#that’s honestly too deep for this franchise targeted at little girls so anyways enjoy

[galaxygolfergirl]

WIP WIP

'Cause you colour me clear

Now, what you, what you waitin' for?

Yeah, you colour me clear

Now what are you waitin' for?

(@frozenvanillaz credit for the reference pose)

[toxikbubblegum]

May Reading Wrap Up

I'm actually really proud of myself. I finished 13 books last month. Spent a lot of extra time away from screens and focusing on my mental health so I burned through way more than I normally would. So anyways, here's my reviews. - Also please understand that these are just my opinions and if I shit on your favorite book I'm sorry that I didn't enjoy it as much as you. Also, also Im terrible with character names.

Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor ⭐⭐⭐

I actually started this book at the end of April but didn't finish it til May 1st so whatever, here it is. This books is a YA urban fantasy novel about a girl with a double life. She spends half her days studying art in Europe and the other half running errands for a tooth collecting wish monger. I don't want to say a whole lot more because I dont want to spoil anything important about the plot. So, I'll try to be vague. Let me start by saying this story is amazing. I loved the writing and the world. I rated it so low solely because I can't stand the two main characters and it really dragged down what would have otherwise been an amazing novel. So yeah, great book but its a preference thing. Also took points off for the insta-love but not really insta-love shit. Idk. I have a lot of mixed feelings about this read even a month later. Gonna read the second to see if maybe my hatred of the two mains was just a fluke.

3/5 Stars

Spellbound by Rachel Hawkins

⭐⭐⭐

This is the third book in the Hex Hall trilogy. Not much to say about it. It was a meh ending to an overall pretty good series. 3/5 stars. Moving on.

The Wicked Deep by Shea Ernshaw

⭐⭐⭐

Realizing now how many of my reads this month were pretty middle of the world. Hopefully next month will be filled with 4 and 5 stars. Anyways, this book was honestly a struggle for me to finish and Im not sure why. It's a YA mystery magical realism story about a tiny coastal town that is cursed by the spirits of 3 sisters who were suspected of witchcraft and drowned 2 centuries prior. Because of this, every year the sisters return from the sea to take the lives of teenage boys by luring them to the sea. We follow the life of kind of meh and standard YA girl #1. She meets a strange non tourist boy and hires him to work in the lighthouse her family owns. Her dad randomly disappeared years ago and her mom is a loon. So yeah... I dont know. I kind of felt like this story was hot garbage in places. I usually dont have any trouble with the suspense of disbelief in magical realism stories but this one just had too many plot holes. Like, I get morbid stuff becomes tourist attractions but why wouldn't someone have stepped in and evacuated the town if at least 3 teenage boys die there EVERY SINGLE YEAR without fail? I honestly feel like the FBI or some other government agency would have cleared the place out after the first 20 or so deaths. There was also the whole MC can see the ghosts of the girls possessing people but chooses not to tell anyone? Like, I get it. You dont want people to label you a freak or think you're crazy but come the fuck on. You live in a tourist trap where people flock to watch local teenage males wash up on shore and you really think the authorities arent going to take you up on the help? It wasn't an awful book by any means. It was well written and extremely descriptive. Just had major beef with some of the details. Anyways, I wont say much more so I don't spoil the whole book.

3/5 Stars

An Enchantment of Ravens by Maragret Rogerson

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Finally, I get to talk about one of my favorite reads of the month. I love anything to do with the Fae in my YAfiction and this was literally everything I wanted in a Fae novel. It takes place in a town called Whimsy, a humanish town in the world of Faerie. The fae cannot do any Craft, or what we would consider craftsmanship. Art and humans who can do it well are very precious in this world because the Fae can't ever do it themselves. We follow the adventures of a girl who has been commisioned to paint the portrait of the Autumn King and the chaos that ensues. Let me just start by saying this is one of those insta-love situations where I feel like it's genuinely ok. I might be making excuses because I loved the title so much but whatever. It's explained and I accept it. Also, I realize that Gadfly had a lovely description but my brain willl not let me picture him as anything but Mr.Waternoose from Monsters Inc.

5/5 Stars

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

⭐⭐⭐

This book started out so good and went downhill very quickly. It follows the story of these two magicians who were fated by their Master's to one day fight to the death. There were so many things I loved about this book only for the last 100 pages to just take a firey dump on my face. I loved the setting and the majority of the characters. The supporting characters were so deep and interesting that I almost cared more about them than I did Ceilia and Marko (Im proabably wrong and I dont feel like googling but I think that was his name) . I don't know. I don't want to complain about anymore meh books.

3/5 Stars

Matched by Allie Condie

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Went into this book expecting to hate it. I usually don't like contemporary love stories but this had major City of Ember meets The Giver vibes and it just appealed to that 14 year old girl in me again. That seems to happen with a lot of dystopian utopia stories. Anyways, story is about a girl who lives in this town where when you hit a certain age you are brought to a place and told who the government has chosen for you to marry. She is matched with her life long best friend and all is well. Except that her little Get To Know Your New Husband microship thing showed her two guys instead of just one. And lots of bullshit ensues. I honestly think I rated this so high because I enjoy the world and not so much whats actually happening to the kids. Like, I loved the idea that art is harmful so the government chose 100 acceptable pieces and thats all these people know. I loved the brutality of the government in general. I can't say much more without spoiling some of the twists but geez did it have me hooked. I'm going to be started the second one soonish, though my TBR for June has gotten intense so we will see.

4/5 stars

Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

I cannot say enough good things about this book. It is so fucking good! Not going to rant about it or anything because y'all just need to go read it immediately.

5/5 stars

Would give it every star in the sky if Im being completely honest.

Reign of the Fallen by Sarah Glenn Marsh

⭐⭐

Got sucked into this book by the cover and honestly that was the best part of this book. Its about this world where necromancy is pretty highly regarded and used to resurrect the royals after they die. The only downside is that if a living person ever lays eyes on the resurrected person's skin then they turn into these horrible monsters. Maybe it's just me but like that absolutely does not seem worth the risk. Plus, in order to bring the person back, these reapers have to go into the death world and bring the spirit back. And it's HELLA DANGEROUS. So like, WHY? Anyways, there is this stupid underlying love story that I absolutely wasn't invested in. This just all around was not a good book.

2/5 stars

Monster High by Lisi Harrison

⭐⭐

Little known fact~ I'm obsessed with Monster High and Ever After High. So yeah, I realize this wasn't targeted to me as an adult but even going into it with an open mind I was disappointed. Granted I didn't read the description of the book prior. I just saw this franchise I love and grabbed it. First, if you are a fan of the mini series and the movies do not read this. It doesnt follow the cinematic canon and I think that was my biggest problem with it. Frankie's character was all wrong and I hated the whole"Normy" cast. Was really excited for these but I definitely won't be continuing the series. I don't even want to torture myself with seeing how they manage to ruin my sweet baby Draculara.

2/5 stars

Unhinged by AG Howard

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

I can't say enough good things about this series. This is the second book in the trilogy and it was a fanatstic bridge book. It had me engrossed through the entire audiobook. Morpheus is still everything. If you loved Splintered I would highly reccomend continuing.

5/5 stars

Truthwitch

⭐⭐

Have had this on my TBR for a while because of how many Booktubers have hyped the series. Buy, was I disappointed. I was soooooooooo bored. Maybe it's because I don't really enjoy this type of fantasy or maybe it was just the slower paced story but I just slugged through this book. Both of the main female characters were bland to me and I didn't care about their friendship. The world was cool but not enough to keep me invested. Just wasn't my cup of tea.

2/5 stars

Paranormalcy by Kiersten White

⭐⭐⭐

Picked this up because of how much I loved The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein and it didn't meet my expectations. It follows this girl who works for a paranormal gorvenment group. She has a special ability that makes her really useful to them so they are trying to groom her basically. They capture this changeling and she befriends him and there is an overarching plot that I just didn't get invested in. The friendship between the two main characters was pretty much the only thing that I enjoyed in this title. The mother figure was insufferable and I just didn't really understand the whole org that they worked for in general. Not an awful book but not fantastic.

Solid 3/5 stars.

The Siren by Kiera Cass

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Going to preface this by saying I might be biased. I love Kiera Cass and have enjoyed almost everything she has written. That said, this wasn't nearly as good as The Selection series but it was a pretty good stand alone novel. It about a girl who becomes a siren on her deathbed and spends the next 100 years serving the sea by luring people to their deaths. After doing this for 70 years, she falls in love and pretty much ruins everything. Loved the characters, especially the male lead. The insta love was a little pet peeve of mine but the love interest was so sweet and genuine that I was willing to overlook it. Pretty good read if you dig supernatural romance.

4/5 stars

June holds the Ghibli-a-thon but also lots of holidays for my family so we will see how much I actually get read. So far my tentative TBR is 5 books but we will see where the days take me.

[0poole]

Alright Let’s Go is imminent

All the previous rants I had about this where left when my last Tumblr account was terminated, so I’ll just fill it back in.

Also I’m feeling the emotions so like

Basically, my general opinion about Pokemon as a whole is very positive. If someone were to ask me what my favorite video game was, I’d just say “Pokemon” because the games are similar enough to each other that I could just group them together, and because I’ve never not liked a Pokemon game I’ve played. I’m a simple man who likes fun and cute girls, and basically every game has done that for me (except for the original gen 2 games and earlier since I’ve never played them and also doubt I’d like them. I do look for good graphics in enjoyment tbh)

Obviously, all of this becomes a problem sometimes, since so many Pokemon “fans” have such stupid reasons for hating some the games... So much of it is just generic “It’s badly designed” or other stuff that’s literally just them saying “I don’t know why I hate it but I might as well try to sound smart” since you can’t just “not like” something nowadays. Not liking something is okay, since people have different wants and opinions, but saying that it’s bad because you don’t like it is such a self-absorbed idea. You’re saying that you’re so well immersed in the specifics of design that you simply going through and feeling negative emotions means that, deep down, it’s a bad game. It’s not.

There’s a serious gap between the consumer and the creator. You can’t just “consume” a bunch of games and then know what makes them good. You can’t just watch a bunch of Youtube videos about game design and know from them either, although that’s a step in the right direction. I don’t know what good game design is either, and I sure as hell won’t pretend that I do.

The biggest, most insulting thing I hear tossed around a lot is that Gamefreak “doesn’t care about their fans,” “is super lazy,” or “isn’t even trying.” This is one of the few times where I’m legitimately insulted on someone else’s behalf, because, even though I’ve never made a game and don’t plan on it, if I did and THAT was the response I got, I would feel like absolute shit. Sure, some Gamefreak executives probably just look at the numbers and do whatever gets them more money, but how the hell can you say that every single person involved in the creation process just doesn’t care, or is just lazy? They’re working on fucking POKEMON for Pete’s sake. How could you not only not enjoy that, but just casually toss something into the wind? That’s also not to mention how fucking ungrateful a lot of fans are. Some people just will not be pleased, and even though you’re trying to find what does, they’ll still hate it no matter what. It’d be aggravating. I’m sure after a while you’d just get used to it, but that obviously doesn’t mean it’s okay. 

Speaking of being ungrateful, with regard to Let’s Go, just be glad you’re getting ANY Pokemon this year. I don’t remember it personally, but apparently there wasn’t even close to a major Pokemon game each year. There were spinoffs of course, but you couldn’t get that mainline itch scratched as much as they are now. People are mad that they’re getting a game that they don’t like, and they’d also be mad if they didn’t get any game at all. It’s like a bunch of whiny babies who will flail their arms if they don’t get exactly what they want.

Again, not all fans are like this, but obviously the vocal ones are.

Going into Let’s Go more specifically, I feel like a lot of people’s complaints are just things that MIGHT be able to be interpreted as negatives, so they then go on and say they’re bad. The big one that definitely leaves a bad taste in people’s mouths, is that the whole “gamer” community seems to have such a gigantic vendetta against mobile games. They’re for the casual gamers, not the HARDCORE #GAMERS like us. They’re simple, and I want complexity. They’re popular, and I want to be unique. It’s fucking insufferable. And then, once they hear that their non-mobile franchise is connecting with a mobile aspect, they go buck fucking wild. How DARE they. How DARE they appeal to more people, and do things that are strictly better for business. That sort of ties in with that one new Diablo game, but that hate is a bit more vindicated since (as far as I understand it) it’s REPLACING the console/PC game, instead of being a sort of tie-in like Let’s Go. Phones definitely aren’t made for major games like that, so I can sort of understand it. Hell, I hate using my phone for normal phone things...

Anyways, a lot of the more specific criticisms are either specifically designed to fit the target audience, or are completely subjective. 

Talking about Let’s Go’s “Target Audience” is a pretty hefty topic, but it’s still a legitimate one. The game is not made for kids, nor for adults. It’s for people who either don’t know Pokemon and want to learn, or people who just want to play a casual, simple, and fun Pokemon game. GO players can fall into either of those categories.

For the former, things like forcing the player to catch certain types Pokemon to get into a gym, removing items and abilities, and especially only having the first 151 (Plus Meltan, Melmetal, and Alolan forms) help in that. There are over 800 Pokemon now, and many more abilities, moves, items, strategies... That’s so much to learn and adjust to for someone who knows nothing about the games. It’s intimidating, so these games help them adjust slowly to those things so they can delve deeper once they’re ready. Hell, personally, I think they shouldn’t have removed abilities and items for that purpose. They’re usually things that lie in the background, and can usually only be strictly good for you in a specific situation. You don’t usually have to work around them too much, meaning you might as well just keep them in so people can get used to them. Does it make the game bad? Not even close. Just because something could be better doesn’t mean they’re bad.

Then for the latter, things like the game being super easy comes to mind. I’ve NEVER enjoyed grinding. NEVER. I have no idea how some people could enjoy grinding. I will turn the EXP Share off from time to time if I feel like I’m at an okay level, but in general it’s super useful for me to not have to go through the painstaking process of fighting little wild Pokemon over and over again. I played through B2W2 recently, and for some reason I ended up super underleveled in that playthrough, and whenever I felt like I couldn’t beat someone, I had to go searching for Audino, running back and forth and back and forth until I saw shaking grass, and even then it wasn’t guaranteed to be there. Rinse and repeat many more times. That’s not fun, and people who think that is fun are one in a million, and honestly I’m jealous. 

Also when it comes to ease, the “Handholding” aspect. That’s the biggest term that’s thrown around nowadays, like it’s the be-all end-all of quality. A lot of the times, it’s not even where people say it is. In Let’s Go, obviously there is handholding, because people want their hands held to adjust to the vast world of Pokemon, as mentioned. But, going back to Gen 7, all of the cutscenes and map markers that point you where to go are NOT handholding. They’re just story. Believe it or not, people IRL will tell you where to go if you need to do something somewhere. That goes into my idea that any kind of story can either be Realistic or Good For Storytelling if they want to be good in quality, and either can be acceptable. But, that’s a rant for another day. Also, I explicitly remember just leaving behind Firered/Leafgreen as a kid because I didn’t know I needed to go to Cinnabar Island, or where to get the tea to give to that one guard. Telling you where you NEED to go is fine because you don’t always HAVE to go straight in that direction. Plus, it’s pretty damn commonplace in other games, so why is it suddenly bad here?

That’s another thought I had about how some people seriously hate some Pokemon games: They’re comparing them to other Pokemon games, not other games as a whole. As far as it seems to me, all Pokemon games are “good games.” Everyone goes to war about which generation is the best, completely forgetting that they all could be so much worse. Like mentioned, a ton of stuff they say is “bad” is very likely just something they don’t like, but either way they’re still so good. My least favorite generation is EASILY Gen 2, but Heartgold and Soulsilver are widely seen as the BEST games, and I can’t blame them. That’s TWO regions! I really only don’t like the Generation because I don’t really like any of the Pokemon, but basically everything else is clearly top-notch, for both a Pokemon game and any old game.

Some other ones:

The “Friendly Rival.” It’s completely subjective whether or not the rival should be an asshole. Saying it’s “bad” and blaming this petty thing for your dislike of the current games is extremely dumb. A lot of the people who say this are just looking for a reason to say something it’s bad, instead of just saying they “don’t like it”

The One-to-one scale replica of the original games. H.. how... How is this a negative? It’s a REMAKE! Sure, it would be nice if they freshened it up a bit, but it’s not necessary! All that “B-but it’s a different console with different needs!” is, again, just you trying to deny that you only don’t like the game. It does have different needs, and they met those needs. The scale of the world isn’t one of those needs.

The two new Pokemon designs (or just any design in general). I’m repeating myself here: You can’t just consume designs and know good designs. Even then, you’re still just trying to sound smart and not emotional. I’ll probably go more in detail about this later, since I’m actually trying to study character design (as much as possible at least) and this is actually where I know some things.

But, I guess the tie-in for all my ideas is that people are angry/worried that Let’s Go will be the future of the franchise. I actually have no idea how fucking stupid those people can be.

It’s not. Not even close.

They EXPLICITLY said that these games are not for hardcore fans, and THEIR game is going to be in 2019. They’re deviating from you people FOR A REASON. THEY KNOW THEY’RE DOING IT, AND THEY ARE NOT GOING TO KEEP IT THIS WAY. Seriously, they make one game that deviates from the norm, and all of a sudden people think that it’s “THE FUTURE OF THE FRANCHISE!!!” Sure, they might end up making Let’s Go versions of Johto or whatever in the future, but if they do then they’ll basically be spinoff-main games for casual people. The main-main games will stay as they are, and likely will become better if this is the case, since all the casual fans will go to Let’s Go, and the non-Let’s Go games can focus even more on the hardcore fans.

All in all, the existence of Let’s Go is an objective positive for the franchise. Stop whining, you’ll get your chance.

I’m gettin Let’s Go Eevee btw. I’m excited, since I’ve never actually played through Kanto in its entirety. I have Firered, but I never really got into it. I obviously know every point of it, but it’s obviously because it’s so famous. I never really liked the Kanto mons, but I can probably forge a team from them nowadays since I haven’t used them as much. I usually try to make teams of Pokemon I haven’t used before, mixed with Pokemon I just genuinely like. So far, I think I’m going to go somewhere along the ways of having Blastoise/Poliwrath, Primape, Nidoking, Dodrio, Rapidash, and obviously Eevee. I don’t know too much about where to find Ponyta, Squirtle, and Poliwag, but I’d say that’s my favorite team possible from the Kanto mons.