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deltaengineering · 3 years

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Spring Anime 2021: Embarrassment of Riches

So this current anime season absolutely stinks, which just makes the last one look even more impressive. Well, maybe not all of it...

Zombieland Saga Revenge

First off, you don't need to tell me that the following is a severe outlier opinion. We good? Ok. ZLSR is, in a word, subpar. I liked S1 back in the day, but it was already in the process of getting lazy towards the end. S2 continues this trend and is basically just another idol show. And as someone who actually does watch other idol shows I have to say that it's not a particularly good one of those either. The zombie gimmick has mostly stopped mattering and we're just doing what every idol show does, only with the odd occasional sight gag. The alleged subversive qualities mostly amount to a flashback for Yuugiri, which is admittedly the best part of the show but feels like it barely has anything to do with anything. Apart from that, it's a bunch of generic idol plots, rehashed character beats, shoddy attempts at twists (while not connecting to any setups from S1), and the obligatory "idols give us hope" ending, which is terribly hackneyed and flat out bad. Tae gets further memed into the ground, because of course she does. And there's stuff that was simply never good to begin with, like Kotarou and his comedy schtick, which gets truly insufferable now that there's no qualities to distract from it. It really makes me think that S1 wasn't even all that good to begin with and seems like an attempt to turn this surprise success into an easy money longrunner with no edge and no ambitions. "The idol show for people who don't watch idol shows" indeed, but not the way you mean it. 4/10

Bakuten

But not to dwell on the failures, with the second show we're already above the cut — barely. This one got my attention with its really impressive performance scenes early on and it totally sticks to that, which is even more impressive. But besides that? Well, this is by far the most predictable show in a season where I watched an unambitious Kiraralike and put ZLS on blast for having no ideas. The characters are a mixed bag, some are cool (Shida, Asawo), some are very annoying (Mashiro), but those are the supports. The main cast is extremely one-dimensional, which is fine until they try to heap a ton of pathos on their lead, which doesn't go well. But I guess execution matters, and Bakuten is slick enough to get by. Writing this down in stark daylight I feel like I overrated this show somewhat (I actually put it over the next one originally, which definitely doesn't hold up when thinking about it), but I was indeed mostly entertained. 6/10

Yakunara Mug Cup mo

Yeah. Of course Mug Cup definitely doesn't invent or subvert anything either, but it's a pretty good Kiraralike that's always entertaining to watch. Explaining the qualities of such a nothing genre is as difficult as ever, but it mostly comes down to me liking the characters and it having nothing to annoy me. It's shorter than normal, which is a plus for slim shows like this. And yeah, you can make an excessive amount of dick jokes with the clay fondling. That helps too. Looks are just fine, pleasant but nothing out of the ordinary. Comfy low-effort anime. 6/10

Vivy: Fluorite Eye's Song

This one is decent, but sadly still a major letdown. Because the first few episodes of Vivy were excellent and kicked ass, but then it became increasingly clear that the writing can't cash the checks the ideas wrote while the action starts running into severely diminishing returns. Vivy just keeps slowly getting worse and worse as it goes on, not by a huge amount each episode but by the end there's a pretty sizeable gulf between potential and result. Going into detail would probably be a little much for this venue because there's a lot, but from the top level view the issue is that while Vivy has good fundamental ideas and steals at the right places, it just isn't a smart show — it's schlock, and by the end, poorly thought out schlock that tries to smooth out every problem with liberal application of the big feels hammer and le epic twist at that. Yeah, couldn't tell that the Re:Zero dude was aboard here, for sure. That said, it still works pretty well as entertaining schlock that is not to be taken too seriously, and the characters are generally just very fun to watch even when they're doing stupid things. Still, I can't in good conscience rate this higher than Beatless, a show that looks like butt but properly executes on its ideas. 6/10

Super Cub

So this is 100% a Honda commercial, and I got really mad a Yuru Camp last season for being a blatant shill. Yet I'm feeling this, what gives? I think the main difference is that Super Cub is specifically a commercial for one product (and a very iconic product at that), while Yuru Camp is so all over the place that it ends up mostly a commercial for consumerism in general. And when Super Cub goes too hard on the product (which it does), it's at least pretty entertaining. That's something about Super Cub in general: It goes hard. Your regular Kiraralike this is not, because it's uncommonly slow, focused and moody - yes, it almost measures up to Yuru Camp at its best and demolishes it at its worst. Also, it's just extremely amusing to see sadblob Koguma grow a huge grizzly biker beard and become a badass outlaw dad to her goofy wife and cute daughter, all thanks to the power of afforable personal transportation. Needless to say, that can get unintentionally silly, but Super Cub has so much charm that it doesn't matter — it's great when it's good and still funny when it's not. 7/10

Shadows House

Shadows House turned up with a lot of potential, and I have to say it at least delivered on most of it. It has some problems; notably I'm not a fan of how the entire middle turned out to be a tournament arc of sorts that seems curiously inspired by Resident Evil memes, crest-shaped intentations and boulder punching included. I also think that this is a show that would be perfectly fine without explaining much, but I guess it is a shounen manga after all so we got dumped on eventually anyway. At least that came late - close relative Promised Neverland didn't show that much restraint. Shadows House is generally well written though, with great characters, interesting interactions and a great hook. But what really makes it memorable is that it's exceptionally good at the cute/creepy contrast, something that is often tried but rarely works as well as here, with great character designs and very appropriate production. I hope this gets a sequel, because it seems like it's just getting started. 7/10

SSSS.Dynazenon

Coming in with a fondness for Gridman, Dynazenon didn't have to do much to convince me. The surprise though is that it's not a rehash even if it's basically the same show, a character drama where occasionally huge and goofy fights break out. Dynazenon is Gridman done better, and the interesting part is how it accomplishes this - mainly by being far more conventional. I do appreciate that Gridman went for something weird and almost experimental, but that only really paid off towards the end while most of the show was a distraction/holding pattern. It just didn't feel like there was enough material for a full series there, more like a movie maybe, if even that. Dynazenon fixes this by just being a TV show, with an actual cast of characters that each have their own arc. And by spreading the material this way, Dynazenon ends up having a lot more nuance than its intensely focused predecessor, while having the same themes and not actually being any deeper. In a way, Gridman ends up looking like the spinoff in retrospect, while Dynazenon is the full package. 8/10

Thunderbolt Fantasy S3

So how good was this season? So good that Thunderbolt Fantasy doesn't end up at the top, that's how. And all the elements that made Tbolt such a sure thing are still there, big hammy puppets doing stunts and scheming never gets old. However, I do have to note that at this point, the writing appears to have gotten too comfortable. I don't expect it to ever top the amazing S1 ending, but at this point it's like Tbolt has stopped trying to deliver on endings at all and seems in the process of retooling itself into a longrunner instead. Barely anything gets resolved in S3 (the climax is that the climax of S2 is resolved again, for good this time... maybe), and everything else is just setting up plotpoints for the next season. Tbolt is truly lucky that it doesn't actually need to resolve anything to be a great time, but at this point I have to say that I'd appreciate it if they wrapped it up with S4. 8/10

Nomad: Megalobox 2

Speaking of sequels to shows I liked, Nomad doesn't so much improve upon its predecessor but steamrolls right over it. This is a tall order, since Megalobox was surprisingly good for a sports shounen and had a real nice, heartwarming ending that Nomad instantly negates for purposes of drama and everyone being extremely miserable. That sounds like a pretty terrible idea - and it would be, if Nomad wasn't as excellent as it is. To call it not the same show would be an understatement, because it's a true sequel, not just the same characters doing their thing some more, or new characters doing the same thing as the old ones did. Indeed my biggest problem with Megalobox was that it still closely adhered to its genre template and was very predictable; Nomad fixes this issue thoroughly. Nomad is about questioning what being a hotblooded shounen protagonist eventually leads you to, and how to fix everything you screwed up by being one. You could call it a deconstruction, but that term has been so abused for cynical, edgy "thing you like actually sucks" takes that I feel like it doesn't really fit here. Nomad isn't cynical at all, it's just a character drama about some boxers past their prime, and it being a sequel to a show that is indeed rather formulaic just enhances the experience. My biggest issue with it was that I really like what they did with Joe in this story, so the big focus on Mac's backstory felt like a distraction for a long time. But in the end that turned out to be absolutely necessary to make the ending work. The ending's just great, by the way, and I shall say not more about it. 9/10

Odd Taxi

Yeah boy, here's the show that has apparently become somewhat of a "greatest show you didn't watch" meme, which I can feel smug about because I don't need YouTubers to tell me what's good and followed this from day one. Anyway, Odd Taxi is indeed great, the greatest show in a few years even. What starts out as seemingly a relaxed hangout show in the vein of Midnight Diners quickly turns into a psychological murder mystery while never losing its quirky humor. The character writing is outstanding, with even small bit players being on a level that the average anime wishes it could have for leads. And the rollout of the mystery is exemplary, with answers given and new questions raised every episode with a satisfying and logical payoff in the end. This is also the rare anime that has rock solid production from the first to the last second; it's never really flashy but excellently done and highly consistent nonetheless. And the music just owns. I have a few complaints, mainly that there's a few logical weaknesses in the story (which wouldn't even register in a lesser show, but sticks out here since the rest is so immaculately constructed) and that the ending overextends on the emotions when the rest of the show is so reserved and dry in comparison. But those are only the reasons why I didn't give it perfect marks, and I almost did that anyway. 9/10

#Zombieland Saga #bakuten #yakunara mug cup mo #vivy: fluorite eye's song #super cub #shadows house #ssss.dynazenon #thunderbolt fantasy #nomad megalo box #odd taxi #anime #review #spring2021

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why-this-kolaveri-machi · 4 years

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spn 15.14

now this is the late-season spn content i’m craving: an absurdly cheerful and superficial veneer over dark and abyssal horror. and it’s not horror in the universe-is-ending sort of way (tho that’s happening too, but eh, whatever, the characters aren’t too cut-up over it) but in the insidious way the show both indulges in and explicitly acknowledges the toxicity of its main relationships. it’s just a very fitting tone for the show to take, given reality’s kinda been similar for the last several years: increasingly aware that it’s irredeemably fucked up, but (mostly) carrying on all the same.

spoilers ahead.

1. i can’t believe this is one of the first episodes i see after the eldritch-bunker fic i wrote. spn has never been about that kind of horror, but it was cool to see a little more of the bunker’s secrets revealed (tho wasn’t there a lockdown-type situation in s12? i think? the reset button could’ve come in real handy then.)

1.25. it’s still remarkable to me, though, that despite living out of the bunker for nearly seven years, samndean are... strangely incurious about how it works. i would’ve thought at least sam would want to explore and figure things out, though maybe gaining knowledge for knowledge’s sake has dropped very low on his list of priorities in the last several years, and he’s busy trying to conserve what little physical/mental energy he has. ‘research’ has always meant either trying to deal with the aftermath of an apocalyptic disaster or trying frantically to prevent another one, and i don’t suppose ‘looking at more supernatural shit’ is something sam would associate with pleasure or positivity now.

1.5. which is why it’s kind of a stroke of genius to have mrs butters represent the spirit of the bunker: samndean’s complacency as long as she took care of their needs without seeming to want anything of her own is very reminiscent of how they treat their alleged home.

2. cuthbert sinclair cameo! man, i miss s8....

3. it’s kind of darkly hilarious how many times mary’s death was brought up in an episode where mrs butters fulfilled a fantasy-mother’s role. she is the idealised mother-figure: always kind, nurturing, giving and giving and never taking--in sharp contrast to their actual mother, who turned out to be a far more complicated person than the ones her sons had idealised. (if anything mary’s second death has sort of resurrected her as a martyr figure in dean’s eyes: something on which to hang his righteous fury.) it was bizarre, yet entirely fitting, that both samndean went along with it after 2.5 seconds of vague misgivings. hell, dean was prepared to let mrs butters capturing and threatening to kill jack go if it meant that she could keep taking care of them!

3.5. of course mrs butters then turned out to be dangerous and twisted--but not because of any inherent nature but because she had been tortured and brainwashed into fulfilling a role ‘in the family’ by men whom she still pined after at the end of the episode. like. OH MY GOD.

if things couldn’t get more explicit, the episode had sam be the only one to acknowledge and empathise with mrs butters, yet accept her tragic and twisted devotion to the MOL as benign and even adorable at the end of episode anyway. why wouldn’t he? his own edges have been at first chiseled away, then inelegantly lopped off, to fit the Winchester Ideal--something that he’s learned not to get angry about, then to be grateful for. this episode even juxtaposes mrs butters talking about pain ‘being a wonderful teacher’ while torturing sam with dean going ‘pain is just weakness leaving your body’ to jack: these are lessons about needing to be in pain in the service of a higher, correct goal.

this is why late-season spn is both exciting and drives me up the fucking wall.

3.8. dean’s disappointment when he said ‘of course you had to pull a ratched’ gave me chills. there is not one iota of effort from him to acknowledge the atrocity that has been committed on mrs butters, one that he was more than happy to exploit. sam is a bit better, but only just.

4. i haven’t even been watching the last few seasons regularly and i feel like this debate over jack being a ‘monster’ has been rehashed way too many times already. what would be more interesting to acknowledge is the way samndean treat him like a weapon rather than the kid they keep professing he is. even in that confrontation with mrs butters, while sam at least talked about jack being a kid who’s gone through too much already, dean could only come up with ‘he’s going to save the world’. mrs butters even leaves with a ‘you save the world’ to jack rather than anything more intimate/personal. what a terrible burden to leave on this kid! what a terrible way to re-enact the tragedies that shaped samndean into the twisted, fucked-up men that they are on this being that’s only ever existed to win their approval!

i really feel like sam had an opportunity to at least try and make things right at the end of the episode, when jack confesses his self-doubt to him. but he blew it: all he could say was, ‘you’re the only one who can do it’. sam, bless him, continues to fail to stand up for jack, which means, for all his good intentions and love, he continues to fail jack.

5. i’ve noticed that lately when i write these reviews, i write ‘samndean’ a lot--it’s because they often act as one entity, existing with seemingly no conflict between them. on one level, it’s boring and--no no. on the same level, it’s downright fucking chilling. dean makes the decisions, and sam makes a weak, token protest, but goes along with a shake of his head and a soft smile. he doesn’t get angry anymore. he hasn’t stood up for himself in a good long while.

can they fight again, maybe? brotherly conflict doesn’t have to lead to a straight line to fratricide, but it would be nice to be reminded, before the end, that sam and dean have distinct personalities.

6. it’s just really hard to square the winchesters’ discomfort and then visceral opposition to the way the british men of letters operated with their casual acceptance of the exploitative, unethical and elitist legacy that the american men of letters left them. it’s hard to take any of their numerous. numerous conversations about how monsters are people too over the last decade and a half seriously when they’re happily taking advantage of a ‘monster radar’ to go and lop the heads of monsters who haven’t even done anything to deserve being hunted (that poor vampire kid was pouring a blood bag into his giant soda cup! he didn’t deserve to die like that!). the romanticisation of supernatural being about roadtripping across small-town america while hunting supernatural monsters is laughable when its heroes spend all their time holed up in a gigantic luxury bunker built centuries ago by a bunch of rich, secretive assholes. it’s baffling to be told that sam and dean can barely take care of themselves when they’ve spent all their lives taking care of themselves (with a bit of ‘oh boys will be boys’ casual sexism thrown in).

why would you undermine your legacy like this, show? is this how sam and dean are going to end?

#supernatural #meta #season 15 #samndean #jack kline #mrs butters #watching s15 sometimes makes me feel like i've stopped understanding this show that i still love so much

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homespork-review · 4 years

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Homespork Act 3: Insane Mindscrew Haymakers (Part 3)

FAILURE ARTIST: We cut to PM, WV, and AR in the far but not that far future. WV is trying to obey the letter’s direction to give the package to PM but AR keeps shooting. Yet WV and PM take cover behind a rock and WV is able to complete the task. The letter calls PM “Miss Mail Lady” so we now have a gender.

Back to Dream Jade. She flies to another golden tower and peers in on John sleeping. This bedroom is also defaced like his one in the waking world, plus there’s a creepy harlequin doll next to him. She isn’t sure if he got her present or if she even sent it, so she decides she’ll ask later.

CHEL: Dream John is fitfully asleep, but Jade intends to let him wake up on his own. Here, it’s established that Dream Jade does not know everything waking Jade does, as she decides she needs a system to remind her of things, which in the waking world she has (remember the COLORFUL REMINDERS).

The moon on which the city is now revealed to be placed is moving close to Skaia, the gargantuan sphere of cloudy blue sky mentioned by Nannasprite as the crucible of creation. Apparently it’s not safe to be outside during the “eclipse”, so Jade heads back to her tower.

FAILURE ARTIST: We cut to John alchemizing a bunch of stuff, some useful and some never to appear again. One of these things is a Cosbytop computer and that hasn’t aged well. John feels like it’s both his birthday and Christmas and though he thinks that’s impossible these pages came out a few days before Christmas. This fourth wall wink and nod comes up during another alchemizing frenzy.

CHEL: He contemplates a “1980s time-lapse montage” but instead we have to sit through him alchemising everything item by item.

GET ON WITH IT!: 12

Though he does come up with some useful stuff, including a rather snappy suit. By combining his glasses with the PDA he gets hands-free internet, and the sledgehammer, telescope, and Sassacre book together create the TELESCOPIC SASSACRUSHER, an extremely powerful weapon which unfortunately he can’t lift. Nannasprite’s ectoplasm and the gushers make healing candies, and ectoplasm, the fake arms, and the PDA solve the giant hammer problem by making REMOTE GHOST GAUNTLETS. One of the funnier items is a steam-iron-hammer he calls the WRINKLEFUCKER.

Dave, meanwhile, is STILL strifing with Bro, who apparently doesn’t notice or doesn’t care about the fact that the city is being flattened by meteors around them. Not doing a good job of showing “yes, this fight should be taken seriously”.

TIER: Neither does Dave for that matter, fucks given remains at a cool absolute zero on this roof.

GET ON WITH IT!: 13 HURRY UP AND DO NOTHING: 6

CHEL: At least it’s captioned FINAL ROUND now. Surrounded by watching crows, Dave hurls himself at Bro, and their collision results in the snapping of Dave’s sword, the bisection of Lil Cal (hooray!) and, somehow, the splitting of the picture of the record on Dave’s T-shirt; not cutting the cloth, turning the picture of a whole record into one of a broken record, which it will remain for the rest of its time in the story. Lots of analysis has been done by fans about how this represents Bro’s abuse shattering Dave’s true inner self, but in the context, it just looks like even sillier cartoon physics than we already had, if one even notices it (in the rush of visuals it’s easy to miss the first time round). It probably doesn’t help that Bro never actually says anything (nor do either of the other living adults), so we don’t really know what his thoughts on the matter are.

ARE YOU TRYING TO BE FUNNY?: 12

Dave goes flying, rolling and skidding across the roof, landing in a rather battered-looking heap but with no serious harm done, and Bro chucks the game discs at him and… flies off on a hoverboard which I guess he has? Yet again, not adding to a serious tone here. Are hoverboards normal in this universe? Like the sylladexes, it was never established. Dave messages John, matter-of-factly telling him “bro just kicked my ass”. It’s still unclear how literal John thinks this ass-kicking is.

BRIGHT: This is apparently a universe in which some form of combat with one’s guardian is apparently routine, so John might well be thinking of Dave’s strifes with Bro as just a more intense version of a normal practice. On the other hand, by that same token, there’s nothing at this stage to say it isn’t just a more intense version of a normal practice. In fact, both John’s and Dave’s reactions suggest this is the case.

The problem really comes later on. If Dave’s situation is going to be taken seriously, then so should everyone else’s. Right now, although there are suggestions that all is not well, the tone of the text takes none of these situations seriously. It keeps everyone on a more even footing.

CHEL: Back on the golden moon, the eclipse is happening; during same, the moon and Jade’s tower thereupon, which are chained to the planet, swing right inside Skaia, surrounding it with clouds. On the surface of the clouds, we see images of events which happened earlier, including John’s house in the Medium, Rose’s house aflame, the tree in the desert, and the meteors falling on Dave’s city. This, we gather, is from where Jade obtains her mysterious information!

Dream Jade types messages to John, while the Dreambot types them out on a keyboard in the real world so he can actually get them. We proceed to see the same conversation about the package and SBurb we saw when Jade was first introduced, but this time I think a recap of it is actually pretty useful, especially the reference to the explosion. What happens is a little hard to parse, but as far as I can make out, a cloud shows a vision of a meteor emerging from a space portal, and the meteor actually emerges from the vision, becoming a cloud in the process. Said cloud-meteor then passes into a vision of Jade’s island when the volcano was still active and strikes down as the real meteor did in that time period. Jade, in her tower, hears it; I guess this is why it’s not safe to go outside during the eclipse?

In the volcano vision, we pull into a close-up shot of the lava-filled crater beneath the volcano, and a very familiar featureless canine head starts to emerge from it. Creepy.

Jade leaves the tower to check, and finds a vision of the lava with a blossom-like lit-up spirograph emerging from it, but when she tries to look, vision-Bec blocks her view of it, as the real Bec flies back and forth in front of the Dreambot. She messages John again, saying Bec doesn’t want her to go near the meteor crash site.

In John’s dream tower, the bed is empty; Dream John is now hovering outside it, eyes firmly shut. Jade sees him and drifts toward him, while John’s eyes slowly open. (This bit fuelled a fair amount of shipping at the time.) We see again the shaped clouds and the slowly approaching silhouette of Jade, revealing this to be the time when John fell asleep earlier, and at the exact same moment, real Jade and real John awake.

Again, we have a repeated conversation, this one being the one where Jade implores John to wake up. Now we know what she meant! Again, I think recapping this is reasonable, but maybe it could have been trimmed down so we just got the important points? That should have been done with all the repeat convos, really.

TIER: Personally speaking the little blurbs of repeated conversation shown during the flash would've gotten the point across without having to completely rehash the conversations.

With Jade awake properly, we get another convo rehash (now with proper context from both sides). Jade then consults her COLORFUL REMINDERS, as the visions of past and future events visible in the clouds as she sleeps can get very confusing very fast and the things help her put everything into usable info! With is fitting because dreams are trippy and easily forgotten. Jade notes two things: that this time there wasn't that much of future being shown, and that this is the first time that her dog guardian Bec has shown up a dream.

Bec has apparently never let Jade wander into the weird temple that is such a strange landmark of her island, but with the overpowered pooch taking a nap at the feet of his master's corpse, this is a good a time as any to try and pull one over him!

As Jade zip lines towards the temple and Rose continues construction on John's house, we cut back to Dave in the aftermath of the strife.

Dave is slightly saddened by poor Cal's “unfortunate” bisection (personally I was hollering because fuck that thing Jesus). His strife kind has also been turned into a ½ bladekind, courtesy of Bro fucking up his shit blade. Fucking rude man.

BRIGHT: Fighting with half a sword never seems to hinder Dave, but it still seems a silly thing to do when Bro quite possibly knew Dave was headed into heavy combat. It’s funny at the time though!

FAILURE ARTIST: When I first read Homestuck, I was sad Bro didn’t seem to care about Lil Cal, but with later revelations...would be better if that puppet never existed.

TIER: Dave attempts to grab the beta that he worked so hard for, but wouldn't ya know it his dang inventory is all filled up. Mostly with useless crap, as Dave admits as well. After a quick setup change for his modus, Dave finally has the beta! Congrats!!

CHEL: *looks pointedly at GET ON WITH IT count*

TIER: While Dave attempts to pester her, Rose has finished building up John's house, which marks the end of how much more she can help John as his server player. There's not much else to do for her till Dave shows up. She's also nearly done with John's gift, that'll show him that Rose is the God King of, and I am quoting right now “facetious sentimental gestures”. That's a peculiar and slightly worrying sentiment to have. What an adorably wordy yet cheeky little goth.

With that, we jump back a few months into the past, when it was Rose's 13th birthday. She's opening a package from John (signed under his old handle ghostyTrickster) containing the gift of knitting stuff (yarn and knitting needles) and a very dorky yet endearing letter from the blue boy. What a goof.

Rose is then pestered by one of the trollslum inhabitants, this one by the name of grimAuxiliatrix! They type Like This, And I Think It's Very Neat. Also quite verbose this one. Like personally I kinda need to carefully read and reread their words to get what the fuck they're trying to get to. In this case, it's politely bitching about humans while weird time related fuckery gets explicitly name dropped. Mainly the weird situation that is the trolls being/not being from the future. It's as confusing as it sounds.

CHEL: I think here’s the first indication that the trolls aren’t just other humans. Meanwhile, notice that one of the names in the Trollslum is “centaursTesticle”. Lovely. That character will, as the handle suggests, be the source of a LOT of CALL CPA PLEASE points. But anyway.

GA: No We Arent From "The Future" GA: But We Are All Already In Agreement That You Dont Get It And Never Will TT: I thought you said we spoke in the future. GA: We Did GA: Your Future GA: For Me It Was Only A Couple Minutes Ago TT: I understand. TT: You exist in some temporal stratum through which you have communication access to various points of my timeline. TT: It's not that complicated.

TIER: While that confusing thing keeps happening, we jump on over to a younger Dave, whole record shirt and dumb not-Kamina anime glasses wearing. He too is opening a birthday gift, which consists of his iconic aviators and a letter as well. The letter is just as endearing as the one John sent to Rose. Might just be my bias talking concerning how much John is undoubtedly and unchallenged my favorite character overall.

CHEL: I think so too, but I’m still giving him a point for him telling Dave his “gay butt stinks”, even though he is a twelve-year-old boy - it never gets called out or presented as bad that the kids say -ism-based insults until near the end, and that part has its own problems which we’ll get to then. The rest of it’s cute though.

CLOCKWORK PROBLEMATYKKS: 11

I’d like to bring up another webcomic which is known for its incredibly offensive humour; R. K. Milholland’s Something Positive. Specifically, I’d like to contrast the offensive humour of it with the offensive humour of Homestuck. In S*P, the point of the offensive humour is that the characters saying or doing the offensive thing are horrible people who should not be emulated, and even they disapprove strongly of homophobic/racist insults. Here is one of the tamer examples, from 2003 (so later comics have no excuse). Please note the character saying all this is both very drunk and very frustrated by having read a lot of terrible writing at the time, and his decision to do this comes back to bite him later.

In contrast, the point of Homestuck’s offensive jokes seems to be that either offensive things are inherently funny or the writer doesn’t realise why they’re offensive.

John tells Dave he thinks he needs to get out of his brother’s shadow, showing no concern for Dave’s actual wellbeing; more evidence that either they don’t know about the strifes or don’t care. The gift John has given is the glasses worn by Ben Stiller, which John suggests could replace Dave’s current anime shades. John worries that they’re “sort of a shitty present”, which again makes me wonder about the Egberts’ financial status - we weren’t able to find an actual figure for them but those things would cost thousands, so what the hell makes him call them “shitty”? How much did Hussie think movie memorabilia cost? Name of the count aside, we’re using it for when their economic statuses are weird in general, so here we go again:

WHITE SBURB POSTMODERNISM: 8

TIER: Dave too is dealing with a trollslum inhabitant, this one by the name of adiosToreador. It's around here that the trolls typing starts to get head tilt worthy. As Dave so eloquently puts it, toreador types like a tool. I mean, lOOK AT THIS, lOOK ME IN THE EYES, aND TELL ME THIS AIN'T RIDICULOUS.

CHEL: AT opens by telling Dave he’s awful, and Dave responds with frustration at having to deal with the trolls yet again. He complains that he’s “wasting good material on you guys” and that there’s no substance to their trolling; he also mentions one of them thinking he was a girl, which I think is the original source of the fandom’s popular female-to-male transgender Dave headcanon.

FAILURE ARTIST: I think it’s just that Dave is a popular character.

CHEL: I don’t know, it started well before the fandom started getting really enthusiastic about assigning identities to everyone, from what I saw, but maybe.

TIER: My two cents concerning this matter is that it's probably a combination of the two. Dave seems to resonate quite well with a great majority of the fans, so from what I've seen they more readily project onto him.

AT: i KNOW WHAT YOU'VE DONE, AT: oR WILL DO, aCTUALLY, AT: iT'S THE MOST AWFUL THING, tHE WORST YOU CAN EVER DO,

CHEL: The readers immediately start wondering what this thing is, but Dave is unconcerned, and immediately accuses AT of perving on him. Here is where the CALL CPA PLEASE count really starts to ramp up, because on one hand, yes it’s hilarious to watch the tables being turned, but on the other, this coming out of a boy who literally just turned thirteen that day is… uncomfortable for a lot of adult readers, especially since we know his home has obscene material lying around all over it and as mentioned before that can really mess up a kid, even if Bro was not in fact putting him in his movies directly.

TG: and i want to know exactly when i got to clear some space in my calendar for when some fuckwit blunders out of a magical phone booth and makes a ballad-inspiring play for my throbbing beef truncheon AT: sHOULD i BE PERTURBED BY THESE ALLUSIONS, TG: no man TG: look TG: i just need to know when to be there TG: when the stars come into alignment and your flux capacitor lets you finally sate your meteoric greed for crotch-dachshund TG: i wouldnt want to miss it and cause a paradox or something TG: itd suck if the universe blew up on account of you missing your window of opportunity to help yourself to a pubescent boy's naked spam porpoise AT: uHHH, AT: oK, THIS IS SORT OF STARTING TO UPSET ME, CALL CPA PLEASE: 5

TIER: How many words does a 13 year old need for his private parts? Asking for a friend. I get that Dave is a little gremlin but holy shit y'all.

CHEL: To quote Hiveswap, “SOUNDS LIKE SETUP TO ‘RIDDLE’ OR PERHAPS ‘JOKE’.” Or maybe a really weird rewrite of “Blowin’ in the Wind” and I just realised the (in)appropriateness of that song title. Anyway, I’m giving one CPA point for each of those elaborate descriptions. AT, perturbed, announces his intention to leave, but Dave continues.

TG: we're motherfuckin entrenched in this bitch TG: you and me TG: welcome to nam TG: now grab my hand and shimmy your soggy ass off that muddy bank before charlie gets the fuckin drop AT: uHHH, wHO, AT: wHO'S CHARLIE, TG: hes the guy whos gonna read our vows TG: im feeling pretty friggin MATRIMONIAL all a sudden TG: take a look down by your foot see that little bottle TG: stomp on that shit like its on fire TG: noisy ethnic dudes are flipping the fuck out and waving us around on chairs til someone gets hurt TG: im your 300 pound matronly freight-train TG: and my gaping furnace is hungry for coal so get goddamn shoveling AT: oH MY GOD, CLOCKWORK PROBLEMATYKKS: 14 WHITE SBURB POSTMODERNISM: 9

Hey, our first double point assignment! Two points for using the same racist joke again, as if it wasn’t offensive enough the first time. And another one for the fat joke.

FAILURE ARTIST: Lifting the newlyweds on chairs is a Jewish tradition so I guess Hussie’s antisemitism didn’t start this year.

CHEL: Isn’t stepping on a bottle a Jewish thing too? Does that count as more than one anti-Semitic joke or is it all part of the same one?

FAILURE ARTIST: Yeah, that’s also a thing. But I’d say it counts as one big joke.

CHEL: Does the Vietnam joke count as a separate one? I’m not sure what the general attitude to those is since about half of 20th-century British comedy revolves around WW2 jokes and no one minds those.

TG: thats what you see TG: a kaleidoscopic supernova of all your hopes and dreams all swishin together TG: radially effevescing arms of more little boy peckers than you can imagine TG: turning out insane corkscrew haymakers of a billion dancing vienna sausages strong CALL CPA PLEASE: 7

CHEL: All the counts aside, I can see what Hussie was going for and the general idea’s still amusing, culminating in one of the funniest bits in the comic when all this leads up to adiosToreador [AT] blocked turntechGodhead [TG] - I think we’ve all wanted to be Dave here. I’m fully aware that this sequence was meant to be somewhat uncomfortable, but given that Hussie later tries to tell us that Dave’s home life scarred him for real, yet he presented this as funny, it adds to the general feeling of Hussie berating the reader for laughing at the comedy. I think he was just trying to pander to the woke side of the fanbase with that, but we’ll get to it when we get there.

ARE YOU TRYING TO BE FUNNY?: 13

FAILURE ARTIST: We go to AIMLESS RENEGADE, who has finally run out on his clip without hitting anyone. Apparently, some nitpicker on the forum (not me) pointed out the AR’s gun is magazine-fed, not clip-fed, but AR doesn’t give a shit about that.

CHEL: “A clip is not a magazine, a mag is not a clip; neither is a grip a stock, and "stock" does not mean grip.”

FAILURE ARTIST: AR examines the murals and declares the amphibian and reptilian images illegal pictography. AR arms themselves with a rocket launcher but wonders if they should befriend WV and PM - particularly PM. However, AR decides the two have committed too many crimes that make AR’s carapace steam. AR dresses as a judge (to complement WV as a mayor and PM as a mail carrier) and declares order in the court. AR wants to go down the moving platform to catch WV and PM but it isn’t operating right.

Closer to present time, Jade puts her gift to John on top of the monument. The gift disappears, just as Jade planned. Back in the future, PM looks at her drawing showing where she’s supposed to go. The drawing seems to be inaccurate until the tower is shot down. It turns out AR accidentally launched a rocket at it. AR tries again to hit the criminals but is distracted by PM’s beauty. Instead, AR shoots the mobile station. WV throws a can of Tab and PM grabs the package in a clever callback to SBaHJ’s sock ruse comic.

PM gets the package to the Appearifier and Sendifies it into Jade’s toddlerhood, back when Grandpa was alive and shooting butterflies. Inside the package is a letter from John, a too-big t-shirt with a blue ghost on it, and pumpkin seeds. So we have the root of Jade’s friendship with John and the others and her interest in gardening. That’s a very elaborate time loop.

CHEL: Get used to elaborate time loops. Anyway, the letter’s painfully adorable again. John thanks Jade for her years of friendship and for being the reason he met Rose and Dave. He gave Jade pumpkin seeds because future Jade had been upset that her pumpkins kept disappearing so he wanted to help her grow more. Unfortunately his declaration that three people is “almost like, TOO MUCH FRIENDSHIP” was cute at first glance, but given how he has no contact with anyone but them that we see, it becomes a tad creepy. Did he not expect to ever have any friends, or more than one friend? The implication that Dadbert kept him locked in his room all the time is looking more and more likely!

We cut to a cartoon sound effect, WHOP, and You bear the vicious brunt of this story transition directly in the face, “you” now being Archagent Jack Noir. The sound effect is the result of Dad Egbert punching Jack in the face. Jack pulls a switchblade, but Dad retaliates by lighting Jack’s hated jester hat on fire, throwing it to the ground, spraying shaving cream on it, and stomping on it. Jack immediately sets Dad free.

Jade is instructed by the prompt to “Play guitar to summon giant lily pads”, which she does, and it works… somehow? I’m not sure how that happens. Anyway, she uses the lily pads to hop over to the frog temple, finding in it a wall covered in tiny lime green glowing symbols.

Cut back to Dave, who has finally succeeded in installing the beta, and not a moment too soon as Rose’s room is now full of red light, soon to be aflame. Rose is calm enough to join Dave in a SBaHJ joke, and we go into the act-ending animation, [S] Enter.

Dave dramatically sips his fortunately-really-apple-juice and draws cartoons as the game loads, while Rose plays with Vodka Mutini and Jade scurries through the temple. For clarity’s sake, I’ll describe each character’s actions in a separate paragraph.

"Homestuck - [S] Enter [End of act 3]" (Watch on YouTube)

In Rose’s burning house Dave quickly deploys the necessary machinery. There’s so little safe room left to use that he has to throw Rose’s bed into the burning forest for one, put one in the observatory, and put the third on the nearby roof; fortunately Rose is able to get to them all. Dave uses the wizard statue to knock open the Cruxtruder, then drops it outside, breaking its hand off and sending the hand flying. He moves the cruxite to the lathe, where Rose produces a totem for her entry item, a bottle. Rose flings the dead Jaspers into the Kernelsprite and Dave grabs the Eldritch Princess doll to put in too, but the flying wizard statue hand knocks the entry item into the nearby waterfall. Rose leaps out over the drop, successfully catches it, and is in turn caught by a long purple tentacle....

Flaming whirlwinds approach the house; Rose swings the bottle to shatter it, and the meteor lands.

In the temple, we see an enormous flower atop another countdown device, noting four-and-a-half minutes till disaster, but Jade suddenly falls asleep again, waking up with only nineteen seconds to go. Unlike John randomly falling asleep mid-battle, this has been happening often enough to seem to be a legitimate problem with a story-based cause. Keep an eye on that.

Dave, meanwhile, is still in his room, which is now filled with crows. He seems flustered at first, but in a later shot he’s back at his computer with a crow perched on his head, seemingly fine.

Back at John’s house, Nannasprite opens up his newer copy of Sassacre’s book and starts to inscribe the very message we read earlier, so she didn’t in fact know about it during her life. Seems odd that she’d bother doing this rather than just saying it, though, especially since when she finishes, she drops the book into the chasm, where it plummets through grey clouds, emerging over a dark-blue land scattered with tiny lights and black rivers. John, covered in oil, runs up the many stairs of his remodelled house, smashing imps left and right with single blows from the WRINKLEFUCKER and directing the SASSACRUSHER with the GHOST GAUNTLETS to take on the ogres. When he reaches the top, he slams his hammer down one last time and bounces upwards to the spirograph portal, entering whatever’s on the other side. Fade to white.

Generally, a very good flash! Exciting but doesn’t sacrifice useful information for drama, and now two characters have reached their current goals but more is still going on. Lovely music too. I think the Flash animations are one of Hussie’s greater strengths here.

FAILURE ARTIST: The animation was what drew me into Homestuck and this is a particularly good one.

CHEL: A couple of static pages wrap up the Act; we pan out from John’s house to see it and the pinnacle it’s perched on are now looming above the same dark-blue land covered with thick clouds that the book fell onto, which we now see is in fact an entire very small planet. Curtains close.

So that’s the end of Act 3! What does everyone think?

FAILURE ARTIST: It was fun seeing Jade and the Exiles but sad thinking about how underutilized they ended up. Especially poor AR.

BRIGHT: This is where the elaborate time loops really started to kick in, and I’ve gotta say, I’m not a fan. I recognise that they’re a key feature of Homestuck, but I found some of them too confusing on my first read through. (Though they do make more sense on subsequent reads.)

I think on the whole this Act is quite well paced. I really loved the bits with Jade, and a lot of nifty background info gets introduced without being infodumped.

TIER: I wasn't even aware that webcomics on the internet were a thing at this point, but I do believe that it's around here that Homestuck's popularity was starting to pick up, no? This chapter went a lot deeper into the strangeness of the game to!

FAILURE ARTIST:

Homestuck was popular but I don’t think it became a phenomenon until Act 5 when the trolls were fully introduced. Lots of people even skipped Acts 1-4 and the Intermission to get to them. I think a lot of the pre-Act 5 fans were my age (20s) while after that many were teens or tweens. Admittedly, I didn’t do much in the fandom except check the SA thread until Act 5 came around.

CHEL: I don’t think I got into it until Act 6 - I remember the first time I got further than a few pages in I gave up when the Alpha kids got introduced because it was way too complicated.

As for my thoughts on the act, well… Before, I was able to more or less chalk up the racist/sexist/fatphobic/homophobic remarks as being from the characters’ mouths (they are, after all, twelve to thirteen years old) and not the author’s, but they don’t really get called out by the narrative and Hussie has sufficiently drained my goodwill that I have to complain, and I suspect after recent events that it actually was him speaking there, if you get my meaning. Most of the dialogue is still as sweet and funny as I remember it being but those bits really taint it. Hypothetical rewrite would definitely remove those.

I’m in two minds about keeping Dave’s hurricane of euphemisms to AT for said hypothetical rewrite; on one hand, considering his home situation, it’s worrying, but on the other the whole point of the joke is to make AT uncomfortable and it’s hard to do that without making comments that would also make the reader uncomfortable. Maybe if Dave’s home life was adjusted a bit the reader would be more easily able to assume he just picked them up from Urban Dictionary.

Speaking of Dave, his storyline here is where we really start to see a thing which is a recurring problem with the comic. Namely, reliance on theme and symbolism over what is actually happening. If Hussie was indeed trying from the beginning to portray Dave’s situation as serious abuse, then he shouldn’t have chosen to represent said abuse with ridiculous cartoon physics while literally portraying Dave as unharmed onscreen. Dave’s behaviour does hint at some issues, but they’re easy to pass off as related to other things, and swords so sharp they cause printed pictures to change are not most readers’ first assumption for the cause.

Other than those, though, I think we’re still mostly fine; none of the problems are problems with the underlying structure of the story, so it wouldn’t require a huge retooling. That state of affairs will continue on for another couple of acts, but when it fails, it fails.

COUNTS ALL THE LUCK: 0 ARE YOU TRYING TO BE FUNNY?: 13 CALL CPA PLEASE: 7 CLOCKWORK PROBLEMATYKKS: 14 GET ON WITH IT!: 13 GORE GALORE: 0 HOW NOT TO WRITE A WEBCOMIC: 14 HURRY UP AND DO NOTHING: 6 IN HATE WITH MY CREATION: 0 RELATIONSHIP GOALS?: 1 SEND THEM TO THE SLAMMER: 0 SOME OF MY BEST FRIENDS: 0 WHAT IS HAPPENING??: 2 WHITE SBURB POSTMODERNISM: 9 TOTAL: 79

#homestuck #Homespork #homestuck review #homestuck meta #homestuck reread #let's read homestuck

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ladysmaragdina · 5 years

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I know I'm late as hell, but Dishonored 2... Which path should you choose (high/ low chaos) in order to stay the most true to Emily's and Corvo's character? I've always loved reading your Dishonored fics and analyzes, you always make the characters make such good sense =>

So this ask has been sitting in my inbox for over two weeks now. Which I feel terribly guilty about, because I want to give this question the thought and weight and few-thousand words it probably deserves, but… ugh, okay.

Dishonored 1 is my single favorite game, ever.

I’m utterly indifferent to Dishonored 2.

I’m not interested in Dishonored 2.

I have a hard time even saying that I like Dishonored 2.

I’m not going to be able to answer this question, anon. And I feel like I should explain why. (A lot of this is going to be a reatread of what I talked about in my big Dishonored 2 critique I wrote back when the game came out. Whoops)

I played through the game once, the instant it came out – as Emily in a Clean Hands run – and I really, really enjoyed it at first. I loved getting to play as Emily. I loved that the gameplay was objectively better than the first one. I loved how bright and different and rich the world looked. I was so fucking into Dishonored 2! I probably spent an extra couple of hours exploring every nook and cranny of the Royal Conservatory after knocking out the witches, and finding Corvo’s old apartment in the Dust District was a fucking treat. I love the Dishonored world. I wanted to know everything. I was gonna write so much fucking meta and fanfic.

But by the time I got to A Crack In The Slab, I was starting to realize that the story felt… off.

By the time I finished that mission and it was suddenly time to go get rid of the Duke… I mean, I was still having fun! The game was fucking cool! But I raced through the streets leadup to the Duke’s palace without really exploring. I raced through the Duke’s palace like I was speedrunning it. There are entire floors of that level I never saw, and wasn’t remotely interested in seeing. I didn’t care.

I was bored by the time I got back to Dunwall. I was frustrated by how long it took me to work through the many levels of the palace. I just wanted to get to the finale and find out how the story ended. (and then I found the ending profoundly unsatisfying)

I realized none of this mattered.

If this was ultimately a story about stopping Delilah from mantling the Outsider —- as the metaplot seemed to insist – what the fuck were we doing in Karnaca? Why did we care about Karnaca? Karnaca’s problems weren’t my problems, Emily’s problems, at least not in any clear direct way; Karnaca’s problems weren’t even bad. The bloodflies were endemic to the region instead of being a super-scary weird semi-supernatural plague; it might have been a particularly bad year for bloodflies, but it didn’t feel like anything the city couldn’t deal with. The streets were lively. There were nobles sitting in cafes playing guitar music. Shops were open and well-lit. I felt like I could go to the beach and sip mai-tais. Even the most run-down, awful section of Karnaca that we got to see – the Dust District – wasn’t much worse than anything we’d seen on a Tuesday in Dunwall.

And Karnaca wasn’t home. It didn’t feel like it mattered to Emily. Not really. It was in Emily’s empire, sure, but it was an ocean away and it wasn’t under her direct personal governance. And the Emily we met at the start of the game wasn’t interested in governing to begin with. I could never buy the sense that she cared – really, emotionally cared – about the well-being of Karnaca, because Karnaca was relatively fine, and because Emily seemed like she would rather fuck off and abdicate given half the chance. Being exiled from Gristol didn’t feel like exile – it felt like a sunny vacation, a chance for Emily to have cool swashbuckling adventures without the boredom and paperwork of sitting a throne.

I didn’t understand what I was really doing in Karnaca, and I didn’t understand why it was so urgent and important and needed that I get home to Dunwall. I was just told that I had to get home to Dunwall because Delilah was Bad. And that she was doing some Very Bad Things on the other side of the ocean, and that if she remained unchecked things would get Worse. YOU NEED TO STOP DELILAH, I was told.

But…. gosh, that was on the other side of the ocean. That didn’t seem to affect anything here. Again, Karnaca was fine! Karnaca’s had some issues, but they were were caused firstly by the Duke, not Delilah! What bad things was Delilah really doing? Can we see them? How are they worse than anything any other nobles and rulers are doing? How would installing Emily on the throne be meaningfully different?

What would Delilah’s plan to mantle the Outsider actually mean? The finale gives us a vision of The World As It Should Be, a supremely alien lotus-eater machine where Delilah is absolute monarch; it comes so late in the game, at the absolute eleventh hour, that it doesn’t feel meaningful. It also comes totally out of left field and is so bizarre and extreme that I had no fear that it could ever actually happen. Everything about Delilah’s ascension and ultimate goal is so bizarre and extreme that I had no fear it could ever actually happen. I didn’t understand how it was supposed to happen. The mechanics of magic had never mattered before; why did they matter now? Why did the half-baked explanation for Delilah’s endgame rely on lore from the previous game’s second DLC? (What the fuck, Arkane?)

What was my motivation? Why were my missions important – why did Emily want and need to do these things? What would happen, actually happen, if I failed? What was keeping me from just walking away?

I’m really not sure.

Maybe, just maybe, we could ignore the weird ascension to godhood plot. Maybe my real motivation had nothing to do with Delilah – maybe Emily just wanted to get back to the home that was taken from her. Maybe this was a “take back whats yours” story. But Emily didn’t seem to really want the throne back. The Emily we met at the beginning of the game was bored with governing and wanted out of Dunwall. If we’d had more time and attention paid to that shift in her character, I’d buy it, but you can’t do a complete and instant 180 on a character’s feelings and call it motivation.

Or maybe my real motivation was to get home to Dunwall to save Corvo. But the opening sequence made it seem like Corvo was dead. That’s not a valid motivation either.

Maybe my motivation was to avenge Corvo? I don’t buy that the way I bought Corvo avenging Jessamine in Dishonored 1; in Dishonored 2, Corvo is not the focus and meaning of Emily’s life, and I can’t see her structuring her entire life around fighting back from exile just to avenge him. Emily has hopes and dreams and a distant love interest and isn’t the same hollowed-out husk of vengeance that Corvo is. Sure, he’s her father figure, but I don’t buy that as her sole motivation.

This lack of motivation trickles down to the individual missions of the game.

If I don’t really know or care about what Delilah is doing, why is it so important to stop Breanna Ashworth?

Kirin Jindosh is supposedly making an army of Clockwork Soldiers, but what does that mean? How soon would they be ready, what are the logistics, how powerful are they, how are they worse than Tallboys or other existing technology, what was he going to use them for? Why is it so important to take him out? Couldn’t we just bribe him or write him a strongly-worded letter? I’m going to be the Empress – couldn’t I make his soldiers illegal or shut down his factories? Why do I have to go to such an immediate and awful extreme?

Sure, the Duke is a dick and should probably be replaced by a better ruler. Doing so doesn’t feel important. I’ve never met the Duke. He never did anything to me. Karnaca’s in decent shape, all things considered. Killing or replacing him feels like taking out the trash.

Where are the stakes?

Why do I care about any of this?

Tangent – I feel like I’ve got to talk about Corvo a bit here. Would Corvo have a different, stronger, more personal attachment to Karnaca? Sure, but I’ve never played Corvo’s route in Dishonored 2 and can’t speak to it. Personally, I always got the sense that Corvo felt like an outsider in Gristol and that he would have tried to distance himself from Serkonos in response to this, and that returning must have felt oddly alien, like an ill-fitting suit. Now, this is a cool thing to explore. It might make him more invested and interested in some aspects of the game – I’m thinking of the Duke and Stilton in the Dust District, specifically – but I don’t think it fixes the core issues about lack of motivation in the overarching plot.

So, let’s talk about that overarching plot. Would Corvo feel more strongly about getting back to Gristol and restoring Emily to the throne and/or bringing vengeance to her “killer”? Probably! Corvo’s arc in Dishonored 2 isn’t about toppling Delilah and seeking vengeance for his own sake, but rather for Emily’s sake (or at least the memory of Emily-who-we-think-is-dead). That’s less selfish and entitled, more emotional and tortured. That’s honestly more interesting to me. But that’s the exact same story we got in Dishonored 1. Corvo’s entire existence in Dishonored 2 feels like a rehash of Dishonored 1. The vengeance arc in Dishonored 2 feels much more muddled and unfocused and distant in comparison. It’s not as good.

I think Corvo’s story and motivation are more clear and pressing and straightforward than Emily’s; but I think Dishonored 1 did that exact same story and motivation much much better. Corvo’s story in Dishonored 2 honestly makes more sense to me than Emily’s story. Which feels utterly backwards! One protagonist has a storyline and motivation that has no real weight or drive or urgency behind it. The other protagonist has a slightly stronger storyline that is still a weaker, fuzzier retread of the first game.

I think Dishonored 2 is badly written.

I like it on the micro level – I like the characters and the levels – but on the macro, i think it’s a confused jumble that doesn’t know what it wants to be. Is it a vengeance story? Is it a story about stopping a supernatural threat? I don’t know, and I don’t think it does either. The game doesn’t manage to mesh those ideas at all, and neither idea holds water on its own. I am utterly confused and turned off by the game’s decision to make the vengeance so un-urgent and impersonal and the villain’s magic-driven plan so distant and obtuse and ill-defined. I think that in deciding to make the scope bigger, it bit off way more than it could chew and lost sight of what matters in storytelling.

Dishonored 1 was a tightly-focused straightforward revenge plot where I understood exactly what I had lost, how much it mattered, and what was at stake. Dishonored 2 is a fucking mess.

I can’t write about which choices Corvo and Emily would have taken because their choices don’t make sense to me; because their existence and participation in this story makes no sense to me; because the story hops from point to point without establishing thematic or plot coherence; because I don’t understand – emotionally, really buy and feel and understand – why I’m meant to give a shit about any of it.

I played the game once, started a High Chaos replay, wandered away from the game after the second mission, and uninstalled. I have no interest in replaying it. I have no interest in ever picking up Death of the Outsider. The fact that the writing seems to be moving away from the vengeance quest and doubling down on its focus on the supernatural (and the fact that they’re dragging back characters – Corvo in Dishonored 2, Daud in DotO – whose arcs had finished) has honestly killed my interest in the franchise at this point. I don’t feel anything about this other than a profound sense of disappointment.

I wanted to like Dishonored 2. The game is gorgeous and fun and an improvement on the original in many ways. I wanted to answer your question, anon. I truly wish I could, and I’m sorry for how salty this post has become. I’m sure someone else would have fantastic headcanons and insight.

But I just. don’t. care.

#Dishonored 2 #Dishonored 2 meta #Dishonored 2 critical #I HOPE YOU LIKE RATS #Anonymous #also thank you so much for sending this anon!#I'm really flattered #sorry that I'm apparently a salt mine when it comes to the second game

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momestuck · 5 years

Text

Epilogues: Meat ch 1-8 [Epilogue 1]

I’m eating so you get one more of these before I try to salvage a bit of work from today.

We’ve read through the whole of the ‘Candy’ branch of the story. It went places! Spoilers for it below.

Somehow Jane turned into a fascist dictator, Karkat became a heroic resistance leader, a whole lot of ships were made and broken, Dirk killed himself but somehow it was fake (???), John went through multiple existential crises and a failed marriage, Jade destroyed Dave and Karkat’s relationship but ultimately got with Dave, Gamzee was brought back to perform a ‘redemption arc’ and was generally awful but ultimately ended up getting sexually assaulted and then murdered by Vriska, let’s not forget that the cast had three entire fucking babies and one of them ran into her own namesake... and Obama was there. And that’s not even covering all of it...

But that was all in a universe that was ‘inconsequential’; it was in a bubble disconnected from ‘canon’, spread out on the event horizon.

Now we wind the clock back, and consider what happens if John chooses on that day to go forth, recruit a group of other selves from elsewhere in Paradox Space, and fight Lord English, as ‘canon’ dictates he eventually must...

Chapter 1

This one is in second person, and features narrative prompts, which was also true of the first chapter of Candy.

This time, John eats the meat in a really gross way, manages to not puke everywhere, says awkward goodbyes, writes a bunch of letters, and fucks off back into Canon(TM).

Not a lot to say about that! P much what we expected. Wonder where he’s gonna end up?

Chapter 2

I pretty much expected them to dive straight into Canon, but no, in fact similar plots as the first one seem to be abrew. We meet Dave and Karkat - no Jade here, this time - as Dave breaks the news of Jane’s presidential bid.

So, Dave proposes, Karkat should run against her. Which was a possibility floated in the other story... it does feel rather like, at this point, whatever V said, I might have read them in the wrong order.

Dave brings up Obama as a reason he’d want to see a good president - Obama who, in Dave’s timeline, got killed by meteors before he could ‘fix the economy’. Which I guess makes his appearance in the other branch a little less of a non-sequitur, though still fucking weird don’t get me wrong!

DAVE: or maybe not... maybe there was like an escape hatch in the white house that led to his own secret presidential session of sburb

DAVE: what if hes just chillin there now

KARKAT: DAVE, I THINK WE’VE COVERED YOUR “OBAMA’S SECRET SESSION OF SBURB” THEORY WELL ENOUGH ALREADY.

So the Obama chapter was all payoff for a very long term brick joke? This is not the revelation I expected to be having in Meat.

Anyway, Dave basically explains how scary it is to have the human government in charge of troll reproduction, echoing Karkat’s words back at him. Apparently the way the whole weird eugenic system got put in place was that, before Kanaya arrived with the Mother Grub, the government reproduced trolls exclusively ectobiologically.

The other issue is... The Economy. We get a little note that, indeed, this is an alchemy-based post-scarcity economy:

DAVE: ok if shit goes sideways i guess we arent gonna see like raggedy turtles and pauper chess men standing in bread lines or anything

DAVE: thats just the nature of alchemy-based post-scarcity economies the depressions tend to be pretty mild

DAVE: but it will still be bad

DAVE: a healthy economy is fuckin IMPORTANT

DAVE: if for no other reason than it protects the societal context for what it means to be fucking rich, like us

So uh what do they spend money on... I guess there’s services, those can’t be alchemised (except for the fact that ludicrously advanced robotics exists?). someone actually has to work the alchemizer...

Anyway most of this chapter is... electoral strategy.

DAVE: consorts overwhelm the other kingdoms in sheer numbers but due to unscrupulous gerrymandering, all kinds of fucked up voter suppression policies and some electoral “counterbalancing” measures to account for their ridiculous population growth rate their voting power per capita is kind of pathetic

DAVE: also its hard to drive turnout

DAVE: this may come as a shock but legions of easily distracted low information amphibians primarily concerned with eating bugs and farming god damned mushrooms arent the most politically motivated demographic

The chapter ends with Dirk calling Dave... to... cut off his head. Yeah. That joke again.

OK, this sure is a direction. Welcome to Homestuck Electoralism Edition I guess. They probably won’t have quite as many kids?

Chapter 3

John apparently has a specific list of retcon interventions, apopros of Rose. The first is to appear on the battleship during the three year journey in the non-canon, pre-retcon timeline, open a fridge containing Aradia and Gamzee (god I’ve forgotten so much), and take the ring that Aradia is holding (which ring is that again?). Then, John decides to shove Gamzee back in the fridge.

> Do everyone a favor and put an end to his preposterous narrative relevance.

You wisely decide that this clown will lend nothing valuable to the narrative whatsoever if he is allowed to remain outside of your childhood refrigerator. You put both hands on his chest and shove him into the fridge where he belongs. He goes easily, issuing only a pair of weak honks in protest. You slam the fridge shut and resolve to never think about Gamzee Makara again.

So... we’re going with that, huh.

I’ve said enough about the Gamzee Issue already perhaps. But I guess I thought they were going to do more than to bring Gamzee back mostly to mock the idea of ‘redemption arcs’, and ‘punish’ him some more for being a bad character.

Chapter 4

John interrupts two other retcon-Johns, one trying to cancel out the other, a Dave, and a grimbark Jade during some of the shit that happened when Jade got mind controlled or whatever... it’s been a long time...

Dave’s the first recruit, along with Jade. John gives him a rather half-assed explanation about why, after several years of ‘boring adult lives’, they need to go and fight Lord English now.

Chapter 5

Back to the real story: Dave and Karkat’s electoral bid.

Dirk has apparently been... playing the heel in televised rap battles to Jake’s face so that Jake’s endorsement of Jane’s political candidacy would be more effective. Yeah.

Also he disagrees with Dave on fiscal policy. The cad.

He has a rather weird conversation of alternately discouraging and encouraging Dave and Karkat’s opposition. Then, to round out the chapter, V and Cephied deliver... an entire stanza of Jake’s rap. Oh boy.

At the end, Dirk... tranquilizes Jake (????????) to take another call from Rose.

This is the ‘real’, ‘canon’ storyline now? Oh Homestuck.

Chapter 6

John’s assembled a group of god tier kids in his back garden. The alpha and beta kids are present, but there are no trolls.

There’s a rather uncomfortable moment (for the reader, as well as John) when young Roxy hits on adult John.

You weren’t prepared to get passively hit on by the Definitely Not Legal version of a girl you used to have a crush on at the age she was when you first met her, only a few hours after you watched the Actually Legal version of her engage in passionate hand-holding with her possibly aromantic skeleton alien monster girlfriend.

‘Legal’, really!

Anyway, John feels rather strained watching this rather rushed rehash of the reunion scenes from the original comic. He wonders about the ethics of all this...

You wonder. Do you see these teen versions of your friends as “real”? Are you treating them, at Rose’s behest, as simple puppets? Doing your part to insist they fill friend-shaped recesses in an essential plan to stabilize all else that can be considered important, a distinction no longer applying to them? Do you care at all about whatever fate it may be that you are sentencing these children to? Are you becoming as complicit in the fatalistic evils of Paradox Space as Lord English himself? Are you becoming a monster, John Egbert?

foooof i mean he’s not wrong! let’s call them the ‘child soldiers’ from here on out...

Chapter 7

Time to catch up with Rose. We finally learn what’s wrong with her: she’s ‘ascending’, taking on the full burden of the ‘ultimate self’.

The same is also happening to Dirk, but he is somehow more resilient to it. So that’s what Obama did to Dave, huh.

Also this puts the prompt ‘Dirk: Ascend’ before his suicide in a rather different light.

The pieces are thus falling into place: this is why Dirk was building a Rosebot. Quite possibly the Dirk and Rose who were flying away from Earth C in the Candy timeline actually entered it out of this timeline, which would explain how Dirk was alive.

Chapter 8

Time to see the full events of Caliborn’s ‘Masterpiece’.

This is all Caliborn dropping an extremely corny buildup:

CALIBORN: BUT NOW. THE TIME HAS COME.

CALIBORN: FOR EVERYONE TO SHUT UP ABOUT HOW GREAT MY MASTERPIECE WAS.

CALIBORN: AND THE TIME IS NOW AT HAND...

His laughter turns into a low, cracked gurgle. It spikes towards you in waves, distorts and pitches low. He is beyond pleased with himself, and with the line he is about to deliver.

CALIBORN: FOR YOU ALL TO *BECOME* MY MASTERPIECE!

We need more organs to give that the proper level of scare chord...

End of Epilogue 1

Well that explained at least some of the wild horseshit we experienced in Candy, I guess.

So somehow this is all according to keikaku, which is to say Dirk’s design - he fancies himself as an engineer, putting each piece in its proper place. Rose isn’t entirely in on it, but she will be. We still don’t know why Dirk’s doing this, why he needs Jane to be president, why he’s ultimately going to need a new SBurb session...

As for themes and stuff... this just felt like ‘setting the board’. Rather hastily, even though it’s a full eight chapters. Compared to the emotional heft of some of the stuff that happened in Candy, anyway... this is all plot.

#momestuck

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rayxnkh3 · 6 years

Text

Let Let it Go Go

Haynah na hey a na naaaaa. Okay that’s enough of that, Arendelle! Frozen world was an absolute visual and eventful treat that definitely leaned into the fact that it is such a popular IP. Also, this was a long level so very long review incoming!

Story:

Once again a world where it’s a rehash of the movie but with Sora, Donald, and Goofy mixed up in things as well. There seems to be some sort of overall link to the princesses in the worlds that Org13 needs and it’s nice to see them mention it more and more as you progress through the worlds.

Donald comments at some point about being worried about falling down. Donald, you don’t take fall damage, I have seen you fall 15 stories and shrug it off like you just went down one step. Calm down.

Now, I am a fan of Let it Go, but why did we have to have the entire thing as a shot for shot remake of the film? (Probably because it’s so popular) But it does seem odd and out of place considering we don’t get entire other songs from all the other IPs. Tangled didn’t replay “I have a dream” and I friggin love that song. Though Sora’s comments at the end were hysterical and it made it abundently clear that some of the writers/designers didn’t quite get why it was there too. (Sidenote: If Donald or Sora sang this instead I would’ve fallen over with laughter =D)

Almost immediately after we got “Let it Go” we started “Do you want to build a snowman”, which would’ve felt odd and out of place as well but if that is a constant in this world than I am more okay with it. My problem was Anna recalling the events of the start of the film OVER the song itself. Thank goodness for subtitles or I would’ve had no clue what anyone was saying. A character talking over a singing childhood version of herself does not make for a good cutscene.

Kristoff comes off as sort of a creepy guy in this version. If you didn’t see him earlier talking to Sven and voicing Sven himself than it just comes off as creepy. Kristoff makes that voice so he has someone to talk to due to his loneliness at the start of the film, this is charming and kinda sad which makes you feel sympathy for the character. Without setting that as a groundwork then you get some weirdo who voices his animal in the presence of his friends. Odd.

Elsa’s giant ice monster (whom this moment forward I am calling Frosty, because I can) gets so much more personality in this world. You see them (cause I don’t know what gender they are, mixed in with who knows if snowmen have genders) striving to catch up and protect Elsa after she gets kidnapped. Their concern for their master makes them strive to fight heartless and team up with Sora to save them. Hell, Frosty even holds up a giant heartless moon towards the end to protect Sora. I was devastated when they fell into a giant void of darkness. Good job KH3 for making me care about Frosty just to kill them off, good storytelling, sad feels.

Design:

It can be really hard to make a land of just ice and mountains appear visually stunning, but for the most part they did a great job. The ice and mountains were varied and there were multiple shapes, sizes, and shades of ice to keep things varied amungst the world. The sledding scene had such gorgeous reflective ice on the ground I was sad it passed by so quickly.

The heartless in this world were particularly great. The ice deer heartless were so friggin adorable! I felt bad when I had to murder them all. The ice dragons on the other hand were terrifying and the final boss was stunningly gorgeous! Excellent job art team who designed these heartless’s looks!

Only small nitpick about the look was we didn’t ever visit Arendelle itself. The level is called Arendelle yet we didn’t set one foot inside the village. Tangled let us go into the city and it was an absolute treat! I would’ve loved all of the Nordic designs of the town had we had a chance to enter. Ah well, there’s always the next KH and Frozen 2.

Mechanics:

The ice labyrinth at the beginning of the level was an absolute treat. It felt like a classic dungeon crawl and was filled with areas to explore, enemies to kill, and “puzzles” to solve. It might’ve dragged just a touch too long but overall it was an absolute blast to play through and got me pumped for the rest of the level. It was a completely pointless part of the level, didn’t contribute to the story in any way, but was quite fun!

Up and down, up and down. That was the basics of the level itself and overall I can’t complain too much, but why did it have to be the same thing so many times? Going up and down the mountain once, possibly twice, would’ve been fine. But constantly trying to get back to the Ice Palace and not once going to the village to change things up felt very repetitive.

So going down on Goofy’s shield. The first third was a nightmare. Terrible movement, locked camera, and fidgety enemies. Not being able to see the enemies mixed with not being quick enough to dodge said enemies attacks got frustrating rather quickly and I found myself hoping it wouldn’t last long. The second third was a quick turn around as flying down the mountain collecting munny (as my friend described it) felt like Snowkids on the N64, which is a good thing. The last part was fighting said Ice Dragons and they were medium difficulty. Having three of them was a tad harsh at this point into the event but overall it was alright.

On a brighter note, when Frosty appeared and we trekked through the snow storm beating up heartless together, it felt very random but definitely a warm welcome to my party. Yes, I made a pun, get over it.

The final boss was an absolute cinematic masterpiece. The design of the ice wolf mixed in with the floating wolf heads was challenging and gorgeous. There was a moment of awe and stupor as the wolf turned into a frackin moon and crashed down upon Sora and gang. Great fight that kept up the action without making me feel overwhelmed, while simultaneously just being beautiful to look at. No goop monster this time.

Final Thoughts:

This level was on the longer side and it definitely feels like it’s because Disney knows how well received Frozen was. There was also a lot of hype built up during marketing that revolved around Frozen, so I get this being a long level that pays homage to it’s source material. Thankfully it was a 1080 spin of fun from start to end, though it went a little heavy on some of the Frozenness of it all. As I said in the title, Let Let it Go Go.

Level of Enjoyment: Fat body Olaf (Large and in charge)

#KH3 #kh3 review #kh3 frozen #spoilers #gamedesign #gamereview #let it go

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hino-has-fiction · 7 years

Text

Did I Dream This Heart-To-Heart Or Do You Really Want To Atone?

I wrote an original piece, so that’s something.

The dream had her looking around inside a forest of fog. It wasn’t the first time Leya had dreamed of this place. It was somewhat assuring, and it made her think of her childhood. Sometimes her brother had led her into the trees and they had danced and chanted like their books taught them, in search of their God, hoping she would come forth from the fog. Her brother’s mask was brightly coloured in the shape of a coyote, and even in the thickest fog, he stuck out, along with his colourful robes, bright purple and green, with splashes of yellow and orange. It was against code, sure, but her brother put enough work into his studies that the Church excused it.

Leya herself was wearing the religious garment of her youth; a mask decorated with dots and lines, depicting a fox. Her robes were white like the fog itself, for the intention of blending in, and her brother often lost her in the mist.

On reflex, she looked for him, forgetting for a moment all the anger she felt. It was as if she was a little girl again, looking for Mae, her beacon in the dark. It was only once she had done a few complete turns that she realized who she was, and that Mae, Shayne, would not be there. He had left her alone. The feeling boiled inside her and she grit her teeth behind her mask, fists clenched at her sides as she wandered the foggy forest in search of something, anything.

It was along a path of yellow autumn leaves that she saw the lights in the distance, flickering and dancing through the white cloud that hung low over her. She thought they were fireflies, but as she follow it, the lights seemed to stay the same distance away, beckoning her onwards. Further and further down the path she wandered, noting how the fog began to thin out and peel away from the lights as they grew bigger.

The lights had come from the windows of what appeared to be a pub. Music emanated from it, although dulled by the walls, and the muted blend of joyful voices came with it. Leya spent a moment examining the place before feeling her jaw fall slack. “Impossible...”

It was the pub that Shayne had taken her to drink in once he’d come home, body changed and mind fresh. They’d drank into the late hours of the night and stumbled drunk and reeking of alcohol. The hangover had killed them both but they laughed about it through the pain, both glad to be in the company of eachother again. Aris, her mother, had only told them to shut up, and they had just giggled quieter. Seeing it there, in the forest, safe from the fog, filled Leya with feelings she didn’t know how to comprehend. Longing mixed with fear and oddly enough, safety. It beckoned her, and she couldn’t help but approach.

Music overwhelmed her as she opened the door, warm air contrasting with the cool forest. She hadn’t even realized she was cold until the pub’s warmth hit her, making her shiver in her robes. Stepping in, she pulled the door closed, finding peace within the loud noise. People were singing and swaying, reminiscent of the days she snuck off with Shayne to watch performers through the windows.

Among the sea of swaying drunkards was something she had not seen in a long time; the mask of a coyote, and the multicoloured robes of a Leiran. It stuck out against the common clothing of the area, and Leya crossed the sticky and dirty floor to the table where the man sat, sipping at a scotch.

“Hello little sister,” greeted the voice, making Leya’s legs give out. She landed in a chair, and a passing thought reminded her that the chair had not been there a moment ago. “I’m glad you made it.”

She could only stare at him. His ponytail was longer now, past his waist. It seemed as if he intended to grow it out, which was a far cry from the young teen who cut his hair short and refused to have anything below the chin. In these robes, Leya thought he looked more refined than he did in the red ones, like he had a purpose as opposed to just wandering. “Mae, is that you?”

Shayne laughed. “Who else would make a bar in the forest?” He tilted his mask so he could swallow his drink, setting it back down on the table delicately. It refilled with liquor and he raised it to his lips again. “Would you like a drink, sister?”

“Please.” She held out her hand and a cup appeared, filled with what she immediately knew was vodka and lemonade. It tasted real enough, and Leya felt satisfied at having sipped it. “I didn’t think I’d dream of you. Not with how mad I am.”

There was a shrug. “This is no dream,” he answered. “Well, I mean, it is, but I’ve formed it. This bar is crafted by me. The patrons, the music, all me.”

Leya raised an eyebrow. “And why?” she asked, sipping her drink. It was nice to drink again. It had been so long since she’d partaken in it. “Why are you crafting a dream pub for me, complete with a dream audience?”

“Because I missed you.”

His words shook her, and Leya’s glass shattered in her hand, yet she did not bleed. She stood, knocking her chair over as she turned her face to Shayne, expression hidden beneath her mask. “You missed me? You missed me?” One of her fists hit the table, making Shayne’s glass jump. “You ran out on me! You picked up your shit and ran, leaving me with Aris and Jaelen! Do you know how mad they were that you summoned a fucking God in their basement, let alone ditching the God you grew up with in order to pursue this new path?” She slammed a hand to her chest. “They yelled at me Shayne, the first piece of attention from our parents in nineteen years and it was them screaming at me for letting you leave. They were furious with you, and with me!”

She was breathing heavily, and Shayne betrayed no emotion, only making it worse. “I ran out on them, Shayne. Packed my shit and left. The Wizard’s school was open and I fucking went for it, taking the path of Illusions because I thought it’d let me fix any mistakes I’d make.”

“Leya...” Shayne spoke softly, reaching out for her. “I’m-”

“No!” His hand was slapped away, and he made no attempt to fight back. “You don’t get to just tell me you’re sorry for this. You don’t just apologize and then expect me to forgive you and continue on like nothing happened. Marie Alie, Shayne, you can’t just talk your way out of this.”

She fell silent and Shayne remained so. Exhausted, Leya slumped into her chair, noting that the entire time, the generic ramble of the pub had not fallen silent, still rehearsing their lines as Shayne had dictated. Right now, Leya felt she was both at his mercy, and above it. In her hand appeared another vodka and she downed it without reluctance. The merriment didn’t cease, and as Leya spent time listening to her dream, she could tell where the parts looped, where words became rehashed and music repeated, grating on her nerves. “Take me somewhere else.”

“Where?” It was quiet, but still audible above the noises filling the pub.

“Anywhere,” Leya answered sharply.

The chair beneath her became nothing as the entire room fell silent, floating away like ash on the breeze. Furniture began to build around them, encasing them in something smaller, more familiar. Leya felt herself fall off the chair and land on something soft that dipped beneath her weight. It only took a moment for the rest of the room to build.

“Home.” Shayne no longer had his alcohol, hands instead folded in his lap as opposed to cradling a scotch glass. The faint sounds of a record player came in from the hall, creating a soft background noise, coupled with the crickets chirping outside under the starry sky. “Will this do?”

Leya laughed. “I’m surprised you came back here.” She too folded her hands in her lap, copying the pose of her brother. There may have been animosity on her half, but she had grown up respecting Shayne and following in his footsteps, and it showed with gestures like this.

Shayne had no smart comment. Instead, he just shifted uncomfortably, removing his mask and setting it aside on the bed. This was their shared bedroom, and although it was sparsely decorated and rather plain, it held more than enough memories. He thought it was fitting for something like this. “I know an apology will not suffice. I don’t expect you to forgive me. Instead, I merely wish to explain myself.”

“I’m listening, brother dear.” Her mask came off and was set aside. It was a sign that she was willing to hear him out. Faces were only exposed to those of the same faith, and it was the same with the truth. Being exposed like this, Leya was saying that nothing had changed.

“I didn’t want to leave you,” he said, voice soft and flat, trying desperately to keep his emotions in check. “I knew Aris would blow up. Even Jaelen wouldn’t keep an even head. For our father to blow up like that, you know that meant something, didn’t you?”

Leya nodded. Their father was a calm man. Nothing could really set him off. Hearing him yell as he did, for all those months Shayne was gone, it was terrifying. Not wanting to dwell on it long, Shayne continued. “I knew that if I stayed, they’d get mad. I didn’t think they’d take it out on you but...” he trailed for a moment, gathering himself. “I packed everything I could. Some food, the gold I had stashed away, anything I could get my hands on, I pocketed. I only had ten gold pieces though. Ten gold pieces to run away and start a new life. I considered waking you, I did, but I didn’t know how I was going to survive on ten gold, let alone the two of us.”

She understood, but it didn’t quell her anger. Shayne had left her at home for a good reason, and yet she was furious. Perhaps if he’d taken her, they would have starved to death. Maybe they would have gotten to a city and begged for scraps. Either way, it was better than staying home, in her eyes. She shifted uncomfortably. “That’s your story?”

“I don’t expect you to accept it as an apology, merely an explanation. It’s not me attempting to justify leaving you. We were both dependent on eachother. I needed you, and you needed me. We both know this.” The look in Leya’s eyes showed it; they’d had a toxic co-dependency, wrought by a shitty upbringing and being the only thing worth living for. Faith had been the only other thing going for them, and considering both of their relationships with their gods were shaky at best, it wasn’t going well.

Shayne stood suddenly, catching Leya off-guard. “Well, that’s all I had to say. It sets me at ease having you know this, and knowing you’re still alive.” He made for the door, and Leya reached for him, just missing his wrist.

“Will you... will you come again?” She was looking at him, desperate and pleading. Shayne turned to look back at her, biting his lip in some attempt to not break down right there. “Please, Mae. I need you.”

He turned away and grabbed the handle of the bedroom door, twisting it. “I shall see.”

Leya tried to say something but the door opened and the world vanished.

#Original

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alewyren · 7 years

Text

regarding caulifla and kale, and whether or not they’re intended to be a couple: an actual serious discussion

I’ll start off by admitting that I am somewhat biased as a longtime fan of DBZ and a lesbian myself, but keep in mind that I’m also very jaded and realistic about the possibility of actual same-sex romance in non-specifically targeted media. In fact, my own personal experiences on the matter are what have given me incentive to look at LGBT issues so critically. In short, this is not just me saying “they’re totally canon, just look at them omg they’re so cute~”

Regardless of your own personal feelings towards them being a couple, there is actually a very interesting discussion to be had here.

So let’s start by taking a step back here and contextualizing this issue by talking about the inclusion of female super saiyans at all, completely independent of whether or not they are a couple. For thirty years, female super saiyans were complete fanon. They existed as OCs in video games, most notably Dragonball Heroes and Xenoverse, but were very notably and deliberately excluded from Dragonball GT. Despite this series having two characters who should, by all logic, have the potential to do so.

So the question becomes this: why, in a franchise that has had female saiyans with the potential to go super for a long time, did it take thirty years for it to actually happen in canon media?

Various justifications for this have cropped up over the years. “Pan and Bra lived in an era too peaceful to trigger the transformation”--Goten and Trunks serve as a definitive counterargument. Why could Pan and Bra have not had a similar rivalry? Was it just because it would be too similar to the relationship of Goten and Trunks, or because the relationship between two young girls was not worth exploring? Additionally, should the events of GT not been enough to trigger the transformation in either of them? Pan especially--Bra at least has the justification of not being a fighter at all, though one must wonder why, in a warrior race whose cast is comprised mostly of male characters, two of the three (Bra, Gine, Tarble) we have seen who are completely disinterested in fighting are women. It’s a statistical improbability for it to be a coincidence.

The other justifications, “Pan does not have enough Saiyan blood” and “Women just don’t have the same level of anger/emotional intensity/strength/whatever the fuck sexist BS to trigger the transformation” are and always were complete garbage.

So then, what’s the actual reason? As far as Toriyama himself goes, he said it himself. He didn’t know how to draw a female super saiyan. The logistics of drawing specific things (the spots on perfect cell come to mind) come up as an excuse or complaint for him a lot, so this... does make a sort of sense, albeit indicates unconscious sexism on his part. No, I’m not saying he just hates women, that’s clearly bogus, just that it raises questions about why the idea of drawing a muscular, spiky-haired woman was a problem at all. His solution was to dodge the issue entirely by making all the saiyans who were relevant for the majority of Z male. Trunks or Goten could have easily been female, had he wanted to go that direction, but he didn’t. Pan could have easily gone super saiyan as a five year old during the end of Z, but she didn’t. Which... fair enough, I’m not gonna sit here and demonize Toriyama or anything, especially when his views have clearly evolved. I’m merely examining his decisions and the logic behind them.

As far as GT goes, the reasoning is similar. Throughout all of GT, there is a pervasive unwillingness to introduce new ideas or take risks, which was ultimately the series’ downfall. All of the villains and concepts introduced are merely rehashes of what was already there. The Black Star Dragonballs? Born from wishes that were already made. Super 17? Literally already an existing character. Baby? Shaped by events long established in the Z anime. Super Saiyan 4? Super Saiyan+Oozaru. Some of these ideas were actually really interesting and had a lot of potential, but this is why GT so thoroughly failed in execution: it was unwilling to actually do anything new with any of its ideas or characters, so much as just rehash existing plotlines. Female super saiyans, of course, would have been something very new to the franchise, which is why it never happened.

This can, of course, be contrasted with post-Battle of Gods media, which has done nothing but invent brand new lore and ideas for the universe. Gods of Destruction and their angels, the existence of the multiverse, Super Saiyan God and its related transformations, Goku Black being... actually a legitimately interesting character rather than Turles 2.0, Frieza being relevant in terms of power again instead of a laughingstock, you get the picture. Some people don’t like this, because it goes in such a different direction from the original source material and feels like a series of ass pulls. Other people think it’s a breath of fresh air, and that any contrivances are ultimately to the benefit of the franchise. Regardless of where you stand here, the difference in approach is quite notable, and Super has certainly been objectively more successful than GT despite its very rough start.

Also quite notably, Super has been taking steps to give its female characters more spotlight than Z or GT ever did. While the depictions of Chichi and Videl have been... flawed, Bulma’s been given plenty to do, 18 has kept both her power and her personality, Pan has been absolutely adorable and widely beloved in contrast to her GT counterpart, and that’s not even going into the new characters introduced. Vados? At the time of her introduction, arguably the strongest character in the franchise, and hilariously snarky to boot. Future Mai? Awesome. Nothing more to be said there, Future Mai is just awesome. And with the increasing popularity of the aforementioned Heroes and Xenoverse, the demand and love for female super saiyans among the fanbase was quite clear.

So by the time of the Universe Survival Arc, it was less a matter of if we would ever get a female super saiyan, but when. Everything was pointing in that direction, especially as Super seemed to be going out of its way to address fan wants and criticisms as the show progressed.

Enter Female Broly.

For those of you who may not have been following the fandom when the first trailer for the Universe Survival Arc dropped, this was like a freaking nuclear bomb being dropped on the community. Not only did we learn that we were getting a canon version of a controversial movie villain, which ruffled quite a few jimmies in and of itself, but it was confirmed--we were getting a girl super saiyan. A powerful, relevant one, by the look of it. Any concerns about giving the girls “unattractive” bulging muscles or spiky hair? Yeah, no, those were fucking annihilated on the spot, and they were clearly showing that off.

Some people weren’t happy about this, though, for a variety of reasons. Most notably, that the first female super saiyan would be a rehash of an already existing male character, rather than her own person. Others were just excited that a girl saiyan was happening and she was strong and awesome, others were excited that we were getting a canon version of Broly. Regardless of where you stood, the discourse and speculation was absolutely wild. Was she Cabba’s sister, or possibly even girlfriend? A U6 Saiyan princess? Or perhaps from another universe entirely? We had no idea. But we were hyped as hell.

So the actual arc rolled along, and surprise surprise, we met even more awesome female characters from other universes. The angels Cus, Marcarita, and Martinu, for starters, as well as the God of Destruction Helles (though there is a conversation to be had about why the only female GoD is the sexy one obsessed with beauty, but tbh I really don’t care all that much because she’s hot and I’m gay) and Ribrianne, who were all shaping up to be relevant and powerful characters. Not to mention that 18 herself was going to be getting spotlight again, and that Bra was introduced at last. Almost like the times had changed and the newest installment in the series was trying to be more inclusive and progressive. Even Daishinkan outright commented that the female warriors in the tournament were worth keeping an eye on.

It wasn’t perfect, by any means--many of the girls introduced were cute and humanoid in appearance unlike the bizarre and diverse designs of the male fighters, and male characters still make up a large majority of the characters introduced, especially as far as top tier contenders go, but it’s a huge step in the right direction for the franchise, and one I’m personally quite satisfied with. I love every last one of my new alien daughters.

The point is, despite all this, nobody even thought that we wouldn’t just be getting one female Super Saiyan; we’d be getting two. When we met Caulifla, despite her design and personality being very different from what little we knew of the mysterious girl Broly, damn near everyone assumed they were one and the same. Which tbh, says a lot for how little we’ve come to expect from DB’s female cast. It was only later, when we saw Caulifla and Kale in the same room, that we knew for sure they were different characters.

Caulifla, for her part, seems to be deliberately tailored to address the initial criticism that people had of female Broly--that is, the first female super saiyan wasn’t her own character, but a carbon copy of an existing male character. Because of how long it took for the series to actually introduce female super saiyans, there was a long time for those expectations to accumulate--and by the look of it, much like with the similarly scrutinized re-resurrection of Frieza, Super was intent on doing it right.

Caulifla was very deliberately introduced before Kale, went super saiyan before Kale, and her personality was much more in line with the toughness we had come to expect from the saiyans. Quite notably so, in fact, considering the U6 saiyans as a whole are much nicer than their U7 counterparts. But no, the first female saiyan? A tough delinquent girl who takes shit from noone. For the most part, she fulfilled the expectations we all had of her. Kale is a bit more divisive, albeit moreso in the western fandom (the JP fandom adores her, and loves that she’s a match for Goku), but imagine for a moment if Caulifla didn’t exist. If the first female super saiyan was a spineless weakling who only showed strength in a completely unnatural form that overtook her personality, and was ripped straight from an existing male character. The unfortunate implications would have been palpable. Especially if, say, it was Cabba, not Caulifla, that was the target of her jealousy.

My guess? The ideas of female super saiyans and a U6 Broly were both brought up in the brainstorming for the Universe Survival Arc, and were both quite popular among the writers. Combining them came up, the writers really liked the idea of a female Broly, but realized quickly that it would not work on its own. And that’s how Caulifla was born--so they could have their cake and eat it too.

Which finally brings us to the conundrum of Kale and Caulifla’s relationship. What’s the deal?

The popular assumption when they were introduced was that there would be a love triangle in which they both wanted Cabba, or that at least one of them would be romantically involved with him. Which, fair enough, DB does kind of have a track record of introducing cool girlfriends for existing male characters, and introducing two whole girls was kind of new territory. Most people assumed, when the preview for episode 92 dropped and Kale appeared to have jealousy issues, that it was Cabba she was jealous of (I called that it was Caulifla, though, albeit not necessarily romantically--it honestly just made more sense given what we knew of them, but nobody believed me. I get bragging rights~).

This really isn’t the fandom’s fault, though--quite simply, in the entire franchise, we have not had one meaningful female/female relationship. Not one. Not familial, not a friendship, and certainly not a romance. I can’t be assed to figure out if OG dragonball, Z, or GT ever passed the bechdel test, but the fact that I don’t know off the top of my head says a lot. Now, keep in mind that the bechdel test is not in and of itself an indication of sexism--that’s not what I’m saying here. But it does indicate the lack of meaningful relationships between women, which is a separate problem. A problem which, since relationships between women and precedents thereof are actually relevant to this discussion, is worth commenting on here.

Regardless of how you want to spin it, Caulifla and Kale are very close, and despite speculation it’s safe to conclude neither of them have any meaningful interest in Cabba, at least not currently. That’s... actually kind of a big deal, that two women are mutually the most important character to each others’ development like that. Especially when it would have been easier to justify their inclusion as being already close to Cabba, or hell even Hit or Frost. It’s quite rare that you have honest to god meaningful and emotionally rich relationships between two women in shounen anime, romantic or otherwise.

And no, I’m not saying “female friendships are rare and important so they shouldn’t be gay!” Female friendships are important, yes, and I hope DBS continues to explore the relationships between its female characters. But romance between women is also important, and even more of a rarity than friendship. No, what I’m trying to say is that Kale and Caulifla being so close is already quite a progressive move in a series that really needed it, and it’s clearly deliberately intended as such. While the line between pandering and deliberate attempts at representation can be a bit blurry at times, I think this falls pretty squarely on the side of the latter.

So that finally brings us to the big question. They’re close, yes, but to what extent can their bond be interpreted as romantic, to what extent was it intended to be that way, and where do the writers intend to take their relationship? Is it just fans seeing things where nothing is there, pandering or queerbaiting to draw interest for the new characters, or an actual intended canon relationship?

Well, at this point, it’s impossible to say with absolute certainty whether they are indeed gay. I’m not gonna sugarcoat it, though. Saying that any attempts to paint their relationship as romantic are just fans being delusional, or insisting that they are certainly just friends, is utter and complete nonsense. It’s certainly more reasonable to interpret them as being a couple than any other two women in the franchise. If you’re going around telling people to stop having fun guys, they’re just friends, you’re an asshole. Especially because a lot of people shipping them are gay themselves. Like, holy shit, is that really so wrong?

That aside, though, there are actual legitimate, tangible hints something else is going on. As in, it’s not like shipping Goku and Vegeta or pointing to something as intangible and subjective as supposed sexual tension. A much better comparison would be the buildup to Gohan and Videl’s relationship, which followed a much similar pattern. The hints are actually there, that’s not really something that can be reasonably denied. The question is, where are they leading?

These hints include:

Kale’s jealousy. While jealousy of another person is not exclusive to romantic relationships, it is strongly associated with them. When people thought it was Cabba she was jealous for, there was no real question that her associated feelings would have been romantic. When we learned for sure that it was Caulifla, though? Would it have been impossible for her to have simply been jealous of Cabba as a friend or as a brotherly figure? No, but nobody ever considered this possibility. Likewise, it is perfectly plausible that her jealousy for Caulifla is the romantic sort.

Caulifla goes super saiyan, Kale is shown blushing. Cabba goes super saiyan immediately after, she looks bored and disdainful. “Just because she’s blushing doesn’t mean she’s gay for her.” Well, no, but it certainly hints it. It’s not the only interpretation, but it is a valid one, and I don’t like the double standard of attempting to shut down the romantic interpretation. Remember that the same thing was said about Korra and Asami before that became canon. It all starts with a blush, y’all.

“Kale! Don’t get the wrong idea! I wouldn’t fall for someone like that!” This is actually the most interesting one here, because this brings the very suggestion of romance out of the purely subtextual and into, well, actual text. Generally, same-sex relationships that are just being baited don’t really ever breach this barrier. The idea of an actual relationship or romantic intent is hinted, sometimes outright teased, but never actually seriously, explicitly suggested as anything but a punchline. “She’s just afraid of Caulifla paying attention to anyone else, period!” Well, yes. Hence Goku. But why bother having her specifically assure Kale of the lack of romantic intent, rather than simply assuring her that she’s not useless, if that’s the only issue here? And it calmed her down. It can be both things. You can be romantically interested in someone and also afraid of losing them.

The general affection shown between the two throughout the tournament thus far. Affection is not in and of itself indication of romance. It simply exists to strengthen whatever relationship is already there--to show, rather than just tell us, that they really do care about each other. And they certainly have more screentime together than with anyone else, most notably with Cabba, whom neither of them have interacted with once since they got to the tournament. Yeah, they don’t seem to be building up a romantic subplot with him. Not to mention that Caulifla saved Kale from being rung out by carrying her bridal style just like Krillin did 18 the episode prior. And then the face-touching. And Caulifla tying up Kale’s hair after she fell out of her berserker state. Friendship or romance, it’s... really sweet, honestly. Let me reiterate, since this will certainly be misconstrued. The affection displayed between the two strengthens the previous romantic hints by contextualizing them in a deeper relationship, but is not a hint of romance in and of itself.

So, it’s definitely valid to interpret them as being romantically involved, or at least interested in one another, and personally I think it’s the most reasonable way to read this. There is enough textual evidence to support this conclusion--even if it was accidental, interpretation does not rely solely on intent. Any literary analyst will tell you that.

But I think it’s kind of unlikely that somehow nobody at Toei realized they were writing a relationship that could be construed as romantic. Sure, DB tends not to be romance-heavy, but we have had onscreen romance arcs. Krillin and 18, Gohan and Videl, Trunks and Mai--certainly in the old days of the franchise it was something Toriyama tended to avoid, but the series has grown increasingly open about it over time. Hell, Trunks and Mai actually kissed. Sort of. But it was close enough to count as the first in the franchise.

So, yes, I think it’s safe to conclude that the hints of romance between Kale and Caulifla were intentional.

This begs another question, however: to what end?

Gender is not the only thing that DB has had a history of fumbling. Race, for one, but also sexuality. The two canonically gay characters in the franchise, General Blue and that... guy whose name I forget who fought Trunks during the End of Z, were both unflattering stereotypes that played their sexuality for laughs. Blue for his utter lack of interest in Bulma, End of Z guy for his unwanted advances towards Trunks. Yeah, not the best track record.

There haven’t really ever been any instances of honest to god queerbaiting, though. Take Sasuke and Naruto, for example. They were clearly never intended to seriously wind up together, but man, there was a lot of tease that they would. Why? Well, for starters, as a joke. The implication that same-sex romance is a joke is, of course, super iffy, but that’s another discussion. Second of all, to maintain the interest of the fujoshi periphery demographic without including any potentially controversial actual same-sex content. DB, while being arguably homoerotic at times, never really dipped its toes into this minefield, ESPECIALLY not with its female characters. Goku and Vegeta never accidentally kissed or accidentally shoved phallic batons up each other’s asses, and romantic interest between two women has never even been jokingly implied.

But as we have established, DBS has been all about revitalizing the franchise and taking risks. It’s not afraid to try new things--and regardless of where this ends up going, it’s already a very new thing. Contrary to popular belief, awareness of LGBT issues in Japanese culture is actually increasing. Fire Emblem Fates included same-sex romantic options (though it was criticized by the japanese LGBT community for other reasons), Yuri on Ice included M/M romance in a mainstream sports anime and received a lot of praise, anti-LGBT discrimination polices are coming into effect, and gay marriage is actually legal in some parts of Japan now. Things are looking up, and to say that Japan doesn’t care about LGBT issues is to ignore the voices of the actual Japanese LGBT community pushing for progress. It’s still a work in progress, but there is progress.

And as far as DB goes, there really does seem to be a genuine attempt to be more progressive. And if they can make deliberate strides towards gender equality, why not LGBT representation? Don’t forget that Toei also produces Sailor Moon, which is kind of infamous for having canonical lesbians, so it’s far from out of the question.

In short, I’m cautiously optimistic. Considering this is still DB it’s unlikely that we’ll get, say, an onscreen kiss or a wedding or anything, but I could see an interview statement coming out confirming their feelings for each other or an offhand comment implying that they are in fact an item, or will become one. Or maybe they don’t plan on actually going anywhere with the hints of romance, and it’s just meant to draw interest without risking offending anyone. But hey, people thought Korra and Asami would never actually happen either. And look how that turned out.

Regardless, this is a lot more revolutionary than people give it credit for, and I really hope they continue developing these wonderful characters and their love for one another.

#caulifla #kale #caulikale #dragon ball super #dbs #dbz #musings

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fridge-reviews · 7 years

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Dead Space 3

Developer: Visceral Games Publisher: Electronic Arts Rrp: £7.99 (Origin) Released: 5th February Available on: Origin Played Using: An Xbox 360 Controller Approximate game length: 15 Hours It seems that Isaac Clarke just cannot catch a break, if its not necromorphs gunning for him its a government agency trying to kidnap him. That is until now, now a religious group called the Unitologists want him, or more specifically, want him dead. And that's just the tip of the iceberg that are Isaac Clarke's problems... Dead Space 3 is the third, and thus far final, major instalment in the Dead Space franchise. Once again you take control of Isaac Clarke, a man whose job title might be 'Engineer' but might as well at this point change it to 'Necromorph Exterminator'. This time the game kicks off on a lunar colony... actually, no it doesn't. The game actually starts you off not playing Isaac Clarke at all but a Marine (who’s name I don't remember) on a ice covered planet. This bit is short lived and is basically just a tutorial for the more basic controls as well as being a sort of premise setter.

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Dead Space 3 has gone for a more... cinematic feel in this instalment, and I don't mean by limiting the frame rate, it has far more cutscenes than the previous games. Most of them are well executed and don't outstay their welcome, but at the start of the game it can start to feel a little insufferable. I quickly became annoyed when a cutscene ended and I literally was given control to walk through a short corridor (is in only a few steps) only to have control wrested from me again by yet another cutscene! Its pretty standard practice that with each new release of a game franchise that some new mechanics are brought in to keep things fresh, and Dead Space is no exception. Between the first Dead Space game and the second there were a few differences but nothing that felt out of place. Dead Space 3 however brings in a whole slew of new game mechanics, as well as something more... underhanded.

I'll start with the first mechanic that appears and was possibly the most jarring to me, the cover based shooting. That's right, yet another game with cover based shooting, which is stupid because the cover mechanic isn't used all that often and is pointless against pretty much all the necromorphs. What's more is that the crouch action is bound to the same button as the waypoint tool. It feels a bit.. tacked on, like it was more of a enforced boardroom decision than one the designers had planned. The stores that were in the previous games are gone with the Benches acting as a one stop shop for buying, selling, crafting, storing and upgrading your weapons and items. That's right Dead Space 3 has crafting elements, of course at the time when this game was originally released crafting within a game was still a somewhat novel concept. Many things can be crafted at a Bench, from weapons and their upgrades to items and ammo. This crafting takes up resources that you'll find throughout the game (or buy via micro-transaction, more on that later). What’s actually kind of impressive is that you can create custom weapons and save the blueprints of them. Its actually a fairly robust system, do you want to make a semi automatic rifle that sets enemies alight and has a underslung rocket launcher? Well you can, and if you decide you don't like the weapon anymore you can dismantle it and reuse the parts. This high level of customisability essentially fixes something that I would generally have an issue with in this game. You can only hold two weapons at a time. Of course, if you can create a weapon that’s basically two weapons in one that kind of negates the problem. Now among all this talk of crafting and upgrading the more veteran players out there may just be wondering about what is possibly one of the most important parts of the series, if not one of the most iconic, the suit. Not to worry your suit is also fully upgradable, just not at a bench. Suits are upgraded and changed at suit kiosks. Again, no sign of power nodes, instead you use materials found in the game (or purchased via micro-transactions) to make the wanted upgrades.

Another new mechanic is the Scavenger Bot, when you eventually find these you can send them off to find more crafting materials for you. It takes them a little while and there are certain area's that are rich in material. Not to worry though EA has a way to part you with more hard earned cash. You can buy a DLC to decrease the wait time, and another to increase their carrying capacity. It's almost as if EA are just trying to anger me. All weapons now operate from a single ammo type once again this removes some of the tension the Dead Space series had for me. Part of the fun was scrambling for the right ammo for your weapon when you've run out. It added to the fear of the whole thing. Now that I can just get any ammo clip that sense of danger has been defused.

Ooh! This is just egregious to me. So, while exploring the Bench system I see that I'm given the option to upgrade my weapons. Of course, I take a look and notice that my starting machine gun only has two available upgrade circuit slots. The rest are blocked off in silver (meaning they are completely unavailable), all bar one in a bronze colour. Being curious, I take a look at it and find that I can unlock this upgrade using material I find in the game. A pretty standard way to gate content and keep the game balanced, that all seems fair. I didn't have enough of the materials required but click anyway because 'why not?'. As expected I'm informed that I don't have the resources, however I do see a 'Downloadable content' option there. Still curious I go take a gander. This is where my ire started to rise. What do I see before me but an offer to purchase a micro-transaction which will give me not only the material I need to make the upgrade but also a bunch more materials plus a guaranteed super-charged weapon part and a 50% chance at a second bonus part... WHAT THE EVER LIVING FUCK EA?! YOU PUT MICRO-TRANSACTIONS IN A MAJOR RELEASE AAA TITLE! I bought this game years after it originally released and I'm angry, I can only imagine how people must have felt when they bought this game at the time of release. These micro-transactions can also be bought through 'Ration Seals' that can only be found using the scavenger bots. So I took the plunge and bought one of the 'packs' using the ration seals. As I suspected even buying just one made the game much much easier. The super-charged component that was mentioned was so powerful that once I attached it to my weapon I almost never had to change out again. I was so disgusted by this practice I quit the game and played something else for a whole just to calm down. Ok, now that I've calmed down lets get back to it... The new upgrade system has done away with the power nodes from the previous games. This time you have upgrade circuits that you can find within the levels, or craft for yourself once you have the resources. These upgrade circuits come in various shapes and sizes but they all relate to one of four stats for your weapon; Damage, reload speed, clip size and rate of fire. While this does make upgrading your weapon less straight forward than the previous games it also allows for greater variance in gameplay style. I, for one, tend to prioritize high damage and clip size but others might focus more on the rate of fire etc. Upgrade circuits aren't the only way to improve your weaponry, you can also craft attachments which can have a wide range of benefits to you (or your co-op partner).

Hang about. Co-op? In a survival horror game? Yep that's right Dead Space 3 has two player Co-op, so now you and a friend (who also has the game) can play together in this tense horror game... In case its not clear, I'm not impressed by this. To me having Co-op in a horror game removes much of the actual horror. On top of there being Co-op missions there are now optional side missions that can be completed, doing so doesn't effect the game in anyway beyond giving the player access to more upgrades and materials as well as expanding the story a little. The missions themselves tend to be quite short but challenging often ending with you being swarmed while in very enclosed quarters.

As is to be expected with a sequel within the Dead Space franchise there are even more new necromorphs to fight against. Actually in one case its not so much a new necromorph as a rehash of one. I don't know what the name of them is but in the first and second game it was a baby that fired darts at you and could climb the walls and ceiling. In Dead Space 3 the babies have been replaced by dogs. I can only assume that this replacement this was a tactical move on EA's or Visceral's part to make the game appeal more to the mass market, probably a good idea as those babies were pretty disconcerting to say the least. As you may have noticed everything I've written above is, well, its essentially just a list of mechanics with a few scattered complaints rather than discussing anything about the way the game plays. There is a reason for this which is very simple... I have nothing new to say. Seriously the gun play is damned near the same even with the modding mechanic. I may as well copy and paste what I said about it from my Dead Space 2 review.

Is this one to recommend? At the price that its at now its an easy recommendation to make, even with all the unscrupulousness of EA's micro-transactions its hard to argue that this game isn't worth a look at. I won't say its the best of the franchise, that title is held by Dead Space 2 for me. If this appeals to you perhaps try; Prey Resident Evil 4 The Evil Within

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rowingchat · 7 years

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US Masters Rowing National Championships – Day 1 musings

Charles Sweeney reports from the big event….and muses on life, rowing and streams-of-consciousness

I wasn’t supposed to be here, at the Masters Nationals, in Oak Ridge Tennessee, with my crew, the Capital Rowing Club.

Literally the day after last year’s Nationals, in Worcester, Massachusetts, a nagging back problem blew up into a sciatica case that damn near crippled me and crashed not just a very successful season but a personally important one.

I’d spent a few years trying to hammer myself – in the pejorative, rowing sense — into the boats that won races and went to the Charles. I worked hard and I was pretty strong but, apparently, I just wasn’t that good at this rowing thing.

And last season started out the same as the others: bitter, frustrating.

I remember one practice. Elena, our assistant coach/coach’s wife/Olympic Medalist, who narrates and critiques each practice nonstop in a Russian-accented voice that jumps from operatic praise to severe scolding in an instant, jumped on me like a terrier on a rat and tore me up so long and so hard that I was literally looking around trying to figure out how to get out of the boat in the middle of the river and stomp away from the team, forever.

And there were so many spring mornings where I’d get home and I just wanted to stamp into the shower and wash the stinking Anacostia River and the sweat and shame off my body, and my girlfriend Laura would be lying there quizzing me like a mom to her kid after a bad day at school, “so, how was it, honey?”

I suck. Rowing sucks. Life sucks. That’s how it was. I don’t want to talk about it.

But, like the peasant turned into a newt by the witch in Monty Python and the Holy Grail, I got better. I started getting into good crews. Guys would say things like “you’re rowing pretty good this year. I mean, last year you kind of sucked, but this year you’re not so bad.” They could have put it nicer, but I took in the spirit in which it was offered. I even started rehashing practice voluntarily with Laura.

I felt like I had finally earned the respect of guys who I respected a great deal. That was probably more important than winning, and the winning was pretty fun, too.

And then it all blew up in a day.

By late winter, I was convinced I’d miss this season or be so sloppy and slow when I finally made it back that that no one would miss me if I went instead with Laura to Sun Valley, where she had a conference this week. And we could backpack and fly fish the Sawtooths instead of rowing. When they asked, I said I was “tentative, probably not” for Nationals.

But I finally started erging gently in late winter and then went gently back on the water in May (conveniently missing all that crappy early spring weather. But that’s not why I waited. No, really, it’s not). People seemed glad to see me, which was heartening. Also in May, Laura got drafted into another conference in San Francisco (where she is today), screwing up the Sawtooths jaunt. In June I started racing.

A cabin in the woods for Masters Nationals

And now I’m here, in the town that produced fuel for the atom bomb and birthed America’s peaceful nuclear program – promising clean plentiful nuclear power generated so cheaply that there won’t even be any point in metering it. (I was driving back to my cabin in the woods after racing today and there was a mist rising from the river and I thought “Should I be worried about this?” “No,” I figured, I’m sure the government would tell us if there was something we needed to know about.)

There was a mist earlier, too, this morning, coming from the sky, so they postponed racing for a few hours and I ate a humongous breakfast and typed a little, then drove into a generic section of Knoxville to get my yuppie bearings by picking up a map at the REI (an upscale camping store) and checking out the Whole Foods, whose fish looked sub-par. No Simpson’s three –eyed lake trout, either, despite the nuclear thing.

I’d heard a rumor that Ace Hardware had eclipse glasses, so I could look at the eclipse coming through the Tennessee hills Monday and not go blind, but they were hoarding them — the line formed outside and the sale started at 4 o’clock, when I was supposed to be on the water. Oh well. They tell you that lots of things will make you go blind and I’ve done most of ‘em, so we’ll see what happens Monday.

I dropped off my erg and discovered another 30-minute lightning delay and that the guys at the next trailer were playing hideous whiny Pearl Jam-type music at a significant volume. So I fled down the road and around the corner to the firing range I’d come across.

First, I read the safety rules and signed a document stating that I was of sound mind, had no felony or domestic violence convictions or drug addictions, and was not currently subject to a restraining order. Then, I watched a short safety video. Now, I’m good to go for a little target practice tomorrow.

The next-to-last thing Coach said to me today was “when you go to sleep tonight, think about finishing high – blades on the water.” But really, this East Coast urban liberal will be thinking “revolver or automatic?”

Finally, about 4:30, I started getting that pre-race adrenaline, doing a little erging, seeing how I felt. I always feel like something’s wrong. Like I didn’t warm up right and my back is waiting to explode. Or I should have eaten a better lunch and now I’m weak. Or I have cancer and it’s showing itself by attacking my thigh muscles.

The first race was the Mixed D class. I love racing in the mixed boats because, with the women, the boats set better and it’s generally a nicer row. And it’s just fun to row with people you don’t normally get to row with – nothing gets you closer to your teammates than racing with them, and my teammates are pretty cool.

I hate rowing with the women because I think that they secretly (sometimes not so secretly) think that the men are just a bunch of artless muscle-heads. And I’m the team poster boy for artless muscle heads, though not as muscle-y as I might like (especially when I’m wearing my uni rowsuit) and I feel like – especially from five seat – I’m confirming the worst fears of the four mean girls immediately behind me.

The winsome foursome rowing behind me are incredible rowers with years more experience and way more big wins at the highest competitive levels than I have, and I knew that if we boys could work enough artistry into our muscling to keep the boat reasonably set, we all might come away with some hardware.

Allison reminded me not to spazz out at the start (she said it nicer than that, our women are only “mean girls” in my paranoid imagination) and we got off the line in third, not bad for us. Chinook, who’s always tough, had us by a seat and Ashville had them by two more.

It was like “Ashville?” We’d never rowed against them, that I can recall, and certainly never gunned down to the line for a photo finish with one of their boats.

I wanted to like Ashville. Seems like kind of the place you want to move to when you chuck the rat race and open a little steak frites joint with unisex bathrooms to piss off the conservatives and host traditional acoustic mountain music Tuesday nights and acid jazz on Thursdays. You know: work, camp in the Great Smokey Mountains and row for a club that wins a few big races.

But not this race. Not against us. We caught them at the halfway point and slowly walked past. It was Chinook we had to fight off in the end, finally putting them away with our monster sprint which was actually only like four strokes long because our cox misjudged the finish line and it wasn’t ten seconds after she yelled “take it up” the horns went off. If she’d called the sprint a little earlier we might have won by more than eight tenths of a second. But, no harm, no foul. Besides, we’re all afraid of her, so what are we going to say?

Sue was back for the next race, the men’s E-8. We won a race earlier this summer with the E boat lineup and the coach said “good win – you’re defending national champions, remember” which was a thought I‘ve always found slightly surreal. I’ve never been “defending national champion” in anything and a few years back, when I read the Capital Rowing Club website before coming back to the sport, I read “competes on a national level” and decided to go out for the less gung-ho club team. But, there it was.

There were some changes from last year. I was coming back from the injury, another guy had a baby and a third guy had been creamed by an idiot while cycling to practice and was out. But we rowed the new lineup regularly and you could really feel the boat coming together, rowing pretty well. I like rowing with the old guys, the geezer boat – eight of us raging against the dying of the light but with a certain élan.

And this year, maybe because I’d expected to have such a lousy season, I was more attuned to the boat as a whole — to being part of a lineup rather than a guy whose first priority was trying to fight his way into the lineup. The boat felt good.

Ashville lined up next to us again, a boat with a distinctly thuggish look which made me want to move there and join their club even more, steak frites and acid jazz or not. Boats where the guys mostly look like dive bar bouncers not only win races, I suspect they’re fun to drink with after.

But it was Western Reserve and Riverfront Recapture who jumped out on us, taking seats at the start — as someone always does, dammit! But, if we didn’t row as pretty as we’ve rowed in practice, we rowed pretty good and caught ‘em — as we often do. And with Sue calling the sprint at a more appropriate distance from the finish we raced into a two second win over two strong crews.

It must have been sometime in January and I was laying off the hydrocodone [opioid pain medication] and my back hurt and I was out of shape and bitter and the weather was cold and I was looking at unemployment because I worked in government and the government was changing, and I was stomping around and whining that “next season is fucked, just fucked!” And Laura, who probably also saved my life after my wife, Stephanie, died, gave me this look she saves for when I’m just being stupid (she’ll take a little whining, but she hates stupid) and just said “no, no it’s not.”

And she gently encouraged the self-rehab and the cult gym workouts that seem to help your body’s balance and, eventually, the erging even when it was inconvenient to her and when she had to listen to tedious analyses of the day’s workout.

And the guys, our team, welcomed me back and did the hardest thing: showing up every morning tired and sore and determined to work to the edge of exhaustion and row better every day — and forge eight of us into one boat.

And women’s and mixed boats medaled in two other events, a great start to this year’s racing.

And Guennadi and Elena – who have patiently coached me up over six seasons and once again showed their talent for bringing out our best when it matters most.

And seven months after I though the season was busted, I was in Tennessee, doing that asshole thing of strutting around with two medals on my chest, showing off and enjoying what a friend of mine calls “the clank factor” and feeling a little amazed and very grateful.

It was a great day – for the team.

The post US Masters Rowing National Championships – Day 1 musings appeared first on Rowperfect UK.

World Championships Day 2

World Championships Day 3

from Rowperfect (On-Demand) http://ift.tt/2uR68To

#rowing #crew #rowperfect #Rowperfect (On-Demand)

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puckish-saint · 8 years

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Can i ask for an overwatch member (you pick) with an s/o who lost their glasses? Like the cant tell anything apart, are bumping into everything, & need others to see for them. (Lol its happening to me right now)

My pick you say >:D You fool, you have given me the chance to write about my OTP, there will be no turning back! I may be the entire crew on this ship, but I will go down with it.Featuring Poly!Lummetra (Lúcio/Symmetra) Not a day goes past where each of youdoesn’t wonder how the hell you make this work. Some days youwonder if it is working at all. Today is one of those days, you wakingup to carefully measured not-shouting that still effortlessly drownsout the actual shouting.“You can’t just expect people to dowhatever you want!”You sigh as you reach for your glassesand find them gone. They must still be on the coffee table in theliving room, from where the sounds of the argument come. It’s theold topic, rehashed again. Lúcio and Satya have a lot in common,despite their assurances to the contrary, but when they clash, theyclash. “I can and I will if it is for thebetter. And clearly, if the team had followed my advice, we-”“Idon’t give a shit if we would have won! You didn’t even listen toour suggestions, you-”“There was no need for suggestions, Ialready determined my plan was flawless-”“You stuck up,arrogant- You really believe you’re better than us, don’tyou?”Satya tends to take rhetorical questions at face value,maybe to mess with people, maybe because she can’t be bothered tofilter through the subtle cues in people’s speech. Whatever thereason, she answers as if he asked her a real question, that smug smile on her face that you know she only uses with Lúcio.“I can hardly be compared to a groupof criminals and lowlif- Don’t you dare!”Somethingshatters, loud, piercing and very final.

Somehow you find your way tothe living room without knocking anything over and make out the vagueshapes of Satya and Lúcio, standing across from each other, the veryblurry but also very broken glass coffee table between them. They both turn around as you enter, and you know there to be guilt all over their faces without needing tosee. “Let me guess.” you say, and guessyou have to, even with barely five steps separating you from this morning’s disaster. “That was the sound of a hardlight constructsmashing our expensive new furniture to bits.”If Satya’s despondent silence is anyindication, that wasn’t just any hardlight construct that shatteredtogether with the table. It would have been her graduation piece, oneof her best works so far, usually standing proud on the shelfconveniently located within Lúcio’s reach.“Not just the furniture.” Lúciosays chagrined and picks something up from between the shards looking suspiciously like a bent pair of glasses. You take it from him,hold it up to your face. Nothing to be done about those exceptto give them a one-way ticket to the incinerator.“Alright.” Time to think positive.Breaking your stuff has successfully made Lúcio and Satya stoparguing. And you have an extra pair of glasses in your locker at thetraining range. “If one of you can help me down tothe range so I can get a replacement, we can clean this up togetherin no time.”“I’ll go.” “I will assist you.”They glare at each other, neitherwanting the other to be alone with you to try and get you on theirside. “I broke your glasses.” Lúcioargues. “It’s only fair if I help you.”Satya opens her mouth, undoubtedly todeliver a scathing counter-argument. But then she closes it again.“I … will begin cleaning up, then.”she says and that had to be the first time she ever gave in in anargument with him. Neither of you have counted on this development.Satya looks like she’s disappointed in herself while Lúcio seemsto be reeling from whiplash.You don’t offer them any chance toruin the tentative truce Satya just created and link your arm withLúcio’s, urging him to lead you to the training range.The way is slow on account of youhaving to feel your way forward more than see it. He leads you along with short words of caution when there’s steps ordoorways. Angela offered you more than once to take care of yourshort-sightedness with laser treatments. So far you’ve declined butin an emergency you’d be, as the saying goes, royally fucked.“Honestly, I expected you to tell me all about how wrong Satya is by now.” you say when you arrive at therange and he hasn’t said half a dozen words. He shrugs, guiltyconscience coming off of him like music. “I shouldn’t have broken herconstruct.” he says while he keys in the password to the lockerrooms.“Yeah. Kind of a shitty thing to do.”There’s no sweet-talking what he didand you won’t insult him, or Satya’s hard work, by lying. Yousearch your locker for the case that holds your glasses.“I know. I was just so angry withher, everytime we argue it’s the same thing. She only needs to sayone word and she makes me feel like I’m nothing. Like she’slowering herself to our level. Like she’s doing us a favour beingwith us. I just wanted to … I don’t know ... ““Hurt heras much as she hurt you?” you suggest and add: “Shit. They aren’there.”“What do you mean ‘not here’?”He comes up behind you, searches the locker that remains devoid ofany glasses. You wrack your brain trying to remember where you putthem. The beginning headache doesn’t help the thinking effort. Youclose your eyes and that eases the pressure a little as your eyes areallowed to relax, rather than straining to make out the simplestshapes.You hear Lúcio laugh softly by yourear, before he wraps his arms around your waist.“Now I wish we’d used Satya’stidying system.” he says, half as a joke, half serious. Back whenshe suggested it he made fun of it for a whole day until she droppedthe issue. The thought occurs that destroying her prized constructwasn’t the first time Lúcio tried to reflect some of his own hurtback at her.“You should tell her that.” yousay, making your way back to your apartment. You’ll have to callAngela and hope she still has the 3D blueprints for your glassesstored in her database. If she has, printing a new pair should takeless than an hour.The call is quickly made and Lúcio,who stays close at all times to prevent you from breaking your neckdue to an invisible blob of tripping hazard, takes your words toheart. When you come back to the apartment, cleaned up as if nothinghad broken, the first thing he does is ask Satya if she still hasthat cleaning system she made for him. She’s taken aback, you cantell, and suspects foul play but while you sit down and squint atyour phone for Angela’s number, she sends him the file. It comeswith a holographic map of the apartment and other often frequentedplaces and it becomes clear quickly that Lúcio never actually gaveit a second look before cracking his jokes.“You made all this?” he asks,zooming in to the holo kitchen where in clickable cupboardsare all your hypothetical spices, teas and baking supplies, neatlystored and labeled. He holds it out to you but you shrug, unable tosee more than blue light, but remembering the outline well enoughfrom back when she made it. “Of course.” Satya says, not evenlooking when she pushes the glass you’ve been reaching for intoyour hands. Chances are you would have spilled coke all over the carpetif not for her intervention.Helping you out keeps the peace. Theyhaven’t finished their argument yet, unsaid words still hang in theair, but your sudden helplessness gives you all a much neededbreather. Angela sends an affirmation that the 3D printer is runningand your new glasses will be finished soon, and while you’reprepared to quietly sit and wait, Lúcio has other plans. He flopshimself onto the sofa, one arm around you, wearing his most winningsmile.“Guess what I’m thinking of.” hesays and you’re surprised he’s in the mood for games whenSatya sits on your other side, decidedly more graceful, and says:“Isit smaller than a human being?”“Yes.”Back and forth it goes, Satya askingincreasingly detailed questions, Lúcio answering them with yes’and nos. She wins the first round, guessing ‘tadpoles’, and hewins the second, guessing ‘famous Archi-tech Kunlé Adeyemi’. Itspeaks for how well they do listen to each other that he managed toget that one.Look how well we get along, they seemto say, look how we’re not fighting and breaking your stuff. Sometime between Satya losing a roundto ‘phono pre-amplifiers’ and Lúcio struggling to guesssomething that is both ‘lighter than an atom’ and ‘larger thanthe known universe’, you pull them against you, kiss firstLúcio, then Satya. “Thank you.” you say. “For makingthis effort.”He curls up against you, entwines yourfingers with his, while she shuffles a bit to find a position thatallows her to stay close but not feel stifled.“The difficulties we have are worthovercoming.” she says and for a few seconds she looks you both inthe eye, to reinforce how serious she is with the point she made.Lúcio agrees and shortly after admitsdefeat when he can’t guess what Satya is thinking of. She smiles aprivate little smile and says as if she’s letting you in on asecret: “It is my love for you both.”

#overwatch imagines #lucio #symmetra #reader insert #variantebovine

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cthoughts · 8 years

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Why Supergirl Would Be Awesome With 2 Leads

SuperFamily

I’ve been watching Supergirl and it’s not really what the show’s focused on, but it’s made me really interested in a story focusing on the relationship between Kara and Clark.

Doing Justice to The Show

They’re superheroes, they’re both interesting characters when done the way they are in the show, they each have very unique and compelling backstories that are similar in some ways and at odds in others, and they’re family. With a show that focused on each individually and then on their relationship with each other, it would be super (ha!) interesting.

I love that Supergirl is focused on a female hero and that there are so many other women in the show and so many woman-woman interactions. I wouldn’t want to take away from that by making the show about Superman whose story has already been told so many times. However, I can’t help but feel like not exploring Superman more in the context of the Supergirl show is a huge missed opportunity.

Their relationship as family members is a huge point of interest. It adds so much complexity to the characters, relationships, and plot that’s already there. In fact, it already feels like something is missing from the show as it currently is because it’s such a logical thing for people to want to fill in the holes about their relationship. Ignoring that part of the plot in order to make sure Supergirl doesn’t get overshadowed by her more famous cousin isn’t optimal.

They could keep Supergirl as the main character and have Superman be a more developed secondary character like her sister Alex is. I think that would be the best compromise in this situation.

Doing Justice to Superman

I have to admit that I’ve never been very fond of Superman as a character in general. He’s always come off as arrogant, disrespectful of others, presumptuous, self-centered, headstrong, and too rigid in his morality.

The Smallville version and the version from Supergirl are the only two versions I’ve ever felt fond of. I think it’s because they make him much more human and vulnerable. They show him being angry, being hurt that he’s not trusted by someone who could otherwise be an ally, being protective, feeling giddy at getting to share his powers with someone who understands, relishing his powers, fondly humoring his fans, getting exasperated at how illogical the people he fights can be, respecting his cousin’s space, using his assets *wink* to his advantage, and more. He’s a real person in Supergirl.

Humanizing Superman is something they did very right with Supergirl, whether on purpose or by accident. It’s something they need to expand on because there are so few versions of Superman that are like that.

Age Switch

Since it’s basically in the intro of the show from the start, it’s not a spoiler to say that Kara’s backstory is extremely interesting because of how her age in relation to Superman changed. She was older than him, got stuck in the Phantom Zone by accident, and ended up on Earth over two decades later. Because Clark came to Earth as a baby and grew up before Kara got there, that makes things very different for the two.

She started out 13 years older than Clark and ended up 11 years younger than him.

Losing Krypton

Kara grew up on Krypton and was already 13 when she had to leave, so her experience of Krypton dying is very different to Clark’s. For Kara, she actually knew the culture and the people and she really felt the loss. She was old enough to basically know the shape of her world, but young enough that there’s a lot of adult perspective about how Krypton was that she’ll never have.

For Clark, he’s lived on Earth his whole life, but he never actually fit in and didn’t always understand why. He grew up on Earth and it’s all he remembers, but he’s Kryptonian. He’ll never completely feel like he can identify with the people of Earth or Krypton because of it.

Both are hard, but they’re different types of hard. It’s the difference between losing your parents before you can even remember them and losing your parents when you’re older and have plenty of memories. In the one case, you feel like you’ve never fit in and that you don’t really know or understand yourself. In the other, there’s so much pain that gives you a sort of isolating wisdom that no one has until they experience that type of loss.

Adoptive Family

The difference in their ages when they came to Earth also means that Clark and Kara’s experience as adopted children is different. For Clark, his parents are his parents because they’re who he grew up with and they’re all he remembers. Because Kara’s older, even with a nice adoptive family, she can never just forget her original family.

In that sense, even though Clark probably feels alienated because of his position between two worlds, he feels like he fits in with his adoptive family more than Kara ever could. Kara will never feel completely at home again because she can remember her original home and she’ll never quite stop longing for things to be how they were. It’s a more intense version of the nostalgia that we all feel for parts of our childhood.

Protector vs Protectee

Being older, Kara was originally supposed to take care of Clark when she got to Earth, but because of her being in a timeless place and getting to Earth late, things got turned on their head. Instead of her taking care of Clark, Clark found her after she landed and he was the one who took care of her.

It’s hinted in the show, but never fully explored, how she must feel guilty to a certain extent over this. She didn’t do what her parents expected of her (not her fault though) and her getting there late also meant that Clark was alone without anyone who really understood who and what he was.

The other thing is that Kara arriving late stripped her of her purpose. Not only did she not get to do what her parents asked of her, but she no longer had a mission to carry out. For someone who originally had a mission to focus themselves on while the rest of their world was falling apart, it must have felt overwhelming to suddenly lose that purpose and have nothing to focus on and no set direction to head in.

Growing Up Separately

Clark and Kara are two different people despite being family and having the same powers on Earth.

Clark

Solitary-

Clark grew up having to figure out who he was on his own. That left a mark on him. It’s referenced in the show that he always goes it alone. His default is going it alone and that’s just how he expects it to be.

Because the show hasn’t shown us Clark’s background, there are any number of reasons that might explain why he’s that way. I’m curious about it and that’s part of why I started wishing for the show to focus on the two of them rather than Kara alone.

It could be that Clark is just used to being alone because for the longest time he was the only one who had powers and could do the things he could and it became a habit. Maybe he’s aware of it and maybe he isn’t.

It might be that Clark being used to being the only one with powers made him a little arrogant about being the only person who could handle things. Even though he can’t always handle it anymore and there are more people who have powers and can help him now, he still thinks he’s the best person to do everything.

It could be that Clark has trouble trusting others because of feelings of isolation and actual isolation caused by being different when he was growing up.

It’s possible that because he never felt like he fit in (like he wasn’t good enough to), Clark has a hero complex and feels like he has to be the one to help everyone else to be good enough.

There are so many possibilities when it comes to why Clark took up the mantle of Superman and why he does his heroics the way he does. I want to know what his childhood was like. I want to know if he had friends or if he was lonely. I want to know if he still feels lonely at times. I want to know his feelings about being born into one culture without remembering it and living in another culture while never being able to fully fit in.

Identities-

I also want to know how Clark views his Superman vs Clark identities. It’s often hinted in previous incarnations of Superman that he’s more comfortable as a superhero and Clark Kent is more of an act.

The feeling on the show is more like both Superman and Clark are part of who he genuinely is. It would be interesting to see more of how his private life and superhero life interact like we get to see with Kara. I would expect somewhat different conflicts, though, because he and Kara aren’t the same people. Rehashing the same conflicts with both of them would be boring.

Relationships-

We also have yet to see Clark’s relationship with his parents, with Jimmy/James, and with Kara’s foster family. We’ve seen that Kara’s foster sister Alex has some negative feelings about Clark, but it would be interesting to have that and his other relationships with family explored more.

Alex-

With Alex, it’s partly an animosity because of insecurity and jealousy. Alex is the older sibling who feels her importance to Kara is less when the cool older cousin who Kara has more in common with comes around. Alex spends more time with Kara and has more memories with her, but Clark has a specific bond with Kara that Alex will never have with her.

The other part is that Alex thinks Clark shirked his responsibility by leaving Kara with Alex’s family. Whether this is a fair judgment or not is up for debate, but it’s a viewpoint that inevitably crosses the minds of people watching the show. It’s logical and highly emotional at the same time, so it’s a smart conflict to have between Alex and Clark.

James/Jimmy-

We hear about how James is friends with Clark from James’ side often on the show, but we’ve yet to actually see them as friends. Mostly that’s because James belongs to Kara’s narrative in the show and Clark doesn’t have his own separate narrative. Every scene James is in has to do with Kara in some way, so there’s no opportunity to show James and Clark alone and focused on anything other than Kara.

Actually, with the current set up on the show they could develop James and Clark’s relationship at least a little bit by having them talking alone about something related to Kara. They could also have a situation where James is in trouble and Supergirl is dealing with someone else, so the focus is on Superman being worried and saving James. They haven’t done that up until now, but they could. Still, it would help define Clark’s character a lot more to see the details of how he relates to James.

It would also create another nice triangle a la Alex-Kara-Clark. What are Clark’s feelings on James liking his sort-of-baby cousin? What are his feelings on Kara getting James’ hopes up and kind of dumping him out of nowhere? Would he take sides, which side would he take, or would he be uncomfortable and avoid it entirely?

Another thing it would do is add more depth to James’ narrative. James may well be the most fleshed out secondary character on the show currently. Alex and J'onn have more to do in the plot, but we’ve seen more of James’ emotions more consistently. Part of James’ emotional journey is to define himself away from Superman, just like Kara’s is. Seeing the conflict between him loving his friend and him hating how he feels like a sidekick to Superman and how trying to help Superman messes up his life would develop his situation more.

Kara

I don’t have as much to say about Kara because the show IS about her and they’re already developing her past, her emotional life, and her conflicts. There’s not as much room for me to be missing pieces of her story as with Clark. The biggest thing is her relationship with Clark and that’s going to be a different section of this post.

Younger Sibling Syndrome-

In the show, Kara defines herself separate from Clark by saying that her philosophy is about being stronger as a team. While Clark is known as the solo wonder-hero, Kara is okay with relying on her friends and family and the DEO to help save the day. As a team, they can get the best results.

This doesn’t mean that Kara is weaker than Clark. It’s a strength to trust in other people and combine everyone’s strengths without ego. She defines her unique superhero-dom by this strength.

The whole reason she has to define herself separately from Clark is because he’s already established. The public recognizes him already, so when she starts, she’s going to be considered an afterthought unless she asserts her own identity. The public would view her as an offshoot of Superman rather than as her own person otherwise. Kara is essentially Clark’s younger sibling in this respect. She faces the same challenges the younger sibling of an exceptional student or athlete would face.

Fledgling Insecurity-

Although Kara was older to start with, she’s far behind Clark when it comes to being a superhero. He started earlier and has years on her. Partly because of this, partly because Clark is already viewed as exceptional in the same role she wants to fill, partly because of having the rug pulled out from her when Krypton died and again when she got to Earth late, and partly because of having to grow up and hide her powers while with her adoptive family, Kara is very unsure of herself and insecure.

Kara has strong convictions, a natural instinct to help anyone in need, and she’s got the same powers from the sun as Clark does, but she’s unable to fully reach her potential as Supergirl and especially as Kara because of her insecurity.

She starts getting comfortable with her role as Supergirl sooner and this causes a gap between her identity as Supergirl and her identity as Kara. The confidence she has as Supergirl doesn’t transfer over. Being confident as Kara is something else she has to learn.

Kara and Clark

So far Kara and Clark have the sweetest, most adorable relationship on the show. I love it and I wouldn’t change that too much. I think it makes sense for their personalities and it’s heartwarming to see them embracing what they have left of their Kryptonian family. They’ve both lost so much that them making each other happy seems right.

History and Conflict-

However, we’re told that they love each other and we see that, but we have no history for it. The opening credits where Superman rips the top of Kara’s pod when she lands and helps her out of it always thrills me. It just represents all of these things about Kara and Clark’s relationship with each other that could be so interesting to explore.

How did Clark feel when first finding out that he had family that was alive?

How did Clark feel when he realized she could tell him stories about Krypton?

How did Kara react when she first realized that Clark was all grown up and not her baby cousin anymore?

How did she deal with the potential guilt of having accidentally left Clark to grow up on his own with no other Kryptonians to teach him?

How did Clark come to the decision to leave Kara with an adoptive family?

Did he ever regret his decision either for his own sake or for hers?

Did Clark visit Kara or did they keep in touch through electronic communication only? How much did they keep in touch at all?

Did Kara ever resent being left with a foster family and not living with Clark? Does she understand why he did it beyond the surface explanation or is she too afraid to ask?

Does Kara have any negative feelings about how Clark tends to do all his heroics alone? Is she irritated, disapproving, or worried?

Does Clark feel like Kara’s his little sister or does she feel like his equal? Does he feel vulnerable around her?

Does Kara still feel like Clark’s protector or does she feel like the little sibling?

In the present day, are there any situations where Kara gets upset with Clark for not calling her or not sharing important information until too late?

Does she disagree with any of his positions on working (or not) with the government or about the use of force?

Has Kara ever met Lois Lane? Does she think Lois is a good match for Clark or not?

How does Clark feel about his cousin and his best friend becoming romantically entangled?

How does he feel about Jimmy switching from Superman’s sort-of sidekick to Supergirl’s?

What types of challenges does Clark have with his regular life colliding with his superhero one vs the ones Kara has?

How do they help each other overcome their personal issues?

What were Clark’s feelings about Astra since she was related to Kara but on the other side of her family?

It’s impossible to have a relationship without some conflict. Conflict is what helps two people understand each other better by revealing the places where they inevitably have different experiences, values, and opinions. We’re told and shown that Clark and Kara love each other, but I want to see the history of that and I want to see it grow through the course of the show.

Not Too Dark-

I would prefer that their conflicts not be too negative or overly dramatic though. Both of them have so many hard things in their lives already, so there’s enough drama anyway. I’d prefer them worrying about each other and helping each other grow rather than having tragic elements.

At their cores, they’re goodhearted people who have faith in the world. If their conflicts with each other are too heavy, it wouldn’t fit with that characterization right and I wouldn’t want the characterization to change.

One of the defining parts of Superman and Supergirl is their inherent goodness, just like Captain America. When done wrong, it can be unrealistic, too absolute, and grating. However, when done right, it’s relieving and heartwarming. With the current state of the world, relieving and heartwarming is welcome as far as I’m concerned.

Conclusion

I’d love to see Supergirl and Superman as equally strong focuses in the current show. It could be so good. The characters the show already has like James, Lucy, Winn, Cat Grant, etc. are already great and that’s the scenario I’d want to add more of Superman to. Unfortunately that’s not very likely since the structure of Supergirl is already set to revolve around her as the sole focus.

Alternatively, I’d like to see a show in the future that takes the idea of them being related and develops that as the core point of interest. This has more of a chance of happening someday. Since Superman is one of those popular properties that will perpetually be made and remade and reimagined, it’s not unlikely.

#supergirl #superman #kara zor-el #kara danvers #kal-el #clark kent #show analysis #mine #I just made myself sad #I thought he was in more than 2 episodes in the 2nd season #turns out he's not and what I've watched is all that there is #it could be SO good #and it's probably never going to happen

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kari-kurofai · 8 years

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Okay, actual thoughts on Voltron Season 2

Overall it’s really not bad. It barely holds a candle to season 1 which I honestly consider to be one of the best seasons of any show ever, but it’s certainly not a bad season. It just has a few . . . flaws?

I’m pretty disheartened by the severe lack of attention given to my two favorite characters, Lance and Hunk. I was promised character development for Lance, and I got . . . mermaids . . . =____=

I got tired of the “Lol Hunk is fat he makes food jokes and gets stuck in stuff” thing at about episode 2, so that was super annoying for the entire 11 other episodes.

I love Keith and Shiro, really, I love the whole cast, but there was way too much focus on them and it actually got a bit dull near the end. We get it, Keith’s a Galra, guess who knew that for the last six months

I would have put money on Thace being Keith’s Galra parent but it’s probably cowboy dad and the mystery Galra from that one episode with the worm. That Galra, despite NONE of the other Galra having very definitively gendered looks, was made very deliberately curvy and feminine shaped way more than any others.

Whatever though, I’m gonna pretend Thace and cowboy dad were Keith’s two dads because who the fuck even knows how Galra biology works and who cares

On another note about Keith, since he got so much fucking focus this season, if they make Keith/Allura a thing like in the old show I will actually fucking quit the show.

I’m not joking, I will quit. IMO a new take on the show doesn’t need a fucking rehash of the same old shit. Also Allura is like way closer to Shiro’s age and Keith’s like 17-19 so no.

seriously, i will fucking jump show immediately if they become anything other than good friends

Similar note, I felt like they were doing something rather disgustingly familiar with Keith and Lance that I recognize from this other thing . . . oh, what thing was that . . . hmm . . . it reminds me of something . . . Oh, that’s right, Teen Wolf season 3. It reminds me very painfully of Derek/Stiles in Teen Wolf s3. Please no. Not again.

Allura got pretty shafted this season too. Never once did we get to see her lovely dress, and I’m quite annoyed by this.

A few more positive notes I guess

Shallura scene got rewound about 80 times before I moved on. Give me Shallura or give me fucking death at this point

The scene with Pidge and the bathrooms was absolutely revolutionary. It was definitely hedging towards that joke territory, but that was obviously deliberate as a way to gloss over it for people opposed to a genderqueer character. We see Keith exiting the blue bathroom later, leaving zero room for doubt about why Pidge hesitated. Bravo, Voltron team.

I’m 100% sure that the Alkari woman who could communicate through the Green lion is the original Green Paladin. I have zero doubts about this at all. We’ve already seen some instances of prolonged life in the series, with Zarkon (very likely due to being connected with the Black lion), and I would bet money that Haggar has been alive for a fucking eternity as well, since we so far have zero evidence of any secret surviving Alteans.

I hope this means we’ll learn about the original Red/Blue/Yellow paladins as well.

There was a very brief suggestion by Coran that the original Red Paladin was Alfor himself, and I’m not yet sure whether to take it seriously.

At this point no one can convince me Alfor and Coran weren’t a thing. I will fight you.

Overall my main thought coming away from this season is that the Voltron creation team really needs to sit down for a bit and pay attention to what its fandom is saying. It is in my honest opinion that a good creator/author for anything should do this. Because once you put it out into the world, what you’ve created no longer solely belongs to you. Its primary ownership passes on to those who will love it long after you’re gone. And if the fandom has complaints about some very crucial things (such as Lance and Hunk getting shafted to comedic side characters, and I’m gonna say it not just because I ship it but because I think it would be better writing than any dumb shit from the original, take a real look at considering the Lance/Keith thing as the honestly best way to develop their characters and provide some representation in that department). We have a long fucking way to go still with this show, and i’m a bit annoyed at where season 2 is pointing, but hopeful that i’m worrying for nothing.

also, on the note of the fandom, somehow in the last 24 hours I’ve seen an obnoxious rise in entitled self righteousness that makes me rather disgusted. Come the fuck on, guys, can we not go around ship bashing and yelling “Antis!” just ship your own shit and quietly dislike whatever you want, there’s no need to be attacking people, there seriously isn’t. it was a rough season, lets not go at each others’ throats now. Enough of this fandom police crap.

#voltron spoilers

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myhahnestopinion · 7 years

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REVIEW: Star Wars - The Last Jedi

Does the world need more Star Wars? Eighth installments are, unsurprisingly, hardly ever the creative peak of a franchise, more often the kind where you arbitrarily throw a hockey-masked serial killer onto a boat to Manhattan to keep the story limping along. To Disney, the answer to this question is simple. Yes, the world needs more Star Wars, because the last film made over $2 billion in ticket sales alone, not to mention the certainly massive toy profits from the timely Holiday-season release. Most fans of the franchise would surely decry this level of cynicism, arguing that the world needs more Star Wars because it has truly become so much more than just another film franchise. Among this group resides the fluent Wookiee-speakers, the Census-documented followers of the Jedi religion, the annual saga-rewatchers (Originals, not Special Editions!), and the ones who will spend hours dissecting the background of every single shot to build up more evidence for their YouTube fan theories. While a fanatic, misguided, belief in the series’ sacrality may arise from this same well, to these viewers, the Star Wars franchise is more that just a multi-media money-making machine; it’s home, and each new installment brings with it more comfort and inspiration. There are many other possible answers to this question. One can perhaps infer that J.J. Abrams’ response would be that, yes, the world needs more Star Wars, because so much of The Force Awakens was spent building up the director’s trademark mystery boxes, leaving many plot threads unresolved. Acknowledging and addressing all of these responses, Star Wars: The Last Jedi, one of the franchise’s best entries to date, provides the definitive answer to that looming question. Much like how his contribution to the continuing adventures of the Skywalker family subverts all expectations while also providing everything one is looking for from a Star Wars film, and much like how the film is both the darkest film of the series as well as its kid-friendliest, director Rian Johnson’s answer is seemingly a paradox. Does the world need more Star Wars? Yes. And No. Star Wars is dead. Long live Star Wars!

Star Wars: The Last Jedi picks up on the adventures of the original trilogy stars and the new characters successfully endeared to viewers during The Force Awakens in the aftermath of that last film. The Resistance fighters, including Finn (John Boyega), Poe (Oscar Issac), and General Organa (Carrie Fisher), are on the run from Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) and the First Order. Meanwhile, Rey (Daisy Ridley) heads off to the site of the first Jedi Temple to seek out long-absent Jedi Master Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill).

Perhaps the most pressing question on potential movie-goers’ minds following Episode VII is whether The Last Jedi follows through on that pattern and is simply a rehash of Empire Strikes Back. While not discrediting the general consensus that the “another Death Star, but bigger” nature of Starkiller Base was unnecessary, such a question for the new trilogy is entirely misplaced. Much has been written about the poetic structure of the Star Wars saga (Reading the “Star Wars Ring Theory” might just change your mind about the prequels) and how the repetition of the respective films of the series reflect the Taoistic philosophies on balance that are the focus of the franchise. Rather than draw away from these cycles following this backlash to the last film, Rian Johnson wisely steers into it, using them to honor the legacy of the franchise, while crafting something wildly new.

The Last Jedi sees the cycle of darker, more complex middle installment of trilogies begin anew. Characters become separated, allowing the film to explore each new protagonist in greater depth than before. Legends return to train the new generation, characters are redeemed and characters die, each playing into the archetypes of the Hero’s Journey that enhance the emotional depth of the mythology. In a different example of the cycles at play, the film’s plot bears striking similarities to the tense, last-ditch space-escape sequences of Battlestar Galactica, a franchise born out of the post-Star Wars sci-fi craze itself, bringing everything full circle. Rather than show a series fully out of ideas, each of these repetition answers the question of whether the world needs more Star Wars with a resounding “yes.” The Force Awakens began this argument, but in a particularly heartwarming meta-textual scene late in The Last Jedi, the rationale for this answer is made quite explicit. The Star Wars saga deserves to live on as a multi-generational cultural basis for heroism and hope, an ambition justified by the already observable impact of expanding these acts of heroism to encompass a more diverse set of characters.

To perceive of The Last Jedi as nothing more than a remake of Empire Strikes Back with a more inclusive cast of characters, however, would be to ignore the clever rejection of those very cycles that Rian Johnson also weaves into the tale. The film’s answer to that necessity question is, once again, also a “no.” The world does not need another stale retread of the same basic material. It doesn’t need a new legacy hero. It doesn’t need a new Big Bad in a throne. And it sure as hell doesn’t need each returning element enshrined as holy and untouchable. The Last Jedi is perhaps the bravest big-budget blockbuster to come out of the studio complex in years; there’s almost a palpable sense of contempt for much of its intended audience. The series as fans have known it comes under attack from within. Gone are the childish simplification of “good” and “evil,” replaced not by an rejection of morality, but a surprisingly nuanced and mature exploration of the true nature of heroism, misguided intentions, and the frequent failures of the good. Equally emphatically demolished is any desire to cater to the demands of groups of aging fans. The J.J. Abrams mysteries analyzed for two years are swiftly subverted, and the expected shape of the series’ overarching storyline is shattered. In order for the Star Wars saga to live on, it must evolve, and The Last Jedi, as that transitional piece, is likely to arouse certain controversy, but ultimately revitalizes the power of the mythology.

Similar to the film’s risky reinvention of the franchise’s core, The Last Jedi has a delightfully bold embrace of weirdness. While The Force Awakens established an aesthetic that returned the series to its practical-effects roots, nothing matches the curiosity-sparking assortment of costumed creatures, puppets, CGI beasts, and new planets dominated by a single ecosystem produced by The Last Jedi . It’s perhaps impossible to review the film without mentioning the Porgs, the bird-like creatures introduced in the film that, like BB-8 before them, are too adorable for one to mind the obvious merchandising motivations behind them. Much of the film’s humor is derived from simple reaction-shots of bizarre new aliens, just some of the numerous visual gags that Johnson incorporates into the film. The film overall draws a lot more attention to its film-making than any other installment, with one particular plot line dependent on clever editing techniques, and one emotional sacrifice employing a striking absence of sound. Even beyond the showier bits, the film’s direction is notable, such as the recurring use of a blood-red color, and a thrillingly choreographed throne-room fight scene. The Last Jedi not only makes the case that the franchise needs to expand the scope of its storytelling, but that it needs to expand its visual styling as well.

A lengthier, more-conventional analysis of the film’s quality is perhaps unnecessary; Star Wars is the very definition of a review-proof franchise. From the dynamic space battles, to the more intimate character moments, the film is spectacular and arresting. The actors all do an excellent job, including Mark Hamill’s humorously gruff return to the iconic character, and newcomer Kelly Marie Tran’s Rose, who manages the impressive feat of being the most likable character in the entire film. John Williams provides another grand, operatic score, and the audience will leave excited to see the trilogy’s conclusion. It’s a gorgeous, enthralling, and moving cinematic epic, but as illustrated by the prequels, even if the film had failed on multiple fronts, it wouldn’t kill the franchise. As a profitable brand for Disney and the source of perhaps the world’s most fervent fandom, there will always be more entries, more moments to recreate at conventions, more fan theories to form, and more children who will grow up idolizing the heroes. But for Star Wars to continue to be a powerful source of entertainment and inspiration in the world, fans must be willing to acknowledge their place in this cycle, something that’s understood by this latest film as it finds the balance between respecting what came before while paving new ground. Despite what the title suggests, there will be many more tales of Jedi to come, but if they’re all as capable of honoring the mythos and as willing to subvert the cycles as Star Wars: The Last Jedi, then the world will need more Star Wars for a long, long time.

Star Wars: The Last Jedi, also starring Andy Serkis, Lupita Nyong’o, Dohmnall Gleeson, and Laura Dern, is in theaters now.

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