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itsclydebitches · 4 years

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RWBY Recaps: Volume 8 “Witch”

Happy Saturday, everyone! Well, it's perhaps happier provided you didn't watch today’s episode lol. Getting through these 18 minutes felt like watching an extended version of a CinemaSins vid. I heard a little 'ding!' every time something nonsensical, contradictory, or just downright stupid happened. My mind became a pinball machine.

Which, in the interest of being fair as opposed to just snarky, only matters if you're looking for something resembling emotional depth in this show. RWBY, for all its faults, is enjoyable as a mindless spectacle. It's when you expect — or simply hope — for anything more that this very fragile house of cards comes tumbling down.

If it’s not clear already, today’s recap contains copious amounts of salt. Fair warning.

With that disclaimer out of the way, let’s dive in. Episode nine is titled "Witch," which is fitting since many members of our group go toe-to-toe against Salem herself. The narrative issues inherent in having your heroes fighting their final boss years before the series is meant to end might have been avoided if it weren't for Oscar's ridiculous, sacrificial attack... but we'll get to that.

We open with a sweeping shot of the Atlas battle, as hundreds of dead soldiers segue into endless grimm. Hold onto that image for a bit. At the end of this carnage is, of course, the mouth of the whale. We cut to Jaune, Ren, and Yang already safely inside.

"Well," says Yang, "that was harrowing."

I'm on the fence about this choice. On the one hand, yes, it's good that RWBY knows it can skip over extraneous scenes. We have NINE characters to keep track of and develop, fourteen if you count Ozpin, Maria, Winter, Ironwood, and now Whitley. Plus villains. There simply isn't time to show every insignificant moment... but was this insignificant? Obviously finding Oscar and escaping Salem's clutches is the true hurdle of this mission, but that doesn't mean getting through an entire army of grimm is in any way a cake walk. I'd be more willing to ignore this time skip if it weren't likewise presented as such a challenge for Winter's team. They have to "clear a path" to the whale, but our trio got there unscathed and unnoticed? The obvious implication here is that Ren just masked them the whole way — supported by his aura breaking later in the episode — but it still feels like we missed an important chunk of this task.

I'm nit-picking though. As said, I’m straddling the fence on this one and, given that, I'm inclined to settle on a, "Good job, RWBY. You're keeping the writing tight," if only because I don't have much else to praise about this episode. Throw the poor, struggling show a bone lol.

Now that they're inside, they realize they haven't the slightest idea how they'll find Oscar. “Like finding a needle in a giant…whale… why did we think this was a good idea?!” Because you and your friends are idiots who no longer bother to think about a situation before throwing yourself straight into it? This isn't me being mean to Yang, she literally says as much later on. Our heroes no longer get by on intellect, strategy, and skill, but rather plot armor and a staggering number of coincidences. For example, Ren.

Yang: Wow, it sure is lucky for us that on our way to this incredibly dangerous mission Ren inexplicably developed a new part of his semblance. Now he can not only mask peoples' emotions, see the true emotions that someone is feeling, pull thoughts out of their head about what they believe about a situation, but can also track someone across long distances through their emotions alone. Even that doesn't actually help us find Oscar, we just got lucky again when, in this maze of a whale, he ran right into us!

Me: So what were you going to do if this meta-world stopped giving you the most contrived solutions in Remnant history?

Yang: Die gloriously, I guess.

What Yang actually says is, "Okay. That's new!" and they enter the literal belly of the beast wielding a shield of convenience.

Jaune is also being awkward again because remember, RWBY doesn't know when to incorporate humor and when to treat a situation seriously. He reminds Ren not to "drain [himself]," he'll help him, and it's clear the scene is hinting at their earlier fight. There's a lot to unpack there, but I want to save it for the second conversation.

For now, we cut to Oscar, curled up in his cell, repeating stories to comfort himself. Yeah that's fine. I could use a broken heart right before Valentine's Day.

“She brushed off her bumps and bruises, for nothing hurt worse than the loneliness in her chest." It's a line from The Girl Who Fell Through the World, which Ozpin recognizes given that he's "lived through" a fair number of fairy tales. He immediately asks how Oscar is holding up — because he's a caring person! — and Oscar admits that he never understood why the girl of the tale was sad upon reaching home again. Now he does: she wasn't the same person anymore. I don't think the fact that Oscar has had both a metaphorical fall — leaving his farm to 'fall' into this war — and a literal one — falling through Atlas to unlock his magic — is lost on anyone. This is a nice allusion to our themes. Yang's speech to Salem later on? That’s something else entirely.

Storytelling done, Ozpin says he thinks "this plan to divide might have run its course” and it's time to try and find a way to leave. I'm sorry, I love my farm boy, but what plan? He didn't do anything. At least nothing that could remotely be termed an intellectual plot. Oscar convinced Ozpin to try and turn Hazel by telling him the world would end under Salem's rule and the only reason that worked is because the story decided to chuck out Hazel's entire character. You know, the one that hates Ozpin above all others, wants the world remade into a non-Academy horror show, can't understand that people make their own choices, is terrified of Salem, and has no reason to trust a prisoner he's currently torturing. Oscar's "plan" hinged on his writers erasing a great deal of work to build a new story that fits said “plan.” He didn't even get Emerald involved, she just — again, conveniently — eavesdropped outside their door at just the right moment.

To be clear, I'm not against a story being written to work in the hero's favor. Of course things are going to be convenient in a happy-ending tale. Someone manages to hold out just as long as they need to, a sword is lying just within reach, you, yes, happen to run into the one person you're desperate to find. This kind of stuff is reassuring, telling its audiences that sometimes things do work out for the best. It's enjoyable... but only provided the hero's entire success doesn't hinge on fate being shockingly kind to them. That's what RWBY has become. A world where Salem doesn't attack Mantle, Amity Tower is suddenly finished, the group can charge into any deadly situation they want to and bank on destiny twisting around itself to ensure they come out of it safely. A hero finding a convenient weapon nearby to defeat their enemy with is only reassuring after we've seen them implement a brilliant attack, struggle, nearly win, but then suddenly be faced with failure, necessitating that little push from coincidence. They earned it. The hero doesn't get to run in blindly and find a Defeat Bad Guy plot point gift wrapped for them at the first sign of trouble. They just die.

RWBY used to be a better written show because that's precisely Pyrrha's story. She charged a Maiden unprepared, without a single plan or hope for success, and she died. That's what happens in a dangerous, internally consistent world, but RWBY has since lost the second half of that formula.

I'm harping on this because this entire episode is built on that foundation of coincidence, something that shouldn't be happening at all, but especially not when you're pitting the heroes against Salem herself.

So yeah, it just gets worse from here.

Back to Oscar. Without the cane magic is the only weapon they have at their disposal, but he's reluctant to use it because every time he does, they merge more quickly.

They... do?

Okay, there are three major problems with this announcement:

I'm pretty sure we've only seen Oscar use magic once: creating that barrier to survive the fall through Atlas. That was the point of his near death experience, to unlock something that had previously been unavailable to him. Yet if he's only used it once, why is he so sure that it hurries the merge along? What's this "every time" business? This confusion could have easily been avoided if the show had just let Oscar use his magic this volume, tackling some other questions and gaps in the process. Let him use it to fight off the grimm in Mantle, giving him the opportunity to admit to at least Jaune, Ren, and Yang that Ozpin is back. He could have used some magic against the Hound with Ozpin's encouragement, answering the question of why he was entirely silent while the two of them got their ass beat. Give us a moment where Oscar uses his magic against Hazel, nearly escaping in the process, but is captured again at the last moment. Basically, his line makes it sound like magic has been this ongoing resource with an established downside when... it hasn’t.

Coinciding with all of the above, how is it that Oscar can suddenly use magic at will? Yeah, yeah, he unlocked it during the fall, but really? You open up the magic gates and from then on out it's as natural as breathing? This is the same issue with Ruby's silver eyes. The story gives these characters incredible powers, but never has them talking about how they work, let alone training them. They just exist, perfect in execution, as soon as the plot needs them. (See: the final shot of this episode.) At least Weiss had to practice her summoning for multiple volumes.

Finally, the question of how Oscar instinctively knows how to use magic could easily be answered with, "Well, he's kind of Ozpin now," but that would require the story to actually explain what the merge is. "We merge faster," Oscar says, but what does that mean? The Ozpin and Oscar we see in this scene are fundamentally indistinguishable from the Ozpin and Oscar who existed at his aunt's house, four whole years ago. They're still separate people, with one controlling the body and the other existing as a consciousness he can talk to. Nothing has changed. The show keeps insisting that Oscar is going through this deep and painful arc of losing himself to Ozpin... despite the fact that he has yet to lose a single bit of Oscar-ness. Has he changed? Well of course, but anyone going through these experiences is going to change. Remove the "merge" aspect and Oscar's confidence or power up is likewise indistinguishable from any of the other characters' developments. Nora is becoming more of an individual this volume. Ren is becoming more powerful in his semblance. Neither have an Ozpin to force that change, it just happens on its own. So what separates Oscar from every other character going through a formative experience? When is “I’m not the same person anymore” due to unnatural magic vs. just growing up?

Don't get me wrong, I'm happy our boy is getting more screen time — and that the cast is actually being kind to him now — but overall his arc is objectively terrible. He bought some clothes, told Ironwood he was as bad as Salem, told Hazel how to access the Relic, and then asked him not to be a villain anymore. Somehow these things are presented as significant moments of growth while the real questions surrounding his merge go unanswered.

“Honestly, I think you’re doing just fine on your own," Ozpin tells him, but he's not. God knows our boy is trying, but this is a moment where Ozpin's self-hatred (and the story's insistence that the younger generation is intrinsically better than the older) is blinding him to the situation. Oscar has made terrible decisions lately, in as much as he's been able to decide anything at all, and now he's rejecting escaping captivity because he's terrified of a concept he doesn't even understand yet. None of that is fine. Reassurance is one thing, but painting this situation as Oscar making better choices than he would with Ozpin's input is insane. He literally just decided to keep them in Salem's clutches indefinitely because something something magic is scary, I guess. Oscar doesn't need a, 'You're better than me' speech, he needs a reality check so they don't both die. Remember back in Volume 5 when Oscar, a brave but idiotic 14 year old, insisted on fighting someone entirely out of his league and Ozpin was like,

then saved him from getting his head crushed in like a cantaloupe? We need more of that. Our teenage heroes need guidance, but because RWBY keeps insisting that every adult they encounter is corrupt or incompetent, that hasn't happened in three volumes. They're just aloud to decide things like, “Let's tell our captor the Relic's password because UwU ~trust~” and then the story bends over backwards to make that work. Instead we could, you know, let characters learn that they can be wrong.

The snow scene was the beginning, but RWBY really went off the rails the day it let Qrow warn the group against stealing from and attacking an allied city, only for them to call him an idiot for doubting them. Now, Ozpin doesn't even get to warn Oscar about stupid decisions, he just agrees with them, reassuring and passive. Never mind the complication of whether Ozpin is even emotionally capable of providing guidance after they labeled him the worst thing to ever happen to them.

Why does RWBY keep ruining my faves 😔

Anyway, we’ve got to stay on track. Oscar has decided to just lie there but, luckily for him, Hazel's redemption — I use that term so loosely — has begun. He drags Oscar out of his cell before we cut to Winter.

She's leading a portion of Ironwood's army, trying to get things ready for when the bomb arrives. Neon and Flynt are a part of her team, sharing scared glances and trying to remain optimistic. It's a legitimately hard-hitting moment, striking that balance between horror and hope. Funny though, I wonder that RWBYJNOR would think of their friends fighting for evil Ironwood...

Marrow, continuing the tradition of insisting that our heroes be both adults and kids simultaneously, looks sadly at the soldiers heading into battle and goes, "But... they're just kids." I would like to remind everyone reading that Ruby is younger than them. Anyone who thinks that these teenagers shouldn't be fighting grimm — the thing they have been training to do as their professional career, during an unprecedented attack on their home — should not simultaneously be looking to the girl who is two years younger as his savior. (Something that, while not overt yet, is very much where Marrow is heading as he continually doubts the Ace Ops and looks to RWBY's group as his new, moral leaders.) I'm glad that, for once, this perspective is firmly called out. Elm arrives to tell him point blank that he needs to figure out his personal ethics later. It doesn't matter because there's an army of grimm out there and monsters aren't going to spare anyone, adult or child. Quit philosophizing and kill some already.

Back to Hazel where we get the doorway shot from our trailer. He's taken Oscar to the Relic, because of course he has. Do I really need to list how convenient this is too? Apparently, "the moment we move that thing, this place goes on high alert," but there’s no alarm for when Oscar is taken from his cell, they enter the Relic's room, or when they use it. What does a movement alert matter if someone can just waltz in and waste the last question themselves? Put some of those endless grimm in the room to guard it, Salem!

Just assume that I am, at any given point in this episode, letting out the longest sigh my lungs are physically capable of.

Emerald shows up, demonstrating both the convenience of everyone arriving when they need to, and the very real danger that Salem herself could come in and discover what they're up to. Hazel has Oscar summon Jinn, only to immediately say that “Actually, I think all my questions are answered now.”

I'm sorry, how does this answer any of Hazel's questions? His driving question was not, "Is the Relic actually a magical object capable of doing magical things?" but rather "Are you telling me the truth about Salem's plans to summon the Gods and destroy all of Remnant in her quest to finally die, thereby changing who I'm going to support in this war?" Seeing a naked, blue djinn does not answer that question.

Hazel's "redemption" is non-existent. He — we — learned about Salem's death wish despite how that contradicts previous lore, then he trusted Ozpin despite that contradicting his entire character, now he joins the heroes because, literally, he sees Jinn floating there. It’s bad enough that Hazel goes from clear villain to sacrificial hero in a matter of in-world hours, but we don’t even get a reason for why that change occurred.

Oh, there's also this:

So Jinn doesn't come out of her lamp unless someone intends to ask a question, but does it for Ruby because she's special, yet still reiterates that this won't happen again. Then Oscar summons her without intending to ask a question, she comes out anyway, confirms that none of them seek knowledge from her, and happily pops back inside her lamp because eh, it’s whatever.

If RWBY had any courage the three of them would be cursed now for toying with a powerful, magical object. Remember the days when Jinn was a little terrifying because it felt like she was warping her answers and we had no idea what she might do to someone who used her carelessly? When she felt like a djinn? Good times.

Or better times, at least.

So Good Guy Hazel and Good Gal Emerald promise to get Oscar out. Never mind all the horror they caused, the people they killed, and that for Hazel, at least, this defection is coming out of nowhere.

Anyone remember that Emerald orchestrated Penny's death? No? Just me?

As they leave it turns out Neo was camouflaged against the wall, because she was also precisely where she needed to be. Does everyone just periodically pop into the Relic room to see what’s going on? At least this time it's not working in the heroes' favor. Remember when I said it's beyond idiotic for Oscar to just hand out the Relic information to known enemies currently holding him captive and torturing him?

Yeeeeaah.

So Neo's got the Lamp. Funny how all of this could have been avoided if Ruby had just put it in the vault like she came to Atlas to do ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

We return to our trio where Jaune and Ren need to rest because their aura is giving out. Good! These guys fought a battle, fought Neo, fought more grimm, fought the Hound, traipsed through the tundra, presumably fought through more grimm to get to the whale, and have been using both their semblances to look for Oscar. It's about time their reserves started to falter.

Jaune decides to scout ahead a bit, leaving Yang and Ren to talk about nothing of importance. I mean that seriously. Remember a few days ago when I spoke about how, if the snow conversation does come back up, Ren's points would be entirely ignored for a nonsensical “I’m glad we’re friends” speech? Remember how I also spoke about how every emotional beat now is entirely generic and you could replace any character with another and not a single thing would change? Yeah. This is both those arguments in one. Nothing is said about the points Ren made. His problems with how the group has been acting lately and the very real, very deadly consequences it has had are flat out ignored. We went from

"But these aren't the kinds of decisions we should be making because we have no idea what we're doing!"

"Forward, no matter what!"

in a matter of hours, with precisely zero insight into how Ren went from one perspective to the exact opposite. Kind of like Hazel. Because see, RWBY doesn't write arcs, it just writes one thing until it decides to switch it up for something else, with the opposite idea presented as a “resolution” or a “twist.” Our creators writes scenes they know the fandom is begging for without considering how to get a character to that place, let alone how to get them out of it. That's all Ren's speech was, the equivalent of moral fan service. Here's a glimpse of actual character depth and a morally gray situation... now forget it ever happened because we're back to our regularly scheduled programming.

Instead of working through the laundry list of issues Ren raised, Ren instead accepts Jaune's aura help — something they've been doing since Argus — and tells Yang it's okay to be scared. These moments are meaningless and, as said, could have been between anyone in our cast. Ren could have told Nora she doesn't have to use jokes to cover up that she's scared. Jaune could have reminded Ruby that she can depend on him. Yang could have tried to keep Blake and Weiss' hopes up. This scenes ignores the individuality of the characters, like the fact that they just fought over very different world views, to instead favor any dime-a-dozen moment of support. The number of times this volume has rejected the conflict and resolution the group needs for bland, generic reassurances staggering.

Also, apparently Jaune isn't scared at all? I don't think that's as good a thing as Ren seems to think...

Then Jaune immediately rounds the corner, terrified lol.

One of the seer grimm is on its way and he tells Ren to mask them. Apparently he had been masking them before — one of the reasons he's so tired now, trying to do two things at once — but it's only here that they go black and white again. Ren manages to keep it up for a little while, but his aura breaks before the seer passes and they're spotted.

Hark! A consequence!

That was well done. It makes sense and it adds to the stakes. We've seen the insane amount of fighting the group has done since Volume 7, we just established that they're at their breaking point, and then Ren's aura fails him right when he needs it the most. Add this to the miniscule pile of things that were well done this episode.

Salem runs into Emerald and Hazel, the former of which is acting very suspicious when asked if he's made any headway with Oscar. The seer's alarm interrupts them though and... okay. Was I the only one who cackled during this moment? Between Salem's voice acting and the fact that she just yeets herself down the hallway, it came across as really funny to me.

Either way, it is a bad situation. Our trio is trying to figure out what to do, to which Yang responds, "Do what we do best… charge blindly into danger!!”

Ren's aura is broken. Jaune barely has any left and it’s unlikely he could heal right now even if Ren had any aura to amplify. If Ren takes a single hit anywhere important he is dead.

Me, on my knees, surrounded by the ashes of the Hound, the last bit of serious storytelling we had: "For the love of God, the kingdom is on fire and simultaneously dying of cold. There's a grimm army decimating hundreds outside. Half their group is missing and they're wandering lost inside a devil whale, about to have the most powerful being Remnant has ever known personally try to kill them — can we please have their attitudes reflect that?"

The answer, in case you were wondering, is no.

Back to the bomb. Whatever scientists were given this task have completed it and Marrow watches as it's flown out towards the whale. "Come on, Juan" he whispers and I'm all, "Juan?" Apparently it's a callback to last volume when Marrow couldn't remember Jaune's actual name, but it took me hopping onto the RWBY wiki to remember that.

As death via explosion inches closer, the trio runs into Hazel and Emerald. Turns out though that Hazel is really Oscar, disguised through Emerald's semblance. Nice trick! Jaune immediately drops both weapons to hug Oscar and, while that's nice and all, it's also the stupidest thing he could possible do in enemy territory. Also, Oscar has been beaten up by the Hound, tortured with magic, and likewise beaten bloody by Hazel. I was hoping for a tender hug like the one Nora gave him, not a giant squeeze for more comedy purposes. It just feels like RWBY has no idea how to manage the tone of this volume, let alone the torture of a child...

There's the obligatory, "Why should we trust you?" from Yang regarding Emerald joining the team, to which Ren responds, "Because she's scared, just like us."

That doesn't prove anything. Literally everyone is scared right now. There is a war going on. I really cannot emphasize enough how RWBY throws out Deep™ sounding lines that are, upon inspection, absolutely nonsensical. Nora reminding Penny that there are different parts to her personhood, Hazel saying that all his questions have been answered, Ren announcing that Emerald is scared... it's all worthless chatter that has no bearing on their problems: How do I keep from being hacked? How do I know you're telling the truth? How do we know you're trustworthy after you spent years trying to kill us? But of course, because it's RWBY, Ren's announcement is treated as some sort of secret truth that everyone accepts. Emerald joins up.

As they head for an exit we return to Marrow who, frankly, is getting on my last nerve. I know the fandom loves him because he's clearly leaning towards Team RWBY, but does anyone actually listen to what he says? He starts yelling at Winter for sending in the bomb because the trio might still be alive in there, despite:

Seeing for himself the hundreds of soldiers that have fallen trying to keep Atlas safe

Knowing and hearing again from Winter that the only way to stop this carnage is to take out the whale. Given more time, the whole city falls

Sadly announcing to the world that children shouldn't have to fight in a battle, rather than just joining the fray and helping to keep those kids safe

How does Marrow think those kids are going to be able to stop fighting? How does he think he'll get a city to return to? It's no wonder that he's drawn to Ruby because both characters stand around twiddling their thumbs, mourning that things are bad, and blaming others for imperfect solutions rather than doing something to make the situation better. Marrow's disgust at Winter over the bomb is precisely the same as Ruby's disgust at Ironwood over Mantle: how dare you not have a plan that results in both victory for us and zero sacrifices? They want perfection which, yes, is an admirable trait, but their problem is they refuse to do anything until that perfection appears. They’re paralyzed, a trait that’s particularly dangerous when your story insists that perfection will never appear: it’s not a fairy tale. So they just continue to get mad at others for the fact that they live in an unfair world. You want that perfect solution? Think it up yourself. Otherwise, stand aside and let those coming up with something do what they can to make things better.

Marrow goes so far as to drag Weiss into things, trying to guilt Winter with the knowledge that she'll have to relate the death of her sister's friends back to her. Winter, because she's a badass who isn't in denial over the situation, tells him that yes, she will shoulder that responsibility. To Marrow's credit he backs off then, but man. RWBY has legitimate moral questions here — when is holding out for a few worth risking the many? — but they go about exploring it in the most frustrating way possible. I personally have no respect for the guy who wants to announce that Children In War Is Bad instead of, you know, using the power he currently has to protect those kids already neck deep in a battle.

Because John Mulaney remains relevant:

"There shouldn't be a horse in the hospital :( "

"We're WELL PAST THAT."

Marrow is the one going, "There shouldn't be kids in a war :( We shouldn't have to kill a few to save the whole kingdom :( " and everyone around him is like, "No shit, dude! But this is the hand we were dealt! You going to help us, or what?"

Literally all of these characters could have been so much more than what they currently are.

Except Winter. She's doing great.

Now for the final scene. Our group nearly manages to escape the whale, but is incapacitated by some sort of screechy power that Salem employs.

She contorts her body, stretching out her arms to snag Emerald, and the others have a brief, but intense skirmish. Jaune manages to block a blast of magic aimed at Ren with his shield — nice — and Yang dots Salem's face with a bunch of bombs before blowing her sky-high — double nice. Oscar shoots out some magic of his own because, yeah, I guess he can just do that now? It really feels like it came out of nowhere after eight episodes of being the punching bag.

Of course, Salem immediately reforms. She traps the group with grimm arms that come out of the whale, interrogating Ozpin about why he bothers to keep coming back. There's a very sad answer there of, "I don't," referring to his lack of choice in reincarnating to fight her.

Yang interrupts their little tet-a-tet to throw the question back in Salem's face, calling her out on her choices. A great idea but, as always, execution: "because something bad happened to you once upon a time? No one gets a fairy tale ending."

I’m sorry, but that dialogue had me cringing. Like I said before, way too on the nose. There's keeping with the fairy tale theme, and then there's shoving the viewer's face in it. More of Oscar's musings on how he relates to the protagonists of fairy tales, blurring the lines between storytelling and reality, which in turn encourages the viewer to consider how they see themselves in the RWBY cast. Less... whatever this is.

Yang goes on to talk about how many people Salem has taken from her, which upon reflection makes a certain amount of sense if you toss in all the people who are here, but changed somehow due to Salem's influence, as well as acquaintances who died as a result of her meddling: Raven is scared off, Tai suffers as a result, Pyrrha dies, Penny dies, Yang loses her arm and her school. I think the dialogue could have been revised to reflect that better though because what Yang implies is that Salem has killed countless of her loved ones, yet what she says is, "Summer Rose. My mom." Honestly, for the few seconds this exchange was happening my thoughts weren't even on Summer. Yang calls Salem out for killing loved ones and my brain went, "Pyrrha??"

That's how little they've done with Yang and Summer. I know in the past I've argued that RWBY has a "better late than never" situation going on, that I would praise them for making the right writing choices even if they arrive years too late... but now that we're here, I find that it's a hard problem to overlook. Summer is Yang's mom? When's the last time we heard that? Volume 2? Whenever the conversation with Blake was. Since then Yang has called Raven "Mom," focused on that emotional connection (or lack thereof), was excluded from the conversation with Qrow, comforted Ruby after she was blindsided by Salem's taunt, and otherwise hasn't mentioned Summer at all. There is no foundation for this accusation except a few lines about getting cookies as a child and the fact that we're tossing references in now makes me worried that we'll indeed get a grimm!Summer reveal. Better remind the audience that she exists before the twist arrives! Honestly, as much as a part of me wants to praise RWBY for trying to get things back on track, moments like this just ring hollow now. They waited years and now it’s too late. It doesn't help that this is the episode where we shrug off Ren's speech. What will Yang's cutting admission amount to based on this trend? Probably nothing. Summer will become Yang’s mom again in another six seasons.

Salem, obviously, doesn't care. The real Hazel arrives and she orders him to take Oscar back to his cell. Instead, he gives him his cane with a whispered, "No more Gretchens, boy."

Behold, another meaningless line. Hazel hates Ozpin for "forcing" Gretchen on a mission and "getting" her killed. The whole point of his villainy is that he doesn't understand the concept of choice and that bad things can happen to good people with no one able to prevent it. Not every loss has a responsible party attached (outside of, you know, Salem/the grimm). So what is he even demanding here? No more huntsmen schools? That's what you wanted Salem for. No more "forcing" people to fight for you? Ozpin never did that in the first place. Or is it just a strange promise that no one else will die here? RWBY seems to be under the impression that they can just name drop dead family members — Summer, Gretchen — and that's that. Emotional depth created, never mind a lack of buildup or clarity.

Then Hazel punches Salem across the room and she releases every single hero from their bonds. See the theme of this episode: convenience. Hazel shoves a whole bunch of dust crystals into his shoulders and yells that he's doing what Gretchen would have wanted, clearly sacrificing himself so that the others can escape. The battle between him and Salem is pretty decent. I enjoyed the dust vs. magic creativity and the sheer damage Salem can take before reforming. This fight really showcases how not human she is.

It does, however, bring into question Hazel's reveal about her needing an hour to heal at the longest. I mentioned how unlikely it would be that our heroes would get the chance to "kill" her multiple times, yet here we are, just a few episodes later. They got that opportunity and... does it matter? Salem's reforming doesn't appear to slow down at all, despite her head getting obliterated at least three times, so at what point does she need longer than a few seconds to heal? If this was meant to be a potential weakness the group would eventually exploit, we needed to see it here, both for that setup and to keep it consistent with Hazel's story.

Regardless, they fight and at first it looks like a pretty straight-forward sacrifice on Hazel's part, giving the group their chance to escape. Except... Oscar.

"She'll just come after us," he tells Jaune, turning away from him to fight.

I need a list for this:

Of course she's going to come after you. This is not some shocking revelation. At no point has anyone thought that escaping the whale is the answer to all their problems, it just creates one less problem to deal with. Namely, the problem of "Our ally is captured, being tortured, and may give up important intel to the enemy. Oh, also he's about to be blown up with a bomb." Salem coming after them doesn’t matter. What matters is making her plans as difficult as possible as you work to come up with more solutions of your own. This is just a smaller version of the Ironwood conflict: “Well, Salem will just follow Atlas into the sky so it’s useless to attempt escape, or to buy ourselves time.” It’s really not. I know I’ve used this ridiculous comparison before, but if you’re ever chased by a horror movie serial killer hell-bent on your destruction and your reaction to this problem is, “Why run? He’ll just chase us. The only possible choice is to fight him with a 99% chance of our death,” then I beg you to re-evaluate things.

What was the point of coming to rescue Oscar if he was just going to stay behind? The whale is about to be blown up by a bomb and the trio risked their lives ten times over to get to him. If I were them I would be pissed. We went through all that to get you out and now you’re refusing to leave when we have a chance? Thanks for that.

Same with Hazel. Not that I care about the guy, but if I was sacrificing myself for others to escape I'd be pretty annoyed at them randomly deciding not to do that.

What does Oscar even think he's going to do? Kill the immortal witch? The entire point of our series is that they can’t do that (yet).

However, if he is able to do something significant via Ozpin's magic, why didn't Ozpin do that generations ago? Somehow I don't think a younger Ozma closer to the height of his power was in a worse position to attack Salem than a tortured, aura-less kid who unlocked his magic yesterday. The more RWBY reveals about Salem, the more I go, “Okay, but why didn’t his happen [insert any number of years] ago?”

Did Jaune actually leave? I assume he's just grabbing an airship or something before coming back to drag Oscar away, but seriously where did he go?

There's no way I can approach this scene without throwing up my hands and going, "What? WHY?" Which is a real shame because we finally get to see a bit of what the cane does and it’s... precisely what Ozpin's magic has always done? I mean, we saw that green shield five years ago and now there's a giant white beam. Okay.

If the beam just hits Salem with Generic Magic Power then there was never anything secret about the cane, it’s just, you know, Ozpin’s weapon. If the cane does something significant to hurt her we're left with the question of why it took literal generations to use it. Nothing is making sense to me and the only way I can think to salvage this scene is if Jaune runs back in, snags Oscar like a sack of potatoes, and runs out yelling about how he's clearly suffering from a concussion because what are you trying to accomplish here?

It doesn't help that this moment feels... final. Hazel has managed to hold Salem in place. Oscar has unlocked his cane and lands some mega hit right before Hazel passes out and looses his hold. Not only does this feel like a scene that should be at the end of the volume (we've still got five episodes), but also the end of the series. RWBY is building Salem into an unbeatable enemy by giving her more and more powers, and simultaneously eliminating the stakes by having our currently weakest character (in terms of exhaustion/injuries/aura/training) landing a shot like that. Why would you nerf Salem's threat level like that in the middle of a volume? Especially with a tool our group has had available from the start? If the cane does damage, maybe lead with that in the, “Here’s why we should stay and fight” office conversation.

I assume that Oscar's hit will obliterate Salem to the point where both he and Hazel have time to escape, or he obliterates both of them (“Do it”) and that's somehow presented as a better choice than just running while Salem is captured, or the bomb will interrupt things somehow... but it's just so shoddily done. At the very least, if they were going to have Oscar refuse to let someone fight alone, have it be an actual friend he's staying to assist. Having Oscar refuse his own rescue to help Hazel has more than one problem attached to it. We can say what we want about RWBY's themes of forgiveness, but this guy was torturing him just a few hours ago while serving Remnant's version of the devil. Just let him sacrifice himself and move on.

And that's where we end. Oscar powering up, the cane getting all magic-y, and him shooting a crazy big blast that engulfs both Salem and Hazel. I can't believe how not excited I am about my farm boy doing something badass, but here we are.

Overall I think this episode was way worse than last week's. We absolutely had problems in "Dark," particularly when it came to the Hound and the group's blind devotion to Ruby, but at least those moments were cushioned by an otherwise decent episode. "Witch" felt like I was watching something closer to a parody of RWBY, one deliberately poking fun at the fandom's desires: erase all conflict for awkward silly times, your favorite villains are instantly good now, the heroes go toe-to-toe with the main antagonist because why not, throw a bunch of magic in there for good measure, and wrap it all up in some over the top "this isn't a fairy tale" lines. I can see the pieces of a much better episode here — Emerald sneaking Oscar out with her semblance, Neo snagging the relic, Flint and Neon, Hazel attacking Salem — but it simply didn't come together.

I know I said this last time, but I have no idea what we're going to do for another five episodes. Salem slowly reforming from bomb damage as the group tries to keep Penny from opening the vault? The grimm attack halted with the whale gone so Qrow can go after Ironwood? The longer this volume runs, the more I think it was a mistake for them to introduce Salem as a fightable antagonist now. RWBY doesn't know what to do with her besides have her inevitably fall in the final season, so until then she's left being stupid (Relic), passive (Mantle), or, likely, written out of the story temporarily so the heroes can turn their attention towards smaller conflicts and weaker foes. They literally can’t beat Salem yet, but they can’t focus on other problems when she’s around without coming across as negligent, so if you have to find ways to erase her to make room for that... what was the point of bringing her here in the first place? We could have established that Salem is bound to her realm and had her send the Hound and whale to attack Atlas. There, all the fun parts of the volume without her complicated presence.

Well, the next five weeks will certainly be interesting, at the very least...

Until next time 💜

[Ko-Fi]

#rwby #rwby spoilers #rwby volume 8 #rwby witch #mymetas #rwby recaps

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mystifiicd · 2 years

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what about my portrayal attracted you to my blog?

if you would like to be more SPECIFIC – what made you STAY?

( accepting )

@amarcnthiine said: Well, what caught my attention first was your icon lol.😆 But, honestly, I also love the idea of Stephen being a father figure to Peter and I love that you love it, too!😊 Also, it's always a plus that you're willing to RP with OCs! Some canon character blogs can be pretentious and not willing to give OCs the time of day. :(

Yeah, a friend of mine made it for me a long time ago. I wish I knew how they are doing. I miss 2018 a whole lot. It was so nice back then when I first remade Stephen. Anyways, yes. He’s a dad, a wizard dad, whether he likes it or not. To me, he’s always had that type of personality that screamed protector and healer at the same time ( well, he IS a doctor ). He just has to let a few walls down but it’s hard for him to let go. But he cares for people, especially when dealing with kids, even though he lies and says, ‘this is why I didn’t want kids’. Or those who have lost siblings, parents, grandparents, etc. Because hey, he knows what it feels like. Yeah I love original characters. There are a few on my dash that are quite nice and lovely. Well written out too. I love seeing people putting effort into things. I can tell their hard work is paying off.

#long post: tw #what about my portrayal attracted you to my blog? meme;;#amarcnthiine #[ what is this? my mantra? SERE ]

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amandaklwrites · 3 years

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Top Ten Favorite Book Series

And here’s another Top Ten in my series! This one is about book series that I have read in the past, or have been reading over time. Of course, these can change over time, but I know all of these will be very important to me. So, here they are, in no particular order!

1. Throne of Glass series by Sarah J. Maas

I loved this series since I first discovered them. I know not a lot of people like them, or at least aspects of them, and I do understand some problems with them. But I had found the first two books when I had moved in with my boyfriend at the time, and I fell absolutely in love with them. The last book came out when during my last year in college and I didn’t complete any homework for like a week. I love these books because of the important themes she had written, and there were a few scenes that made me cry, especially in the last book. I loved the friendships and complicated characters she created.

2. Grisha Trilogy by Leigh Bardugo

Again, I found this series around the time I had discovered Throne of Glass. But they were all out already, and I actually met Leigh at a book event for the last book. I loved this series more so for the darkness of its tone, and the Darkling is my favorite fictional villain, hands down. But I remember being so amazed while reading this trilogy because I had discovered I could write dark, dark stuff if I wanted, and it fed that part of me.

3. Gemma Doyle Trilogy by Libba Bray

I read this trilogy in high school, and I remember loving it so much. So I recently did a reread and I loved it just as much. I liked the tone, the characters, the settings and the magic. It has always been that stuck out to me, and I’m so glad I had found it when I did.

4. The Infernal Devices by Cassandra Clare

This series had changed my life, honest to god. Surprising to most, I hadn’t been a big reader growing up. I read some stuff (most Narnia, Spiderwick, Alice in Wonderland, etc), and I could never find the kinds of books I had always wanted to read. I was a sophomore in high school when I was looking through my local small bookstore, and I saw the cover of a young man in Victorian attire (my favorite time period forever!), and I remember reading the back and I was instantly intrigued. And I fell in love with it. Not only did it spark my reading as a teenager, helping me find the genres and stories I liked, but it had been with me through important times. When I had been through an awful depression that led to an attempted suicide my junior year, I was reading this series. I remember reading the second book that year in my yearbook class, and I read through class, which annoyed one of my guy friends that I sat with. When I finished the last book in the hidden classroom behind a class I was a tutor for, I cried. I sobbed as I read the epilogue, and I remember just staring at the wall for the rest of that time. This series broke and remade me, and I think it has huge influence on me personally.

5. Sands of Arawiya duology by Hafsah Faizal

I just read this series a couple of months ago, and my god, did I love it. I loved the world, the characters, the deep, meaningful friendships. This one surprised me in so many ways, and I didn’t want to stop reading it. I loved it so, so much and it’s important to my heart.

6. Red Queen series by Victoria Aveyard

I see mix reviews on this series, especially the later books. But I personally loved them. I loved the adventure and magic system and my god did I love the twists. Maven Calore is probably one of the most interesting characters I have ever read. I loved how complicated and destructive it was, and the war tactics and plots were great.

7. An Ember in the Ashes series by Sabaa Tahir

My god, Sabaa knows how to make really, really complicated situations for characters. Talk about torturing your own characters. And I think that was what I learned from these books, as a writer myself. She made strong, powerful characters and threw them through hell, to see where they came out. But I loved the way they wrapped up, the arcs of the characters, the beauty of their closeness. It’s just a beautiful series.

8. Lady Sherlock series by Sherry Thomas

This is just a fun series. It combines some of my favorite things—women detectives, Victorian England, mysteries, and Sherlock Holmes. But I love that Sherlock Holmes is actually a woman. They’re great books that put twists on the original books and I adore so much about them.

9. Stalking Jack the Ripper series by Kerri Maniscalco

What a great series! I loved these more with each book. I love Audrey Rose and Thomas Cresswell, as lovers and as partners, so much. But they are both intriguing in their own ways. And I adored how Kerri used different historical/pop culture aspects in her books—Jack the Ripper, Dracula, Houdini, and the Devil in the White City. They are great mysteries with loveable characters and I love it so much.

10. Well Met series by Jen DeLuca

Now, I love this series for just dumb (but personal) reasons. First of all, I haven’t found many romance books that I like. I find most of them too silly and cheesy. But I didn’t have that case with these. I found them hilarious and fun and heartwarming. But second of all, they’re set a Renaissance Faire! We have a Renaissance Faire that comes every year about thirty-forty minutes away from where I live, and I have been going every year (you know, except for last year and probably this year) for thirteen or fourteen years. It’s important to me, and it marks time for me. So, that’s why I love these.

Runner Up: Amelia Peabody series by Elizabeth Peters

This is a wonderful series. It spoke to my love of mysteries, but also Egyptology (I almost went to school for archaeology/Egyptology!). I love that Elizabeth Peters was an archaeologist, that gives a real-life feel to these as well. Plus, like you know me, Victorian period! I think Amelia Peabody is one of the greatest female leads, and I think the romance/love between her and Emerson. It totally reminds me of Evie and Rick in The Mummy, so if you love those movies, check out these books. I haven’t finished the series yet, but I think I’ve gotten halfway through, and I love them so much.

I love all these books, way too much probably. They all have a special place in my heart and yeah... I love them. I’ve said that so much haven’t I?

#top ten favorite book series #throne of glass series #the Grishaverse #Gemma Doyle Trilogy #the infernal devices #sands of arawiya #red queen #an ember in the ashes #LADY SHERLOCK #stalking jack the ripper #well met series #amelia peabody #i love too many books

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fragmentwitch · 4 years

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Higurashi Gou Ep 21 thoughts + Satoko/Rika thoughts

In retrospect, it's pretty deliberate to leave out meakashihen and tsumihoroboshi-hen from the arcs that got 'remade' as the deception arcs in GOU otherwise it actually would have presented a big issue in its narrative.

By deliberately leaving Satoshi's entire back story out of GOU we don't really know for sure what led him to become comatose and the events leading up to Shion's promise. And since Shion doesn't seem to actually target Satoko, we only see them interact the way they did only in Minagoroshi.

In fact, ShMion focused on RIKA during the GOU ladder scene, when originally she said Satoko was cursed. In retrospect that's been a huge red flag pointing toward Satoko being a looper, she manipulated people into targeting Rika all along to avoid suspicion.

So a few seemingly minor missing items have huge implications for the narrative if we treat GOU as entirely standalone with no connection to the original stories:

meakashi specifically showed Satoko's realization that Satoshi became distant and ran away partly because she became codependent to the point of burdening him more. Satoshi protected her but she wasn't able to help him in return. He just shouldered all of their problems and crumbled under the pressure the worse things got because nobody could help him (Irie tried but iirc he wasn't allowed to adopt children as an unmarried man).

Shion doesn't realize her own sin: consumed by resentment and misdirected feelings of frustration, she not only forgot the promise to protect Satoko in Satoshi's stead but broke it by torturing her.

tsumihoroboshihen, there is a confrontation where Keiichi remembers killing Mion and Rena in Onikakushi, and regrets it immensely. It causes a chain reaction where multiple characters confront and admit their personal sins from their past, and it included Rika and Satoko (correct me if this is not from that arc). But in the end, Mion emphasizes that friends dont need ro reveal their worst secrets and regrets in order to be friends-- if it had to be that way, Mion preferred not having any.

No tsumihoroboshihen in Gou means Rika never finds it in her to actually try making a difference. We don't actually get Tataridamashihen, but a deceptive Minagoroshihen (where Ooishi kills, not Takano). I cant remember the scene where Rika forces Satoko to confront her problems and actually ask for help with her own voice. You cannot help someone truly to your best if they don't actually say "Please Help Me."

With these very crucial thematic elements missing, even if one can argue neither of them would remember previous fragments anyway (Disproven when Rika herself remembers what she tried to do differently and still failed in. She explicitly recalls Onikakushi, Watanagashi, Minagoroshi and Matsuribayashi but not Meakashi and Tsumihoroboshi) Ryukushi is able to make a story that logically doesn't have huge gaps. But the fact Gou retconned so much, leaves much to be desired on the intent and purpose this story wants to tell-- many are apprehensive about whether it actually can turn around into a hopeful ending or a very sad one. And more importantly, whether these two stories' themes are mutually exclusive or not.

Satoko never learns to explicitly ask for help, and stubbornly deflects it when Rika brings it up.

She hasn't faced herself in terms of being codependent to where she is actively affecting Rika's agency as a person. And in Meakashi, she seems to only confess/realize this right when she's bleeding out in shion's torture chamber...

Rika was shown to throw in the towel early on in Watadamashihen, and shortly after going Red Eyed, she disappears. She does seem more proactive in putting up a fight in Tataridamashihen though, yet we see her watching Satoko's breakdown with a fairly emotionless look. (Btw I'm 80% sure she faked that due to slapping Keiichi's hand before it even touches her, plus no bruise marks anywhere and her overall weird behavior at the end)

Rika seems fairly content with just dropping it when Satoko doesn't respond well to her (1) offer to help her, and even then she is so ignorant that she thinks Satoko is acting this way over her grades. And when she does reach out to spend personal time with Satoko she uses language that implies it's like an appointment. Definitely not the best way to approach a friend by making them feel like you see them as a chore/burdensome

Rika doesn't confront her directly and say "I can't help you if you don't ask me for help yourself". I don't want to seem cold and dismissive, but this is something people NEED to learn how to do eventually. Yes, Satoko feels isolated and put full faith into Rika keeping her promise in Loop 1; but note that she doesn't ever directly tell Rika about her feelings once they get into the academy. They did talk about this prior, but they were just entering middle school-- it's not completely impossible Rika actually forgot her promise in 3 years; Shion forgot hers to Satoshi in about 2 after all.

Even if Satoko brings up the promise Rika made, it's too late and they're past the point of reconciling their differences based on them stonewalling each other.

Rika has no idea Satoko thinks she was the one who reported the accident to the principal. So Satoko already had reason to start resenting her.

Satoko's wish is so that Rika would treat her better, but neither of them are willing to confront their own faults and are quick to point fingers at each other (sadly I have experienced this). They are quick to drop the subject when one says something the other doesn't want to hear (Rika even tells satoko to be quiet/shut up).

With or without 'Oyashiro' giving her these looping powers, as long as neither girl confronts their own flaws in how they're dealing with each other, they will inevitably break apart. Oyashiro is just making it more interesting for herself because, well, she loves drama. The sad thing is that Satoko said "well if you can make it happen, do it now" and Oyashiro took away any ability for her to rethink her decision and say no or change her mind. She can't NOT loop anymore until she has Rika exactly where she wants. With her, in Hinamizawa and away from St. Lucia's... but since it seems like Rika wants to go to St lucia's no matter what, Satoko is still killing Rika or setting her up to die even if she did everything right like in Tataridamashi. Because Satoko knows sooner or later once tragedy is avoided, Rika will immediately head for the books.

I'm not optimistic we'll really get a happy ending but hey... without love it can't be seen, right? We got the whodunit, the whydunit... all that's left is the howdunit and what Rika can do about it herself if she's trapped in Satoko's cage of loops.

#higurashi gou #i apologize if this isnt structured neatly #rika furude #satoko houjou #spoilers for the original higurashi arcs btw

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libralita · 4 years

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Title: Dawnshard

Author: Brandon Sanderson

Summary: Dawnshard follows the story of Rysn, the Thaylen merchant whom we've seen before in the Interludes of the first three books of the Stormlight Archive series.

Rating: ★★★★★

Review:

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Anyways.

DAWNSHARD!

I feel Rysn’s pain. I too find stuff most unimaginably boring interesting.

Oh no, something is wrong with Chiri-Chiri.

“A few anxietyspren, like twisting black cross shapes, appeared around Rysn.”

Huh, interesting.

“She’d already sent a request via spanreed to someone she thought could help with Chiri-Chiri.”

*Narrows eyes* Who?

“her eyebrow jewelry tinkling softly”

Roshar is so weird. (Edit: Understatement of the goddamn decade)

“The king wants to meet this Dalinar Kholin and see these Knights Radiant for himself.”

Man I should have reread these books. Oh well. Goodluck Dalinar.

It’s very interesting that now Navani is Queen of Urithiru. So Dalinar is King? WAIT WE’RE IN URITHIRU! AHHHH!

“She was an intimidating woman with her Alethi height, her black and grey hair done in intricate braids atop her head and woven with glowing sapphires.”

Nah, she’s a mom. I wouldn’t be surprised if she tries to mother you.

Rysn Ftori. Did we know her last name?

“Finally the queen stopped, focused on the chair at the rear of the room, then pulled her chair over and sat before Rysn. It was a small gesture, but appreciated. Rysn didn’t mind when people remained standing in her presence, but there was a certain thoughtfulness in the way Navani situated herself so they could discuss at eye level with one another.”

As stated, Navani is a mom.

Oh, I think we read about this in Oathbringer.

The Prince of Liafor???

The Rock of Secrets. I see Brandon wasn’t trying too hard with this name.

“As the months had passed, Rysn had begun to truly grasp the strategic importance of Stormlight as a fuel both for fabrials and for the Knights Radiant. Beyond that, the enemy had creatures—known as Fused— who used the Void’s own Light. Chiri-Chiri fed on that just as eagerly as Stormlight.”

Hmmm…yeah…

…………………I kind of ship Lopen and Talik. I don’t know how to feel about this. Brandon is creating some very odd ships this year. (If you haven’t read the RoW previews, trust me, there’s a weird one)

““It’s politics. The annoying kind.”

“There’s another kind?”

No.

YAY RUSHU IS COMING ALONG!

“She owned it. She commanded it. But at least according to maritime tradition, it was not hers”

This reminds me of how Navani sees herself as not an artifabian (I’m not even going to bother look up the correct spelling for this)

“Radiant the Lopen”

PFFFFFFFFFFFT

““Lopen,” Rushu said as she worked, “you should not be tormenting Brightness Rysn with your prattling.””

Rushu! How dare you question the Lopen!!

““Brightness Rysn shouldn’t have to crack jokes at her own expense in order to make other people comfortable with their personal insecurities.”

“Yup, true,” the Lopen said. “She shouldn’t have to.””

Oooooooooooooooooooooooooo

“Two halves of a ruby, containing two halves of the same spren, can be made to move in tandem with one another”

…TWO HALVES OF THE SAME SPREN. PARDON?!?!!

I’m assuming that if you can get a ship to move fast enough then a spanreed will work. Much like Brandon has said that time bubbles can work at a certain speed. Plus y’know, Roshar is constantly moving, we just don’t feel it.

“It’s why the motion and curve of the planet don’t influence spanreeds.”

Or y’know, I’ll just be fucking WRONG.

“That . . . didn’t make much sense to Rysn.”

Same.

I’m guessing that Nikli is a worldhopper. From where though? I don’t really trust Nikli right now though. Hmmm.

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NIKLI IS ONE OF THOSE CREMLING THINGS NONONONONONONONONONONONOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

WHAT MEAN YOU ONE OF THESE…SWARMS KNOWS DALINAR “I know he will destroy us”

From the dustjacket of Way of Kings:

“The last is the highprince, a warlord whose eyes have opened to the past as his thirst for battle wanes.

The world can change. Surgebinding and Shardwielding can return; the magics of ancient days can become ours again. These four people are key.

One of them may redeem us.

And one of them will destroy us.”

So Dalinar will Destroy the Sleepless.

“Plus, Yelamaiszin said, we should have compassion for those we must cull. It is good you like the humans.

Must we cull them though? Nikli replied.”

Oh, the Sleepless gotta cull humans. Fucking great. AHHHHHHHHHHHH.

Is it just required that every single novella is going to have these fuckers in them?

“When the swarm that had become Nikli had been Separated, it had already contained hordelings evolved for this subterfuge. Nikli had further evolved them, and was now certain that the body didn’t need the tattoos to cover the seams in its skin”

Wat.

Also who’s Arclomedarian? Now I need to go reread Edgedancer to see who that guy was. Oh? Who are the true traitors? It’s probably Hoid.

“where they would either fall to the winds or enter the realm of the Sleepless.”

Man, if I was on that ship, I’d take drowning over finding that. Let’s notttttt.

“This was sent to another vote, and Nikli’s bodies— the distant ones, not on the ship—all vibrated with anticipation.”

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

“Can block a Shardblade, Rua tells me, if it’s thick enough. They get it from Soulcasting, though only a few can make it, so it’s pretty rare”

Y…you can soulcast aluminium? Holy fuck.

No Lopen! You belong with Talik. He can capture that Tsundere heart.

Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh?

As someone who has read Mistborn, you don’t want a dramatic end of the world. It causes essential crisis.

“More spren than animal, they were somehow able to magnify peace and confidence.”

Like…rioting?

““No,” several voices said from the crowd—but she couldn’t see who. “That’s bad luck!””

Nikla…

“Storms. It was as if . . . as if the body had been made up of cremlings.”

Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

“no more real than things like the gloomdancer or sea hags from Thaylen mythology”

Well, I’m sure these things don’t exist.

“Hmmm? Oh, no I was napping during that.”

I do love Rushu.

So…Huio…created…flying machines. Motherfucker.

I can’t believe Roshar has hove chair before cars. Also HOVER BRIDGES LET’S GOOOOOOOOO.

Nikli…what are you doing?

Rushu is a soulcaster! Wild.

“Regardless, I demanded that Navani send me with either a Shardblade or a Soulcaster to get through.”

You fucking what mate?

“Strange, to think how optimistic she’d been only a short time ago.”

That tends to happen with Brando Sando books. One moment the characters are on top of the world and next everything is crashing down.

The sun being shattered into pieces? Well that can’t be good.

“She counted the shards in her mind, over and over, feeling a reverence to the number.”

Ten or sixteen?

“It looked vaguely like an enormous grub with a wicked beak of a face. It had spindly arms running all the way along its body, and had reared up so it was mostly vertical, using its pointed limbs like spears to try to skewer the sailors beneath.”

Again. Roshar. Fuck off.

“The Mother of Machines,”

Thirty emerald broams says the back of the book has something about the Mother of Machines on it.

“I . . . have no idea what any of that means,”

Me reading half of this book.

“And in truth, those treaties were made with other gods. I had hoped the Gods Who Sleep Not would be similarly bound, but now I am not certain.”

OTHER GODS? WHICH ONES?!

GOOD JOB HUIO!!!

“We wish to avoid losing control of a force that could destroy the cosmere.”

Odium? Just don’t let any love struck teenagers near it and you’ll be fine.

“As I and my kind are not native to this planet, we prefer the term ‘hordelings.’”

W…Where are you from?

This reminds me of Skyward.

I am sure that Rysn will not be able to employ it. How many books do we have left?

“And then eventually, they were used to undo Adonalsium itself. . . .”

YOU FUCKING WHAT?!

Rysn, you’re going to get a visit from an asshole. Be prepared and good luck.

I can’t for Arc 2 where we get so BIG CHIRI-CHIRI.

Interesting so Rysn will never become a Radiant.

“Regrettably, there has been a conflict on the beach with some of our more . . . specialized hordelings,”

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

“You have Remade yourself.”

Remade? Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Oh no. Lopen noooooooooooooo.

Who needs a Hover chair when YOU CAN RIDE A CRAB DRAGON! SUCKING ALL THE STORMLIGHT! WIELDING THE DAWNSHARD!

“Was it . . . brighter than usual? Why did the colors in her room look so exceptionally vivid all of a sudden?”

Idos Domi! What heightening are you?

I was not expecting this. My thoughts are currently just on the floor, screaming. Brandon, you cannot just drop lore on me like this.

#dawnshard #Brandon Sanderson #Stormlight Archive #cosmere #reviewsdaytuesday

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heavy-lobster · 3 years

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Okokok I’ve had thoughts and I am going to organize them into several paragraphs so buckle up

PMD DX is an important game, because it marks the PMD series not being completely dead, and has given people hope for more entries in the future. Of course, I think everyone would prefer that next entry be something new, rather than a remake of a past PMD game. Even then, since DX was announced I’ve seen plenty of talk about the inevitability of a PMD 2 remake, whether it’s coming next or will be following something new. Most people I’ve seen talk about this seem in agreement that PMD 2 would be the next game in the series to get remade if any. This is really strange to me.

I don’t feel like Explorers of Sky really needs a remake. Here me out.

Like a lot of people, EoS is my favorite PMD game. The pixel art graphics are pretty much everything I could ever want out of a game and the soundtrack might just be my favorite video game soundtrack of all time. The story is incredible and the characters are fun and charming. While I personally don’t really play PMD for the gameplay at all, EoS has the most enjoyable gameplay in the series in my opinion. I really love this game, so why wouldn’t I want a remake?

I don’t feel that EoS needs a remake. I just don’t feel like there’s any improvements to be made here. Let me clarify; I’m not saying EoS is perfect. It definitely isn’t. No game is. EoS has plenty of issues and things that could be improved and added to the game. So what’s the problem? I just don’t feel like hardly any of the things that actually need improving would be improved in the remake I know we would get. The remake would most likely just “update” the graphics, “update” the music, change and update some gameplay features, and maybe some new post game content or something if we’re lucky idk.

I feel the update to the graphics would almost be reductive in a way. The pixel art style of EoS just doesn’t really need “updating”. Clean, stylized, pixel graphics are timeless and will ultimately hold up better than any 3D graphics, the standards for which just keep getting higher and higher. It’s distinct and charming and I don’t feel that anything of value would be gained by making the game 3D. To clarify, I don’t hate the graphics of the 3D PMD games. They look just fine and there’s some parts of these games that look fantastic! I just feel like in the graphics department of an EoS remake, there nothing to be gained and everything to lose.

Music wise, this argument is entirely based on my own nostalgia and biases. I like the music! It’s good! Every orchestral rendition I’ve ever heard of a track from these games just hasn’t done it for me. Part of just really doesn’t want to hear an “official” version of these orchestral arrangements because I just. don’t like the sound as much. I’m a music nerd and even I genuinely can’t justify this with any kind of logic beyond just the nostalgia factor for me personally.

The gameplay is the only area I can see being actually improved and even I’m not really sure what more they could do other updating it to be more like it was in DX. Which would be nice I guess but it still just doesn’t feel that necessary to me idk. I doubt the story would go through any major changes, for better or for worse, so overall there’s just not enough improvements to be made to justify a whole remake.

If any PMD were to get another remake, the game I feel is the most deserving of it is Gates to Infinity.

Gates has grown a reputation for being the worst PMD game, the reasons for which are completely beyond me. Gates is my second favorite game in the series. The story is great and it fixes one problem I’ve had pointed out about EoS story-wise,,,, that being the generally pointless flashbacks to events that happened 5 minutes ago. The graphics are outdated by today’s standards yeah but,,,, Gates was the first fully 3D Pokemon game so how hard can you really be? The music, while not quite as good as its predecessors in my opinion, is still very good! Especially the goodbye theme, that’s a good one. The gameplay is. Certainly gameplay! Overall it’s a really good game and I like it! So why do I think it deserves a remake more than EoS?

There’s a lot more things to improve and expand on with Gates. Gates felt like it was being held back from what it could’ve been. There were so many cool features n shit that just wasn’t really utilized much and it’s sad because these games could’ve been even better! Gates feels almost incomplete to me, like there was supposed to be more to it. Probably not but it feels like it to me.

Graphic wise there’s a lot of obvious improvements to be made. The models in Gates definitely aren’t bad, but they could be better for sure. The environments would look SO good if the graphics were touched up,,, I wanna see the great glacier in high-def dammit! A lot of the animations were kind of awkward too, those could benefit from a touch up. A big problem with Gates is that the camera is zoomed in wayyy too much. You really can’t see shut most of the time and it just doesn’t look very good. That could be fixed in a remake. The music doesn’t need much of touch up that’s not really one of my points here it doesn’t get its own paragraph.

One thing I want improved story-wise is the post game. I really like the post game of Gates but it’s so short and there’s just. Not much there?? There’s actually kind of sort of a bad ending to Gates! You can straight up refuse to return to the pokemon world and then the cave collapses and fades out to some weirdly eerie text. I really like this!! I like everything about this climax in the post game! But that’s like,,, pretty much the only thing worth noting! I like the overwhelming feeling of emptiness, and I like the way your partner just silently stares at your old bed every morning before you get to control him. I just think it’s neat! But it could’ve been so much neater!! I just want to see it expanded on.

The gameplay is mostly fine in Gates dungeon-wise. The other things I’ve mentioned plus just updating somethings to fit in with recent PMD games would fix all the problems I have with the dungeon gameplay here. No I don’t care if they add hunger back or not, hunger adds nothing of substance to the gameplay and I couldn’t care less whether or not it’s a feature.

The gameplay I want to see improved isn’t in the core dungeon aspect. I want to see the Paradise building aspect of the game improved and expanded on. It’s a really cool feature! It could be so much cooler if it wasn’t as limited as it is!! I have so many ideas but I’m,,, not writing them down rn sorry. Also magnagates! That weird little feature no one cared about. Those were cool I just wanted to bring them up,,, I kinda miss them.

TLDR; I feel like there’s so much more they could do and improve with a Gates to Infinity remake, whereas there really isn’t many ways to handle an Explorers remake. But also I really don’t want them to remake another PMD game I just want new content please I’m starving here-

#!!DISCLAIMER!! These are just my thoughts don’t get angy!#feel free to start discourse however #I can write a whole ass essay about PMD but I can’t do my homework smh #I have so many thoughts you have no idea #this is completely incoherent btw it’s a total ramble #pmd #lobster.txt

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love-bokumono-fics · 3 years

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in your opinion, which harvest moon or sos games are worth playing and which are not? Are the older titles worth it?

So I have to confess, I have played relatively few HM/SoS games to completion. "Completion" meaning: over a year in-game played, got married, had a kid, and/or completed whatever story there is to be done. I am also of the mind that if something makes me happy, regardless of how old, or objectively "bad" it might be considered, it's worth playing. It makes me happy, it's time well spent.

So if you're looking for an actual critical, and well thought out review of the games, I am not the blog to ask. There are lots of other people out there who have given more thought to the matter than I have.

For the record, the games I have played are: Back to Nature, HM 3 GBC, (More) Friends of Mineral Town, Island of Happiness, Save the Homeland, SoS1, Trio of Towns, SoS Friends of Mineral Town, and I'm working my way through Pioneers of Olive Town.

I've played a little bit of Tale of Two Towns, and A New Beginning, but I didn't get very far in either of those before getting distracted with other things. I enjoyed them while I was playing, but also neither of them captured my attention enough to stay invested long term. Make of that what you will.

I never played any of the titles that were released on Game Cube or Wii, and I basically didn't play anything between 2007 and 2014. Which some people will say is when the best games came out, and I missed out on the best titles, but I never played them so I can't offer an opinion on them. And I haven't played any of the Harvest Moon titles since the split.

So of the ~25 games that we have under the Hm/SoS umbrella, I've played 10, and 4 of them are technically the same game remade on different consoles so let's say 6. Several of the games I played as a literal child, and when I upgraded to the next technology generation, I lost my ability to play them. Others I picked up again as an adult and thoroughly enjoyed my time playing.

As for the "worth" of the game, it really depends on what you, personally, want from your game. I've already given you my definition of "worth". I realize it is not Everyone's definition of "worth". Nonny, I suspect, that since you're asking me in the first place, "it makes me happy" isn't the only reason you want/need to invest time and effort into playing a game. I cannot tell you which games you think will be "worth it."

I think each game has it's own value. It offers something that other's don't. Different characters, different farming mechanics, different stories, and I think each one, in its own way has some value to impart on the players.

My long-time favorite game has been the Mineral Town games, ever since we got BTN in 2000 I fell in love with the premise, the characters, the setting. I bought the gameboy versions when they hit stores, and they are the games I most consistently return to when I want something comfortable.

Compared to recent games though, the Mineral Town ones are Really Basic. And while I love the games for their nostalgia, I know some people will be bored to tears by them of they go from playing the more recent games to that. Even when FoMT hit the switch last sumer I had a bit of whiplash going "oh, there's so little on the calendar, and I only have how many different crops to grow? nothing grows in winter? okay." because I had just come off from playing Trio of Towns.

If you want to be busy and have 100 goals to meet, stick to the newer games. If you just wanna chill and do whatever, try some of the older games if you can.

I think, if you have the time/ability to go back and play the old games, and you want to do it, then by all means, go for it!

A lot of them are only available to play on technology that a lot of people don't have floating around their homes anymore. If they didn't get a next gen port to an easily accessible console, so unless you still have a functioning PS2 or GBA, you're not going to have the chance to play them. Yeah, emulators are out there and they work, but in my experience they're also annoying and buggy, and not an ideal way to play the games. If you have the consoles, but not the games, getting your hands on copies can be very expensive.

You are already prone to play the old games. You're gonna play them regardless of my opinions on them. You're gonna shell out the cash or set up the emulator, or dust off the Wii and pray it still works, and i hope you enjoy your time playing!

These games have been coming out over 20+ years at this point, and while many of them are just remakes/reskins/girl versions, that's still so much time covered in video game technology. And comparing the earliest games to the most recent ones is more of an exercise in frustration and futility. You're never going to find the right answer.

(I also don't know what your personal gauge for 'old' is, Nonny. Because Old for me are games that are 20 years old. Old for you might be games that are 5 years old, which was like... last week from my perspective, so...)

All this to say, I guess I'll give a brief opinion on the games I have played, and y'all can make your decisions as you please from there.

Back to Nature/Mineral Town Games: My OG game. Always holds a dear spot in my heart for nostalgia. Love the town, love the characters, love the music, can do no wrong, a very enjoyable, if basic, farming game. Easy to play for a bit, set down for a while, and pick up and play again without feeling like you've forgotten you were in the middle of something important.

HM GBC 3: Pretty sure I was 10 last time I played it, so grain of salt. I found it more boring than the MT games, the town and maps were smaller, none of the characters had portraits, I didn't really get all of the details to make the farm work. I'm sure if I went back now as an adult I would have a better time, but I have no desire to emulate it. If you want to emulate it, go for it, but be warned that if you play as a girl, the game ends after you get married. Doesn't do that if you play as a boy so...

Save the Homeland: I kept going back to replay this game for years. I thought the premise was fun, and I always wanted to try and get all of the endings, but never did. I would buy it again in a heartbeat if it got remastered. Different from other games tho, in that you only get one year to play and get an ending, and once you do, the game restarts you at Spring 1 and nobody knows who you are again. You get to keep your animals and house upgrades, but there's no dating and marriage.

Island of Happiness: I love the setting and the characters, but god FUCK that weather system. Can't get shit to grow unless you obsessively track if it rains and how sunny it is and it completely ruined the game for me. I tried playing it again a couple years back and couldn't be bothered to keep tracking stuff. I never once unlocked all of the crops or livestock on any of my playthroughs. Did manage to play long enough to get married once.

SoS1: The game that convinced me to go back to buying new stuff after IoH kind of put me off new HM games for the better part of a decade (I had FoMT to replay it was fine). Liked it well enough, thought some of the characters were a bit bland, but still enjoyable enough to get married and have a kid. Unlocking all the vendors is a bitch though, and I still haven't gotten them all. A fine game, but if you're only going to play One 3DS game, I wouldn't suggest this one.

Trio of Towns: This one ties with FoMT as my favorite game! I love everything about it. The Characters, the setting and premise, the music, the depth of events. There's so much to do, there's never a boring day, but that can also feel overwhelming if you're the kind if person who tries to do everything at once. Not as easy to pick up and put down as some of the more basic games, but it's very replayable in my book and I keep coming back to it.

Pioneers of Olive Town: It's a middling game for me. Like SoS1, it's fine, but unlike SoS1, there's very little to do in the game. I completed the "main story" in less than a year without putting in much effort to complete things in a timely manner. The characters and the game had So Much Potential, particularly after 3oT, and all of it fell flat in my expectations. Plus some of the technical issues we all experienced at launch. Now, I'm still playing it, I don't hate the game, and the updates have made things better. But with the story done and all of the characters feeling a bit Flat, I'm biding my time between DLC updates to see if I want to marry any of the special candidates instead of the base game characters. I'll probably keep playing long enough to get married and probably unlock everything on the farm, but beyond that I'm not super invested.

My final verdict is, if you have a 3DS, get Trio of Towns, if you only have a Switch, get Friends of Mineral Town. If you want to put forth the time and effort into acquiring the old games, or emulating them, by all means go for it.

#this is probably not a satisfactory answer but I am not the person to ask to make objective declaration on what is the best/worst #especially when there are over 20 games to pick from and 20+ years to look through!#nothing made in the 90s is ever going to be on the same fair playing field as stuff made in the 10s #comparing them is like comparing apples to oranges. both round tree fruits but beyond that they differ so much #replies #anonymous #this got so long. idk how to have concise opinions #i must over explain everything so people don't misinterpret me

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twilights-800-cats · 4 years

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Rewriting The Broken Code

I know it’s a little premature, what with there only being 4 of the 6 books out yet, but I wanted to jot down my thoughts on how I would improve The Broken Code.

Personally, I don’t think it’s a bad arc - the plot is the most unique by far and has a lot of potential to go into interesting places and it really feels like the Erins are pushing into those interesting directions - but there are things I would like to change about it.

No, this isn’t a promise that I will be rewriting tBC in the future, lol. These thoughts are put down without the need to change much from previous arcs.

The Protagonists

Bristlefrost - I feel like her role in the story would be more improved, and interesting, if she were to spend the first half of the arc as Bramblefake’s willing comrade. She wants what’s best for ThunderClan, like any other loyal warrior, and she wants to bring back StarClan by punishing the Codebreakers. That’s what her leader has ordered, and a Clan leader’s word is law.

I want her to be Bramblefake’s most loyal lackey, and then see the cracks in his façade and slowly realize the wrongs she’s committing. I want her to really work hard to put things right - and realize that loyalty doesn’t mean sacrificing one’s free will. Perhaps her relationship with Rootspring can help her come to see this, see that the warrior code needs changing and that the Clans need changing, too.

Perhaps Flipclaw or Thriftear could die and help push this? idk, but I really like the idea of “evil” Bristlefrost, who slowly begins to realize that she’s been the bad guy all along, and that Bramblefake was playing with her emotions after she was rejected by Stemleaf.

Shadowsight - not many changes for Shadowsight. Personally, I do like the idea of a medicine cat tricked by a malevolent spirit into delivering false signs - it has a lot of potential.

However, one major thing I would change about Shadowsight’s arc is that he is an only kit - Lightleap and Pouncestep? Nonexistent. This would intensify the isolation that Shadowsight feels when it’s revealed that he has been delivering false signs, and heighten the overprotectiveness of Tigerheartstar and Dovewing, who treat Shadowsight with no small amount of favoritism (to the chagrin of his Clanmates).

This would very easily push Shadowsight to a point where he seeks to befriend just about anyone - cats from other Clans, rogues, loners, and even a spirit that seems to be whispering prophecies in only HIS ears...

Rootspring - not too many changes for Rootspring, either. I do like his character and how he grows from a petulant child to a rather mature, emotionally sound adult. I would do a lot more with his connection to the Sisters and his powers, and add in more conflicts with Tree and more bonding moments with Violetshine and Hawkwing.

Perhaps he’s trained as a medicine cat from the start? His little stint as a medicine cat was an interesting idea but it came far too late to really mean anything imo - plus, it might give him some cute interactions with Shadowsight.

The Villain(s)

Ashfur - I’ve been over this before, but I’m not in love with the idea of Ashfur being the villain - but if he has to be...

I want him to play on Bristlefrost’s feelings of rejection and court her to his side. After all, this is a pain they share! It would give Ashfur and Bristlefrost some interesting interactions, and definitely open up a lot of opportunities for him to be, y’know, creepy ass Ashfur.

I want Ashfur to bring up how abusive Bramblestar has been to Squirrelflight. I enjoy how frightening their dynamic is in the books, so I would want to keep that.

I want him to really screw with ThunderClan. Exile cats. Kill cats! Who are all these strangers to him, anyway? What do they matter? I want him to surround himself with loyalists and make it really, really hard for him to be deposed.

Other Ideas - I pointed out that a character could be made from wholecloth to take Ashfur’s place, and in some ways I really think that this is how it should go... but thinking more, I don’t think I want to get rid of Ashfur completely.

Hear me out - multiple imposters. Multiple spirits who have possessed the recently-dead and are manipulating the Clans from within, turning them against Codebreakers and the other Clans. Ashfur takes ThunderClan all for himself, and perhaps gets a little too single-minded in his pursuit of Squirrelflight.

This would get the other Clans in the picture. More Clan-on-Clan battles, more deaths - more spirits for this Grand Schemer to use. More chaos. Rather than spending two chapters of a book doing nothing but trying to figure out what to do with one spirit, there’s an infestation to try and figure out!

And when they finally reveal the true architect behind it all, it really doesn’t matter who they are or why they did it - the flaws have been revealed. The warrior code has been smashed, and it needs to be remade, or destroyed.

Other Stuff I’d Do

I want Bramblestar to DIE. Not just because I don’t like his character, but because I think it would be a great way to pit ThunderClan against the other Clans even more, for even MORE conflict - they killed Bramblestar, but this problem is still escalating. They thought removing him was the key, but it’s not, and Squirrelflight and ThunderClan are pissed. Take Mistystar too while I’m at it...

I want more cats to leave the Clans. It’s only natural! Things are going haywire, and not just in ThunderClan. Cats move off and form their own groups, or maybe just leave to become kittypets. Most that left don’t want to return. A good way to cull the Clan numbers without too many deaths, and maybe those that come back don’t always come back alone.

Each Clan copes with losing StarClan in their own way. Some still hold violently to their beliefs (WindClan or RiverClan). Others might seek different solutions (SkyClan or ShadowClan). Some might be lost (ThunderClan), and some might just fall apart. Either way, it would make Clan-to-Clan conflict have more depth, and show more insight into the other Clans’ problems... and maybe make RiverClan relevant again.

Rewrite the Code. Obviously, this would all end with the warrior code being rewritten and, possibly, the Clans themselves changing. Perhaps they become more open, more willing to accept one another while still doing what makes them unique.

#look this is a lot #but i just wanted to get it out there

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maggiecheungs · 4 years

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Breakdown of the 2021 lineup (only my own personal feelings!)

Most anticipated

Not Me

I’m so happy that Manner of Death isn’t going to be an isolated phenomenon, and that bl is going to keep diversifying in genre. Offgun is, like maxtul, a pairing whom I have every confidence will make this work. This show is going to let Gun showcase his range and absolutely shine and I cannot wait. We also get Off in a more serious role, as well as First and Mond and I’m so very, very excited.

46 days

OffMild are getting another series and it’s going to be so chaotic 🥰

If it we’re anyone else, I wouldn’t be half so excited for this show, but literally nobody does comedy chaos like off and mild, and with a side serving of p’jennie? Can’t wait.

Bad Buddy Series

The premise looks adorable and funny and heartwarming and I’m pretty much already sold. Plus, Ohm and Nanon are both such strong actors who have chemistry with literally everyone, so they’re clearly going to rock this.

Never Too Late

Wasn’t quite sure where to put this one but it looks like it could end up being really lovely. I can’t wait to see some older actors for once :) I would already die for Khaotung’s character, and I’m excited to see View Benyapa (Phingphing from The Shipper) in a main role

Lighthearted fun

Mama Gogo

The trailer made me laugh a lot, mainly because the cast is perfect. Sexy evil lee thanat!!! If it doesn’t do anything problematic I could really enjoy this

Fish Upon The Sky

It looks really cute! Nice to see some newer faces. Looking forward to watching it :)

Baker Boys

This is down here because I don’t want to get my hopes up... but if gmmtv actually gives us leesingto?? ......I can’t let myself think that far. (Other than that, the premise looks fun and a little bit substanceless. That is... unless a certain thing happens...)

Enchante

Lots of people seem to be really excited for this one. It does look cute, and I’m eager to see fluke pusit in another role (after his brilliance as way in the shipper) (and Egg Boy ofc)

Thin premise, great cast

The Player

The trailer was an absolute mess and it was only theee minutes long. The premise of the series looks contrived and melodramatic and cramped. HOWEVER. Oh my god, tay??? Namtan??? + jane + chimon + kapook?? (And if the worst hapoens and this is the only place I’ll get my tay fix, then I’ll have no choice but no watch it)

Gets its own section because I’m still so conflicted. On the one hand, I wish the f4 story didn’t keep getting remade. On the other, we’ve been promised some updates to it, and... I think gmmtv might follow through? The trailer looked like it just might question some of the less savoury aspects, and there seem to be lots of female characters (prim chanikarn (grace from tgg) is in it!). Bright and Tu look like they’ll be amazing (I would already die for tu btw). Overall... I’m tentative. But I’ll probably watch to see how it goes.

Ambivalent

An Eye For an Eye

I found it vaguely intriguing, so we’ll see. Bonus points for ohm, points docked for kr*st

Irresistible

I didn’t really feel much either way about the trailer. But: Lee!!! Let’s face it, I’ll probably end up watching just for him

Not interested

The War of Flowers

Not even gun, fiat and aye could make me excited for this. I can only conclude that it’s Not My Thing

Drag, I Love You

I wish I had more faith in gmmtv but for the entire trailer I was just going: please don’t be a transmisogynistic trashfire. please don’t be a transmisogynistic trashfire. please don’t be a transmisogynistic trashfire. please don’t be

Mr Lipstick

The trailer did literally nothing for me

Step darling

Ditto

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tartagliaxx · 3 years

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hi lei!! :> what did you do today? i planned to decorate my teapot but i realized the amount it could hold was lower compared to the videos i watched and doing a phone cleanup is too much work so i ended up just doing nothing i'll do it eventually,,,,,but i wanna know which realm style you liked the best after looking through all of them i realized the sunset one is kinda boring in comparison and that i liked the other ones much better i think i'll start with the beach one first after knowing that kaeya likes summer and the beach how could i not but i kinda wish they had a winter option like dragonspine but no sheer cold and more homey in my opinion winter is the most romantic season

also recently i've been thinking about how albedo smells it sounds creepy when i say it like that OTL i don't mean it in like ahaha i wanna smell him while he sleeps more like i wanna back hug him and inhale him i feel like he would smell like campfires and vanilla i think he probably smells the best cause hes not out in the field childe probably smells like sweat and blood but when hes clean i like to imagine the leftover smell after baking cookies i'm not entirely sure with kaeya maybe something fresh like mint?

i've been meaning to ask how do you feel about leaks now? the banner for 1.7 was leaked and there's this npc i really wanna show you too :3-🍰

i am currently rewatching jjk and once again, i am a questionable man’s whore 😌✌️ literally remade my phone to become his altar just because—

ehem anyway, i liked the one w the mountains and waterfalls the best. everything there seems to be more accessible plus i love just climbing up and overseeing everything i have made. the abode one (my first choice) is nice and all but i prefer a place w nighttime just bc i like seeing lights.

a winter themed realm sounds so good!!! if they ever make one i sure as hell would make the most comfy cabin for childe. i just know that he would love it there 🥺

dw i completely understand!! whenever i try to write something intimate, i add the idea of inhaling someone else’s scent but! i keep on rewording it bc it lowkey sounds weird. you see it a lot in fiction though and i find that scent actually adds character. like for example, a person who spends so much time in bookshops and libraries will smell faintly of freshly bound books or smth like that. personally, i feel like albedo would smell more earthy? with faint scents of burnt paper and wax while childe would smell like axe body spray some faded calvin klein-esque perfume and fresh cash (if yknow what im saying 😎). kaeya hmm... i think he’ll smell like dior w faint hints of peppermint and magazine pages. i have zero reason why. i just awooga those things through.

my opinion abt leaks are the same. i wouldnt go out of my way to stay updated/consume it since i’d like to live in the moment but i’m not entirely opposed to hearing a close friend rant about it UNLESS it’s like lore related.

#˗ˋˏ°• letters from cat island •°ˎˊ˗#˗ˋˏ°• from my darling : 🍰 •°ˎˊ˗

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freddyfreebat · 4 years

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Luca Guadagnino on Creating His HBO Series, Trump’s America, and Why He’s Remaking ‘Scarface’

by Brent Lang

Luca Guadagnino, the Oscar-nominated auteur behind “Call Me By Your Name,” is taking his swooning, lyrical style to the small-screen with “We Are Who We Are,” an immersive and deeply moving coming-of-age story.

The HBO-Sky series, which debuts this September, follow two teenagers, Fraser (Jack Dylan Grazer) and Caitlin (Jordan Kristine Seamón), who live on a military base in Italy. It explores their burgeoning friendship — Fraser is artistic, shy, and volatile, while Caitlin is more outgoing, but also dealing with her own nagging insecurities. The series, Guadagnino’s first for TV, also grapples with issues of sexuality and gender identity. He directed all eight episodes of “We Are Who We Are,” and says he purposely set the show in the midst of the 2016 U.S. presidential election as a way to comment on the political tumult unleashed by Donald Trump’s victory.

Guadagnino spoke to Variety shortly after the first trailer for “We Are Who We Are” was released.

How would you describe “We Are Who We Are”? Is it a TV series, a longer narrative feature, a miniseries?

I feel like on the one hand that this is a new film of mine. It feels like a movie to me, but I enjoyed the episodic-ness of the story. This is a series and it depends on how it clicks with an audience if we will see these people again. I have sort of a penchant for bringing back to life characters that I love. I truly love all the characters in this show. The greatness of doing TV is that if there’s a good outcome, this can come back, which would be beautiful to me.

What inspired the project?

Lorenzo Mieli [ed. note: who produced the show for The Apartment along with Mario Gianani for Wildside, both Fremantle companies] and Paolo Giordano and Francesca Manieri had developed a concept about the life of teenagers today vis-à-vis gender fluidity in American suburbia. When they talked to me about it, the first thing I said was I’m less interested in the topic as a sort of starting point. I’m more interested in the behavior of these people. I think in order not to be generic why don’t we set this in a micro-America, a place that can work as the part for the whole. I proposed the military world. I had a very wonderful conversation once many, many years ago with Amy Adams — you get to have these meetings with these great actors as one of the privileges of this work — and she told me that she spent part of her upbringing in Vicenza, in a military base in Italy. From synapses connecting to each other, I had this image in my mind.

Because this is a series, I said to Lorenzo, “If this goes well, next time they can move to another base. They can be in Japan or Africa or anywhere.”

In the show, the characters refer to the military base as ‘America’ despite the fact that it is in the middle of Italy. That geographic dichotomy seems to mirror the way that many of the characters feel a kind of emotional displacement or discomfort. Did you view the setting as a larger metaphor?

I always feel displaced. I never feel in the right place as a person. I do believe that despite every action we can take to claim the nature of our identity, eventually the human condition is that we are always trying to reclaim an emotional state of belonging. This show is about the kids not knowing who they are, not knowing what they are, and feeling displaced. Of course, there’s a transitional element of being a teenager that is specific to that age. It’s said that when you’re grown up, you know more about yourself, but truthfully all of these characters feel lost.

Fraser and Caitlin are both 14. That strikes me as an interesting age, because you’re definitely developing a stronger sense of identity, and yet you’re still wholly dependent on your parents. Why did you want to focus on characters at that particular age?

If I remember when I was 14, I was deeply, deeply unsatisfied by my incapacity to understand how to put in action the big plan I had for myself in my mind. I knew what I wanted, but I didn’t know how to get it. Eventually I even realized that I didn’t completely know what I wanted. I love this age, because you have grand ambitions and at the same time you have no means to fulfill those ambitions. You have only curiosity, only craving, only the capacity for experimentation. Every day seems to be a fight between life and death. That’s something beautiful about that age.

When the trailer for “We Are Who We Are” dropped, there were a lot of comparisons online to “Call Me By Your Name.” Both works are set in Italy and involve younger men. Do you see a commonality?

I will never complain about people’s laziness, but that sounds very lazy. “Call Me By Your Name” is about the past seen through the prism of a cinematic narrative and this is about the here and now. This is about the bodies and souls of now. I think they are so different.

Why did you decide to set the show during the 2016 presidential election?

The effects of the 2016 election are still being felt right here, right now. The seismic shift throughout America and the world of what it meant that Obama’s presidency was followed by Trump’s presidency and how people did not see it coming, are still being grappled with. It has to be said, that just as [Silvio] Berlusconi was the autobiography of Italy, Trump can also be seen as a sad chapter in the autobiography of the United States.

We are dealing with a kind of populism that springs from the plutocrats. It is shaping the world while at the same time a phalanx of youth is shaking the world as well and not taking that bitter medicine.

“We Are Who We Are” has a fair amount of full-frontal male nudity. That’s rare in American films and television shows. Why do you think that’s the case?

I always felt embarrassed when I saw in films the camera strategically not showing something. I also think that to show nudity — male, female — if it’s in the context of something that makes sense, is a way to liberate the eye. HBO has been wonderful in endorsing my choices. They could have felt provocative or radical, but I saw them as organic. By the way, there is nudity in general in my movies. That’s part of living. We are naked part of the day and part of the day we are dressed up. I always think I should pay respect to that condition of being human. Sometimes we’re naked, so why not?

You have about a half-dozen projects listed as in development on your IMDB. What’s behind that?

I am a relentless workaholic. I’m someone who has never tried any drugs, because I’m too scared for my own health. But I feel like when I was born, I fell on a “Scarface” mountain of cocaine, because I work 13 hours a day.

Are you working on a sequel to “Call Me By Your Name”?

I call it a second chapter, a new chapter, a part two or something like that. I love those characters. I love those actors. The legacy of the movie and its reception made me feel I should continue walking the path with everybody. I’ve come up with a story and hopefully we will be able to put it on the page soon.

You’re also attached to a remake of “Scarface.” What attracted you to that project?

People claim that I do only remakes [ed. note: Guadagnino previously remade “Suspiria” and his film “A Bigger Splash” was inspired by “La Piscine”] , but the truth of the matter is cinema has been remaking itself throughout its existence. It’s not because it’s a lazy way of not being able to find original stories. It’s alway about looking at what certain stories say about our times. The first “Scarface” from Howard Hawks was all about the prohibition era. Fifty years later, Oliver Stone and Brian De Palma make their version, which is so different from the Hawks film. Both can stand on the shelf as two wonderful pieces of sculpture. Hopefully ours, forty-plus years later, will be another worthy reflection on a character who is a paradigm for our own compulsions for excess and ambition. I think my version will be very timely.

What have you been watching during lockdown?

I watched again “Comizi d’amore” (Love Meetings) by Pasolini. I saw a great movie called “The Vast of Night,” and I watched for the second or third time “Doctor Sleep,” which is a movie I admire greatly.

#jack dylan grazer #fraser wilson #we are who we are #wawwa #luca guadagnino #chloe sevigny #alice braga #jordan kristine seamon #spence moore ii #kid cudi #faith alabi #francesca scorsese #ben taylor #corey knight #tom mercier #sebastiano pigazzi

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