossed the “corny” to wander into embarrassing territory many times over (Maz giving Chewie a medal outta nowhere? Come the fuck on now). 

The cartoon series had twenty time the guts of this movie and I vehemently wish for Filoni to take the helm of the entire creative team in a very near future.                  

[bearpillowmonster]

Jedi Fallen Order Review

I was going to wait and write this tomorrow but I feel like I have all my notes written down and a solid opinion already formed so I want to just jump into it.

(Non-Spoiler btw) I’m not going to compare this to any other game because every other review I saw said the same thing over and over, The only one I’ll mention is Kingdom Hearts because KH2 is my favorite game of all time so how can I not draw comparisons to it with everything I play. I also want to mention I’ve been playing on the base PS4 model not a Pro, I feel like I have to say that now with performance and graphical based opinions with big games such as this because you might not have the same problems.

I think they changed the way he got caught in the beginning from the trailer because it’s the same scene but different shots, it honestly made more sense because I was playing the game and didn’t even notice the droid watching them while it was much more noticeable in the trailer, maybe it’s meant to be that way so it isn’t obvious to Cal that he was caught. 

Main villain is the “Second sister”, it’s based on lore from Rebels. You would think you’d fight all the other “sisters” considering this is the first place I’ve heard of them (I didn’t watch too much of Rebels but researched it for this reason) but you only fight a couple during the game.

The coats are glitchy in cutscenes, so you should probably wear the basic layer for most of the game, if you want to try and avoid that. You are vulnerable while opening chests so you can’t defend or attack during animations but enemies can attack you. It will introduce the abilities through flashbacks so this guy knew these powers but just cut himself off to hide from the Empire and has to relearn them. At one point it will say “you are now reconnected with the force” and all the abilities will be shown on the skill tree in order to unlock, around this part is the turning point of the game (Kashyyyk/second time at Zeffo) because the opening is fine but the next section gets kind of boring because you have scarce abilities but once you start actually getting into it, it’s fun! I know they showed Kashyyyk in the E3 demo presentation they did a while ago so that was to be expected but it was just a matter of if it was a fluke...it’s not.

I’m pretty sure you lose skill tree points every time you die to an enemy (not falling off an edge or something) which is odd and it’s not like “since the last checkpoint” or “since last death” it’s a bit more than you gain in that time period, I’m pretty sure this revolves around what difficulty you’re on which is also pretty odd but correct me if I’m wrong about that theory. 

I knew I liked BD-1 already but I was a bit skeptical of Cal’s character when this was announced because he could’ve easily been generic but no, I kind of like his character, you can tell the actor went the extra mile partially through how he interacts with BD and everybody else. He’s better than Kanan in my opinion, who if you remember has a very similar backstory as “the Jedi padawan who survived order 66” but he blames himself for his master’s death which is a dead trope that I didn’t care too much to see.

I hate parrying, I absolutely hate it, not just this game, every game, even in Kingdom Hearts, I’ll barely use it because I don’t (usually) play on the super high difficulties where it’s necessary but this game has it as essential so you have to learn a little bit of timing...and wait until you can upgrade your dodge so you don’t have to parry as much. And they will punish you for missing a parry and just trying to slam them (only the more hefty enemies like the ones with shock sticks) because they have a shield meter and if you get hit by them then their shield will start to go back up. 

Some complaints, it takes a long time to respawn and the sliding is a bit off as well because you can control him while falling but he turns at such a slow rate that you might as well not even bother, it doesn’t matter most of the time any way but when it does then it’s annoying.There’s a lot of things that they just kind of brush past explaining, for example, there are these punching pistons that you have to run past and once you reach the end, there’s an opening above but you don’t know how to get there. I tried using force slow and jumping on top of the thing (logical way of doing it) but he doesn’t jump high enough (you don’t unlock double jump until later and it’s a life saver!). There’s a walkthrough for that simple one minute section on YouTube so I couldn’t have been the only one but you have to wall run and then jump off of it, I didn’t know you could wall run to get to higher ledges. Also with story, I wasn’t sure how they were figuring out where to go for some places, they just kind of said “go here!” but they end up explaining that kind of stuff later on which seems kind of pointless in saving it until that point, it would have been just as effective (if not, more) at the beginning. For those who’ve played it, I’ll give you a hint at what scene I’m talking about “Ilum”, if I was writing it, I would’ve made that scene towards the beginning.

Some little compliments are that BD-1 has a back panel that lights up, if your health is decent then it will be green, if it’s not then it turns red, that’s a nice detail “But what about Blue?” Well yeah there’s that too...that’s just for fun. There are also customization skins for BD-1 as well as your lightsaber and ponchos and guess what?! Your ship too! It’s no 13-13 or Project RagTag (there’s no gunplay though) but it’s still a pretty darn good game with some good music tracks (I mean it’s Star Wars though so...)

This game doesn’t have a dark or light ending so you don’t really have to worry about doing anything the wrong way, it’s fun to throw storm troopers off of ledges, not gonna lie, however I will say I feel bad at times. They added a bit of a grey area there because they’ll cower and say “Looks like I’m the last one” “No, stop!” “They’re all dead” “You killed them!” “Just...just leave me alone.” or something along those lines. BD even called me out for lashing out on them once and Cal just says “They just would’ve hurt somebody else.” I was like “Dang” there are some themes going on here that I think they would’ve made a light and dark ending if EA let them, however I’m fine with there not being one (even if it would make the game seem longer). 

Even Second Sister has a bit of a thing going on where it’s questionable about her point of view, it’s almost a grey area. 

Quick-fire round:

-Be careful, if you heal at a save point then it will also respawn enemies (you have to pick “rest” first before it does that).

-The creatures are harder than the troopers tbh.

-There’s a character called Mari Kosen on Kashyyyk which sounds a lot like “Ikari Gozen” which basically means ‘rageful female warrior’.

-I was worried about even buying this game because of EA’s track record (I almost bought Battlefront 2 before the whole debacle (Thank goodness I didn’t!)) and I didn’t want to chance they mess it up somehow after launch it getting good reviews, but I can confidently say that I don’t see any way they can do that now, should be no need to worry.

I’m not going to spoil it but the ending (though in line chronologically and could have messed with the timeline) seems kind of one sided, there are a bunch of things they could have done and while the decision they made makes sense, is it the best? I personally would have liked to see a bit more, it seemed a little short to me. I want to see what happens to these characters (which is a good thing) maybe there will be a sequel or extended universe book/comic (there’s already a prequel one with Cere) There are some really great moments in this game, I’m tempted to give it a solid 8 because of the high it ended on but I’m going to lower it a little due to the slow start being annoying. 7.5 / 10 Now EA better make more quality single player Star Wars products without stupid monetization schemes, this one was a success.

[rosecorcoranwrites]

Video Games as Interactive Storytelling

As I previously established, video games are a worthwhile form of storytelling, combining the best aspects of books, movies, and comics. They are unique among mediums, however, for being a truly interactive form of media. They are games, after all, and thus incorporate aspects play and choice.

Environment

Because you, the player, control the character, you experience the world as if you were in it, much more than in any other medium. You explore the environment. You fight the boss, and experience the struggle of battle. You help various NPCs, or non-player characters, with tasks. You make friends and allies, and fight alongside them. Although I never like my favorite characters getting hurt in any medium, when people attack my allies in video games, it's personal.

And that's what video games do: offer an incredibly personal experience. Unlike books, movies and comics, where you have to read from start to finish, video games let you meander and spend time in the setting. In games like Zelda, Okami, or Dark Souls, you can discover secrets that aren't necessarily part of the main plot. These can include hidden areas or side quests. Sometimes these add to your understanding of the story or make the main plot more emotionally impactful. For instance, I actually did all those side quests for people in Okami, so the cutscene during the final boss fight was personal to me. I helped those people; they were lending their strength to me.

You can also gawk at the extra details of the world. One of my favorite examples of this is in Skyrim, where you can read books of short stories or admire intricately carved Nordic architecture, neither of which are important to the story or gameplay, but which make the experience more complete and immersive. I like to wonder at the fact that some person was paid to write those stories and design those carvings; they’re neat little details that someone at the studio thought were important enough to put into the game.

Even a game as linear and straightforward as the Ace Attorney series allows for a sort of exploration. Though you can only "move" through a series of set-like locations during the investigation stages, you can click on almost every object in order to hear banter between you and your assistant. While this doesn't generally offer much in the way of world or story building (unless the object turns out to be a crucial piece of evidence) it does let us experience more chemistry between the characters, endearing them to us even more.

Choice

Games in which the player’s choices effect the story obviously offer an interesting experience. Certain games have binary choices—send this character to the safety of the cathedral, or to be experimented on in a laboratory!—while others have branching trees and dozens or hundreds of possible endings. Many games incorporate a morality system, where the more bad choices one makes make for a darker ending, with the best result being the “Good ending” and the worst result, the “Bad ending”; many games opt for multiple bittersweet conclusions.

While some such games have fairly blank-slate, player-insert characters as protagonists (that is, they don’t have too much personality, because the player can fill that in), others have very specific motivations, while still offering choice. My sister was describing her initial frustration, in Red Dead Redemption 2, that she could only make not-so-good choices in some of the side quests. This makes sense, given that you are playing as an outlaw in a gang, but was still annoying in a game that claimed to give one choices. She was later delighted, though, after something important happens to the character (spoiler: they find out they have tuberculosis, which not only makes them sympathize with one of their former victims of the same condition, but also forces them to come to terms with their decisions, as time is running out), and good options start opening up. The way the game presented choices made sense for that individual character while still giving the player the freedom to reject certain choices if they want. Masterful!

Happenstance

I will say, however, that player choice is not totally unique to games, as Choose Your Own Adventure books were and occasionally still are a thing. Programmers can program in more possible choices than can be contained in a physical book, but the storytelling principal is the same. More interesting, I think, is video games’ ability to create random happenstance. What do I mean? Depending on what the player does when, they might stumble onto a part of a game in a different way than other players.

For example, in Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time, musical themes for each location play during the day, while nighttime has only sound effects. As anyone who has played Ocarina can tell you, the Gerudo Valley theme is some of the coolest, most adventurous music in the franchise, and it starts playing in the canyon, before you arrive at the desert. In order to get to the desert the first time, you jump your horse over a broken bridge, which feels pretty awesome to a first time player. But for me, it was more. I arrived on horseback at the canyon at dawn, rode to the edge as the castanets of the Gerudo Valley theme started playing. Just as I jumped, the sun came over the horizon and the guitar began! I could have sworn there was even a lens flare, but that might have been my imagination reacting to the epicness of what was happening. It was a totally random, unrepeatable event, and I’ll never forget it.

In Okami, I never knew that going through some torii gates led into mystical areas while going around them led to ordinary shrines, because I always went a certain way. Thus, my mind was blown when I discovered, after following a little sparrow girl through a gate, that what had once been a solid wall was actually a pathway. It wasn't until my second play through that I went around the gate of the first shrine, which led to a glowing portal to a celestial world, and discovered nothing but an ordinary statue in a moss-covered cave. I never knew!

In another Zelda example, every player had a different experience of their first Blood Moon in Breath of the Wild. Blood Moons are events that serve to replenish the enemies in the area, but in-game are meant to be the malice of the main enemy infecting the environment and causing monsters to resurrect. They happen at random, and are preceded by the music changing, the light dimming, black wisps issuing out of the ground, and, of course, the full moon turning red. My brother first experienced it while looking at some goats in a pasture outside an inn, while my sister experienced it after climbing up a tower to reach a treasure chest. Never having heard that Blood Moons were a thing, their thoughts, respectively, were, “What the HECK is wrong with these goats!?” and “I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry! I’ll put it back!” I’m sure others have their own fun stories of their initial horror at what was happening.

Social Interaction

Cast your mind back to when this whole diatribe of mine began (many weeks ago), when I mentioned a coworker of mine saying that video games don’t inspire social interaction. Just the opposite is true, and it always has been.

One of the first, if not the first video games was the two-player game, pong. Though not actually a story game, this led the way for more two player, and then multiplayer games. Kids used to go to each other's houses and play Mario Brothers or Bubble Bobble; now, they interact with friends and strangers across the country in online, multiplayer games. There are even games that have “emotes”, special moves you can do to communicate with other players without voice chat. Others let you vote for another player as the MVP of each round to show your appreciation. Lest you think it’s all online, Nintendo is keeping in-person multiplay alive and well with games like Mario Kart, Mario Party, and Smash Brothers.

Single player games, too, invite interaction. Pre-internet, people would spread hints and strategy and cheat codes by word of mouth. “How did we know how to do that move without reading the manual?” my sister asked, recalling some odd special move in an older game. “I think a friend must have told me, and they probably heard it from one of their friends.” Nowadays, internet forums and Let’s Play videos serve the same purpose: a community of gamers helping each other out and spreading information about games.

I myself have talked repeatedly about what my brothers and sister experienced in their playthroughs. Some of this is because some games are too hard for me (like, every game FromSoft will ever make), but a lot of it is just because there was one TV and not enough time for me to start my own game. I’ve never actually played Sekiro or Bloodborne or Last Guardian, but I’ve watched people play all of them from start to finish, so I still have that experience. My brother and I both gasped when we first encountered a Mist Noble and its enchantment in Sekiro (and my advice, “Kill it with fire!” worked like a charm). My sister and I squeed over the griffin-dog-thing’s cute antics in Last Guardian. Unlike books, comics, and movies, which are best enjoyed in silence, video games invite conversation during play.

Online streams offer a similar experience. Even here, choice rears its head. Some streamers play it straight, from start-to-finish, with little editorializing. Others derp around doing a lot of nonsense, or add hilarious commentary, often adding their own layer of storytelling to the mix. Viewers of said streams can type comments in real-time, so that the streamer interacts not only with the game but with his viewers, and the entire experience is like one big conversation. Who said video games don’t inspire social interaction?

Community

Right about now is when I connect this new form of storytelling to something ancient. Books are the new songs and poems, movies are the new plays, and comics are the new tapestries and hieroglyphics. What, then, are video games? As I said before, they take elements from all of these other mediums: video games are the new bard adding their own lyric to a song, or the actor playing a well-known role a different way, perhaps due to choice or happenstance.

But mostly, video games are the new play, that most primal and primordial of all human storytelling. We play as soon as we can think, and play act as soon as we can walk. Children assign themselves roles and act them out together. Humans are communal creatures, after all, who process narratives by interacting with other humans.

To some extent, all storytelling is like this, as it is one human telling something to another rather than keeping it in their head. Video games, though, bring back the communal aspect of storytelling. Wanting to take part in stories—whether as a child going on adventures with friends, or an adult participating in a narrative ceremony, or anyone telling a story around a fire to a group of rapt and responding listeners—is part of being human.

At some point, however, that part of life got chopped off and shunted to the corner, as if adults shouldn’t desire narrative play unless they are writers. Thus, video games are put down as childish, or geeky, or not as valid as books. Oddly, they are stereotyped as being something beloved by loners, which ignores the vibrant and vocal gaming community.

I’m not sure where the animus towards gaming comes from. Why is immersing oneself in an imaginary world while staring at a book is considered high-brow, but doing the same while staring at a screen considered low? I don’t know, nor do I want to. What I do know is that some of the most unique, innovative, and emotional, stories I’ve ever seen have been those in video games, and I hope that in the future, more people give them a chance.

And those, dear readers, gamers, viewers, and story lovers of all stripes, are my thoughts on video games.

[bombshellsandbluebells]

6x04 Thoughts

The Good: 

One of the reasons I’ve been annoyed with Jordan’s romance this season, even though it makes character for them to both rush things, is that I felt like it was being used as a cheap, lazy way to make us invested in him, rather than actually developing him as a character on his own. I really did enjoy hearing him talk about his parents at the beginning of the episode - not only was it a real moment of emotion on his part and a look into his head and feelings, but it’s interesting to hear more about his dynamic with Harper and Monty. And it’s just nice to bring them up once in awhile again.

Raven’s talk with Clarke was exactly what I’ve wanted someone to say to Clarke. The problem isn’t with her not apologizing - Clarke has no problem saying the words, “I’m sorry.” But when she goes around and makes the same decisions over and over again, it makes every apology pointless and it proves she hasn’t actually regretted the actions she made that others were hurt and upset by. This was also another moment of actual emotion and character/relationship building (whether they’ll act on it with Clarke is another story) - and it actually landed for me a LOT better than the snarky comments of the first two episodes. This had actual hurt behind it. And it isn’t just a recap of past events; Raven actually stated in words the reason why people keep getting mad at Clarke and why Raven feels like she can’t trust her. It was more about emotions than a bullet point list of things Clarke has done to them.

Echo’s backstory scene at the end and the Becho makeup scene was probably my favorite scene in the whole show. For one thing, the filmmaking probably worked the best during this scene, so that’s an instant few points from me. It was nice to dig into Echo’s backstory, it felt like something true to the character, it was a scene based in emotion, and it actually gave Bob and Tasya the room to act. This is probably the MOST convincing scene on an emotional level of the entire season so far, if that makes sense. I also love that they didn’t try to suggest that Bellamy and Echo had never talked about their pasts before (they’ve known each other 6 years now) - but that Echo had kept that story secret because she didn’t want to revisit it.

It was also great insight into how Echo processes emotions (though certainly nothing unexpected) and it’s a relief to hear SOMEONE talk about mourning Monty and Harper and how their loss affects them. Plus it showed just how supportive they are of each other and how much they love each other, and that forehead kiss was SO SWEET.

Jordan covering Madi’s ears to protect her from hearing Raven allude to sex was absolutely adorable.

The Bad:

There’s....a lot. First off, there’s just too much happening this season. I forget clearly important plot points until I’m reminded of them because there’s too much to focus on (shiedheda who?). The pacing of every episode is off because we’re trying to run through too much plot. This episode might have had a few good moments for some characters, but other characters we care about get shoved to the side because there’s STILL SO MUCH PLOT TO MOVE THROUGH, as well as NEW CHARACTERS every single episode. (We’re moving at a rate of like, three new characters an episode at this point.)

@blodreina-noumou already wrote a great meta covering The Bellarke Problem and how badly the writers have fumbled their dynamic so I won’t dive too much into it. Not a single interaction between them this season has been believable to me, and I can’t buy Clarke telling Bellamy he’s important to her or Bellamy hugging her like a dear friend when really nothing has been shown to me to make me believe it.

The acting and dialogue are both very stilted and fake - and not just of new characters, but of actors I know are better than this. I have to believe that clunky dialogue is causing a lot of the problem and probably some bad directing too. And maybe some of them are just phoning it in, who knows. I’ve mentioned before (and so have others) that the dialogue is so bad this season because it’s just so on the nose. People aren’t really talking like real people, they’re talking like characters that need to give exposition or advance the plot. I’m getting the feeling this - and the general lack of subtly and subtext - might be the result of TOO MUCH PLOT, because they feel like they need to tell you exposition/plot points directly so you can follow along with their breakneck pace.

The Becho fight makes absolutely zero sense. It COULD have made sense, except for the fact that the writers completely glossed over the impact of Monty and Harper’s deaths at ALL. Aside from one short scene of Raven being upset - that really just led to a Zaven sex scene - NO MEMBER OF SPACEKRU has been shown mourning or emotional about their deaths at all. I can buy that Echo would bottle up her emotions and not show them, but it feels like Bellamy’s critique of that comes from nowhere and is hypocritical when no one has been particularly upset about Monty and Harper. Hell, even BELLAMY hasn’t shown much emotions around.

It really feels like Monty and Harper’s deaths aren’t relevant to their family unless it’s plot relevant - we don’t need to see how Spacekru handles their loss, but as soon as it offers up an easy way to make Becho fight, then it’s time to talk about Monty and Harper again. I think the fight works in theory, but it doesn’t work in the context of three episodes showing us NO ONE getting emotional about Monty and Harper. I do like the backstory, but there was a way to bring it in that didn’t involve a fight that breaks out for hard to buy reasons.

The Ugly:

This is my moment to be a nitpicky filmmaker. It was just rough. Bad shots, bad editing - all likely the result of bad directing, even though this director has done better on this show before. I won’t get into specifics - okay, one: WHY ARE YOU SCARED OF USING TRIPODS THE HANDHELD CAM ISN’T WORKING - but it was just...very frustrating for me. Again, I’m overly critical of this kind of stuff.

The tavern scene, which I think had the opportunity to do some intersting worldbuilding - is one of my least favorite scenes on this show to date. I just kind of felt like I was watching a cheesy, overacted video game cutscene. No one really moved or acted naturally, the dialogue was unnatural and clearly meant to spell out exposition, and the music FELT LIKE TERRIBLE VIDEO GAME MUSIC.

So on the one hand, I suppose this solved last week’s problem of All Plot, No Emotions/Character - but it still overall suffers from having too much plot to get through and it still maintains it’s problem with writing dialogue. This season lacks subtly and subtext and seems determined to just tell us everything directly to make sure we don’t miss anything in the high speed, overly complicated plot.

There are some scenes I really enjoyed, but unfortunately it’s not giving me high hopes about the rest of the season solving the problems presented in the first few episodes.

(But let’s talk about that Becho scene for the rest of forever because it was Very Good.)

[loststormtrooper]

Ive been slowly reading the Splinter Cell books and im almost finished the third one and I have complaints

Spoiler warning I guess for books that are over 10 years old if anyone cares about them.

So the first book was great. They got one of the bond writers to do it and it was so good. Splinter Cells identities have been leaked and Sam Fishers life is at stake throughout the whole thing because for the first time ever, the enemy know who he is. His chapters are in first person which makes everything feel so much more personal. All the other chapters following other characters are in third which gives this nice cutscene kind of feeling that games have when they show something your character wouldnt know. Its a book series based on a game, it just felt right. Sam's daughter gets kidnapped because The Shop (big bad weappns company) wants to stop Third Echelon from getting in the way of their sales and Sam is the one who is trying to stop them and stop them from doing deals with The Shadows which are trying to get the US out of the middle east so their country can take over another. Fisher ends up disrupting these deals and saves his daughter. But like, how it goes is so well. Sams daughter gets invited overseas with her friend and they both ger drugged and kidnapped by someone they thought was their friend! The stakes are high af because they killed off the friend and are going to kill Sams daughter and him if he cant stop all this stuff from happening. And theres the whole war nuclear weapon deals going on that he also has to stop. So good.

Anna Grimsdotir isnt present in this book because they need wiggle room for the next book and shes replaced with Carly who is also an analyst. Theres this nice tight nit friendship between Sams team at Third Echelon with Lambert, Carly, Sam, and and Mike that sets things up for the next book. Also Sams Grav Maga teacher, they flirt a bit, nice side story which leads into the next book. Pretty much everything leads into the next book because even though Sam defeated The Shadows, The Shop is still a major weapons dealer and have the identities of other Splinter Cells and needs to be stopped.

So next book, Operation Barracuda. Sam and his team need to find out who leaked the Splinter Cells information and stop The Shop. Uh oh! It was Mike and he had to kill Carly IN THE THIRD ECHELON OFFICE because she was about to figure out it was him and he escapes and the Triad offer to get him out of the country, he just has to get to the right place and theyll fly him out. Good setup for these cat and mouse chapters where and FBI agent is trying to keep up with Mike. Also Mike was actually planted in Third Echelon years ago and he and his brother have deals with the Triad to sell stuff which The Shop does t like because theure supposed to sell things to them and then they sell to the Triad.

All of these bad guys have one goal though. Theyre dealing with a rogue chinese general that wants to invade Hong Kong. So theres all this infighting and build up to when people, even the bad guys, start to figure more stuff about the other groups. The Triad, being in Hong Kong, dont want to be invaded, but the deals theyve done with bad guy general have provided him with a nuckear submarine that he threatens to detonate on the US coast unless they withdraw from Taiwan.

During all of this that krav maga teacher and Sam have had a few dates and are at Sams place. But when they are walking down the street she is gunned down and Sam is forced to leave her dead body on the street with people around because he cant risk being having anyone looking into who he is, even local police and government because he is in a secret agency. Amazing side story. It's a lot like the side stuff with his daughter in the first book, it gives him more motive outside of it just being a job, these people have killed 2 of his friends, one of which he was really into.

Back to bad guy stuff. FBI guy gets killed by Mikes brother after he goes into a shady place to arrest him. The triad are already there and hes just dead now. But he did arrest Mike so they got info from him which leads same to the Triad. In a pretty cool turn of events the general invades but theres no one to stop him! Oh wait! The Triad takes arms and fights off his army and its rad. Sam had gone into that shady building (just remembered its a night club) and gave them information about the generals attack and then left. It was a different chapter because he wasnt being stealthy, he just walked in and demanded to speak to people and it worked. When all this general vs Triad stuff is happening, Sam is dealing with The Shop. The general is defeated, the leak for the Splinter Cell information is in custody, and The Shop is finally shut down!

Next book... set before the first and has a new writer. All of it is in third person and it doesnt feel like the first for obvious reasons. Theres a handful of spelling errors spread throughout which really take you out of it because now youre thinking about this spelling error.

Starts with Sam having to sneak onto a ship thats going to crash onto the US coast and its packed with radioactive material or bombs? It wasnt clear to me. But he stops it and gets out. Its a pretty one track story whereas the other two books had a handful of stuff going on and it all worked neatly. Third Echelon need to know where the nuclear stuff came from to know who did it. He sneaks back on the ship which is under quarantine and takes a sample or something? There was something about having to get engine manufactuing codes to find out where the ship had done repairs and see where it came from but that branching plot just ends later in the book when Lambert says that his analysts found out where it was from. Sam need to find out where nuclear stuff came from. For reasons i cant remember because nothing in this book is worth remembering half the time, Sam has to go to Chernobyl to collect radiated material to see if they match. Thats not the unmemorable part, how they decided to go there to find it specifically is. Anyway, its a match and they figure out who did it and why by knowing who made the ship and how they got the nuclear material. The whole Chernobyl bit could have been better. It didnt feel like anything was at stake. And there was this awkward side story with a woman who helped him get into the dangerous areas unnoticed where theyd flirt and nothing would come of it and then theres nothing else about her ever again.

Then theres all this stuff of Sam infiltrating other places which leads him to another place which leads him to another place. Its very linear and theres a few chapters where he sneaks into a private island thats impossible to sneak onto but he does and it doesnt feel like anything is at stake. The whole book is about having to find out who did this one almost bombing and poisoned a whole towns water supply with radiated material, making it a wasteland, before the US declares war on the wrong nation for ot. But every time they get more information, they suddenly have more time and need to hurry, but then they do that and get more time but need to hurry! At one point they mention the president will declare war in 24 hours and im pretty sure its been like 4 days since then and nothing.

Also! Theres this terrible character cliche guy i hate. There's like 5 chapters spread out through the book where its this weird guy who is clearly the villain ( not bad guy or terrorist, hes just a bad villain) that talks all fancy and as if hes got this grand plan happening and keeps talking about chess and imagining chess moves after he gets new information. Its annoying and i hate him. Get a new character. It doesnt even have to be him, use one of the heads of the bad guy groups that are already established, god. I've got 6 chapters to go and Sam doesnt even know about that chess bad guy yet.

Tbh im considering skipping the next book because its the same writer and the Conviction books and Blacklist book are written by other people. It hasnt been release who i dont think though. Its all a pseudonym.

So i just finished Splinter Cell Checkmate. Its 2 days after i wrote that whole thing and it gets way better in the last 5 chapters. It was much more fast paced and actiony. The rest of the book was slow and not that interesting. There was a bit that brought back a character from earlier who was shot in the head but the bullet hit ar a weird angle and he was left to die. Sam found him and theres this nice calm part of the chapter of Sam trying to get him out without making his wound worse but he wasnt fast enough and he dies. Then Sam finally gets the location of the annoying chess bad guy with some information from now dead guy. It literally ended with Sam saying "...checkmate " to him which fealt really forced... they never met until now and Sam onlt mentioned chess once in the whole book besides that. I think he played it with a friend for a paragraph while they chatted. Epilogue was ok too. The woman who helped him into Chernobyl was in a wax museume and Sam rocks up with a passport for her to get out and fly back to the US with him. Was weird. They flirted maybe twice halfway through the book and then he rocks up with that. She didnt even know his name until the epilogue because he used an alias.

Anyway, first two books are great, third was super slow but ended ok.