#the whole ost is amazing

[lilidawnonthemoon]

[almayver]

They really said new song every episode and btw they did that for me specifically. I will eat up every single song they give no complaints here, I don't care, I want more music actually, I def want more music from Gemini and Fourth I'm fucking thriving

[idiotsonlyevent]

i wish aa5+6 were direct sequels to aa4, creating an apollo-centric trilogy - maybe something like 5 focusing on klavier and 6 focusing on trucy and apollo's relationship w thalassa. the series would actually be so peak if we had a pheonix trilogy, an apollo trilogy (where phoenix is an important member of the supporting cast), the edgeworth duology, and then tgaa to top it all off....

instead, we have an apollo game - which could have been a major turning point for the series - but then basically everything that made the game good is ignored or sidelined to give us two Not Good phoenix wright games... its so sad! and the worst part is that it really feels like dd + soj has ruined some people's view of aa4 AND killed any momentum the series had for doing anything actually interesting with its characters.... i don't even know if aa7 can 'fix' this, even IF capcom does try to return to a more apollo-centric approach with it - which i unfortunately don't think is possible anyway 😔

[sketchinfun]

Hi-Fi Rush OST Reflection

Absolutely oved this part of the soundtrack as well 

[mirror-imaged]

massive win that the aesthetic of abandoned cruise liner with dingy and creepy atmosphere and really good music overlaps with two of my favorite games of all time

[kisasan]

[dramaism]

watched 1,5 seasons of the originals while i was on vacation and I've come to the conclusion:

one season of the originals >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> 8 seasons of the vampire diaries

[beevean]

Castlevania: Belmont’s Revenge

New Messiah

[nthflower]

Far Harbor ost is so so so good

[dandeliononthemoon]

after finishing nevertheless i had to take a day to process that (still processing btw, that series is intense in a way) and start with the last episode of see you in my 19th life and i was so right to do that because this damned series made my cry. yet again.

[ellsieee]

I Will Knock You went and used two tried and true secondhand embarrassment inducing Asian romance tropes in a row.

Kabedon and

The slip and catch with slo-mo stare.

But somehow they've turned the secondhand embarrassment into something quirky and endearingly amusing. Noey doing kabedon with the bags of meat he bought for his Mom in his hand was just uncool enough to be hilarious.

Then Thi falls down the stairs and the bag of meat flops onto his stomach and it's kind of slapstick and cringey but also so ridiculous it's funny.

I have a feeling this is going to be one of those series that's slightly cringey but in a funny and amusing way.

Thi is the epitome of 傻白甜 (someone who is silly, innocent/clueless and sweet). This is also slightly cringey but in Thi's case, endearing enough to overcome the cringe.

[drenched-in-sunlight]

*SoTE spoilers undercut

This is a continued discussion in light of Marika's newly discovered tragedy. It changes so many things about how we look at the story thus far but more importantly - the DLC story trailer, especially this scene:

think about how Messmer knows, very acutely, that at one point his mother could have been cut up and put in a jar. and that his other kins were not so lucky....... it gives that scene such a tragic edge.

he wasn't doing this just for the violence. this is his answer to Marika's love and all she has done for him. yeah it's not right, it's not justified, but as something done to avenge for the kind of pain she went through? it won't be logical nor right but it's something he will do again without hesitation.

the infirmary in Shadow's Keep shows that he's trying to care for and save whatever left of her people. their people.

the line he said in his armor set description hits different when you consider all that. he wants to be the heir to all her sorrow and all of her pain. wishing that he could alleviate even just a bit of the burden of her grief and survivor guilt.

i wonder if, when Marika hid him in the Land of Shadow, fearing people will judge him for the malevolent snake he carried, she raised him in her home village? this will explain why the Tree Sentinels guarding the village drop two Blessing of Marika - the blessing that specifically stated Marika made it for Messmer's sake and him alone. it will also explain how he knew of his Mother's tragic past and took it upon himself to carry out her wish of vengeance for her people.

(also if you wanted to get to Marika's village, you have to perform the O Mother gesture before her statue in his Shadow Keep, implying he's guarding the way to her home village as well.)

One other thing I like is that in the story trailer, the heroic music sounds like it's for Miquella. and it is, in a way. it is his boss music, but the lyrics has "Ave Marika Aeterna" (Hail, Marika The Eternal).

Given that the boss arena is where Marika - the sole survivor of a whole village, walked through to salvage the remains of her people, making them the symbol of her divine ascension, I wonder if that OST is actually for her - the God, the woman whose story is finally realized in this DLC, and those female voices singing in honour of her are the spirits of her fallen kins: cheering on their last hope for justice. Through this girl, those people who had been wronged and died there will live on eternally.

All this of course seems like such a charitable take on all this, after all Marika ended up being just like the oppressors who used to put her people in jars, but I think I just want to appreciate how the environmental storytelling of this DLC is simply amazing. and once you consider that this is, in the end, Marika's story, everything will make a lot more sense.

[renewedmotionforjudgment]

Huan Zhu Ge Ge (还珠格格), explained

Vox, don’t sue me for using this title.

Background: the other night, I suddenly had the OST stuck in my head. And I amaze my self by able to somehow sing the entire soundtrack?

Anyways, for those who either grew up in mainland China in the 90s or part the Chinese diaspora, Huan Zhu Ge Ge, princess returning pearl, was probably the OG idol historical. It’s adapted from a Qiong Yao novel. Huge hit across Asia. Influenced a whole generation.

Background plot — Xiao Yan Zi is a street orphan who met a girl named Zi Wei. Zi Wei turned out to be the daughter of Qian Long. Xiao Yan Zi accidentally gets mistaken as Zi Wei, takes on the title of princess, and hijinks ensues.

Tagging @huanzhuyulu for additions.

Anyways, this is Xiao Yan Zi

Perky, spunky, not super smart academically, and with a heart of gold. You know that female lead in idol cdramas these days? Xiao Yan Zi was the prototype. But also, she’s hilarious about Chinese proverbs.

This is Zi Wei

The prototype Ruby Lin character. I found Zi Wei rather corny when I was 7, TBH. Angsty back story involving being the unknown illegitimate daughter of the emperor, and then later getting whumped/tortured repeatedly by the empress.

This is the 5th Prince, Yong Qi

The emperor’s favorite son. The guy you thought would be the next emperor until you read anything about history. Smart and earnest. Xiao Yan Zi’s love interest.

(My first ever OTP!)

This is Fu Er Kang

Qian Long’s bodyguard. Zi Wei’s love interest. Done with Xiao Yan Zi and Yong Qi’s nonsense since episode 3 of season 1. He and Zi Wei had a lot of angsty moments that 7 years old me definitely was not into.

This is Jin Suo (on the right)

Zi Wei’s maid and BFF. Doubter of Xiao Yan Zi’s antics. Honestly not sure what personality she has other than “Fan Bing Bing is really pretty!”

This is Qian Long

Huang Ah Ma! The drama is Qian Long’s best publicist. Somehow manage to perv on women and threaten to off his kids, and is jovial enough that you spend your childhood going “what a loving father!”

This is Ling Fei

Yes, the same Ling Fei as Wei Yingluo from Yanxi. Super nice and motherly. The reason why my brain could not compute Ruyi for the longest time.

IN SUMMARY:

(Sorry, Er Tai — I don’t have enough GIF space to introduce you. Ditto, Qing Er. )

[saruslumber-01]

Quick take on Jiaoqiu’s trailer

As always, I love to take screenshots whenever there’s some images flashing and this time, I did the same thing.

Before I actually talk about the trailer, I want to point out how (to me at least), the theme/ost doesn’t really match him. Or rather, how he appears to be.

(Imo it’s a similar case to jade’s trailer, you’d think she’d have something more… idk tempting in a unsuspecting way, like when you believe you made an amazing deal, only to later meet the terrible consequences.

Well anyway, the thing that I noticed is that both in jade’s trailer [or at least splash art and references/motifs] and in jiaoqiu’s, they hold an apple in their hand. I get why in jade, but in jiaoqiu’s? That very weird to me)

(Here you go, the moment, I’m talking about ^)

What I ACTUALLY wanna talk about that caught my attention, is the eyes we see all over the trailer.

I get it, he always keeps them closed, but from the trailer it seems it was not just a stylistic choice to make him this way, but actual lore behind it. (Ofc I might be wrong since we still know NOTHING about his backstory, and I’ll probably talk more when I’ll read his char stories after his release)

Idk, to me this feels kinda weird to get his eye to pop out like that (and it reminds me of firefly’s trailer). Not only that, but we get a moment where we see a fox spirit (?) made out of fire which is oddly similar to Tail’s ‘true’ form (huohuo ult). AND then from the fox’s eye it smoothly transitions into jiaoqiu’s eye. Coincidence? I don’t think so.

To me, it might foreshadow that the “eye thing” that is going on with jiaoqiu is becase those are not his natural eyes. Rather, they’d ‘changed’ (idk how to explain that) into the golden ones, as if he got possessed by that fox spirit (or maybe I’m just reading into things too much, who knows).

More eyes screenshots (which kinda remind me of sunday AND bring us to my next point)

What I want to talk about is the placement of those eyes.

Please don’t tell me I’m the only one who didn’t think it looked somehow familiar…

Rings a bell now?

I also ‘circled’ the flower she has on her ‘crown’ as it resembled the anise jiaoqiu uses in his skill, and ALSO popped up a few times in the trailer.

I know I might be digging too deep, but I feel there something very eerie and off about jiaoqiu as a character in story, and as a playable character.

I’m sure everyone remember how jiaoqiu’s a cook, a healer, right? Then why on earth is he a nihility unit? I’ve seen sooo many people being confused about it, and I’m sure HoYo wouldn’t mention it that much, unless it was important to the story.

And before anyone goes and says “wdym phantylia got a new victim?” NO. That’s not what I’m talking about. I’m trying to prove that jiaoqiu isn’t probably just some random foxian who knows how to cook (and take care of feixiao). That there’s connections that all come back to the word “possessed”.

Tingyun? Possessed by phantylia (and spexulated to return in later versions)

Huohuo? Got her tail ‘possessed’ (I don’t remember too well, sorry) by Tail, AND in her trailer (which has a lot of flashing images and yin yang in there [I’ve got screenshots for both trailers to prove]) she is possessed by Tail, a heliobus. And what is a heliobus? Some kind of fox spirit! (Or at least I think so…)

What I’m trying to say is that there’s some kind of ‘possession’ when it comes to jiaoqiu.

(And another character that got flashing images and got possessed [outside of jade and huohuo] is sparkle! And don’t you agree that in terms of the overall vibes, their trailers does seem quite similar?)

So uh, yeah! That’s all I wanted to share.

I’ll probably do one more post for just the similarities in the trailers of jiaoqiu, jade, huohuo and maybe sparkle

Thanks for reading my ramblings and getting through to whole thing, I appreciate it a lot!

[waitmyturtles]

Hot Take: Be On Cloud and Sammon out GMMTV-ed GMMTV with that lame-ass 4 Minutes finale

(TW: Ummm, this ended up being a rant, so don't read this if you enjoyed that finale.)

WOW.

This is not the central thesis of this post at all, but I need to get this off my chest, FIRST OF AWL: GET AN ORIGINAL OST. WOW.

LIKE, ACTUALLY, I want to not get into this, but I actually need to talk about this for a second. ICONIC OSTs like, SAY, "Why Don't You Stay" or "Just Friend" (OR THE DARK BLUE KISS THEME SONG, THE BEST ONE) are meant to invoke THE SHOW FROM WHICH THAT SONG HAILS, AND THE FEELINGS THAT THAT PARTICULAR SHOW MADE ONE FEEL. WHAT THE FUCK WAS 4 MINUTES THINKING?! THIS SHOW WAS NOT KINNPORSCHE. NOT AT ALL. I FELT NO KP FROM 4 MINUTES. I hope Jeff Satur sues BOC for copyright infringement. ANYWAY.

I mean, this is gonna be messy, but in yet another case of shippy roooooomance, a kind of rooooomance that's supposed to leave us feeling like the central couple is worth redeeming against both the obstacles that the story gives them, AND/OR a weak script as well (I wrote about this recently during a rewatch of The Eclipse), I mean, BOC and Sammon just threw an otherwise really amazing storyline to the dogs.

We were supposed to get a lot of moral and ethical loops closed here. I would have been okay with a Ton Kla redemption! I would have been okay with Korn living the rest of his life in pain and suffering for neglecting Ton Kla! Instead, they're both "redeemed" by their own deaths?! I get Win being upset, but Win, you knew who you were sleeping with! Come awn!

AND. I'm supposed to believe that Great is worth redemption because he threw a corrupt government minister under the bus and prevented his parents from coming back to Thailand, while we see him walking away from a woman having a heart attack???? Like, THAT'S NOT GOOD!!!! He's had a messy life, but he's not necessarily a good person, folks!!! HELLO!!! "He's a good person?!" TYME?? Like, Great's hot, BUT LIKE, DON'T BE LIKE THAT, TYME, GURL, ACTUALLY LOOK THRU AT WHO YOU'RE DATING.

ALSO, TYME, HIPPOCRATIC OATH, DUDE. I KNOW YOU WANT THAT GUY DEAD, AND HE DESERVES BAD THINGS, BUT YOU CAN'T MAIM HIM PURPOSELY, HOMEY, YOU'RE ABOUT TO BECOME A PROFESSOR.

And LIKE, WHAT THE FUCK, putting a whole new story point about Warit's kidnapping from some dude named Wanchai who we don't even know, and finding out that Warit is a general?!?! It was JUST CONFUSING.

Also, Den dating a patient. I know medical ethics are probably different in Thailand, but they cannot be THAT DIFFERENT, friends, they can't (right? right?).

And. Finally. TYME GOT SHOT MULTIPLE TIMES IN THE CHEST AREA. He survived after two months of recovery?! HE SURVIVED POINT-BLANK SHOOTING?!?!?!??!?!?! AND GREAT SURVIVED HIS POINT-BLANK SHOOTING, TOO?!?!?!?!

LISTEN. LISTEN. I get that BOC wants GreatTyme together. JesBible are a good pair. It's fine Great and Tyme are together. It's nice.

But there was an ACTUAL storyline, told WONDERFULLY for seven episodes, that had these characters in moral and ethical chokeholds that could have received different and very much more appropriate endings. This is fiction, of course, but the moral and ethical prisons these characters were in were very real-to-life by way of what humans value, and how you balance those values against the real-time decisions that humans need to make for themselves and their families.

Instead, BOC took the wild GMMTV playbook of late (The Eclipse, 23.5, Only Friends, Wandee Goodday, even Last Twilight and My Precious) and just railroaded ethical explorations for, my GAWD, guitars and boats. GUITARS AND BOATS! If either Great or Tyme had died, how would the story have expressed regret, uncommunicated feelings, unsolved mysteries?

The ending sucked the mystery out of this series, and frankly, made light of the fact that we were not in a Series Y for seven-eighths of a runtime, only to truly suck us back into Y territory -- real, sugary, cheesy Y territory, GUITARS, THE KP OST OMG -- that just clashed with the tonality of what was shaping up to be a great queer crime murder mystery show. GMMTV already does this. BOC did not need to go there.

Funny that some of us are watching Kidnap now, and commenting (I'm stealing @shortpplfedup's words here) that Kidnap is not a crime BL, but a crime BL. Kidnap knows what it is: it is shaping up to be a fun, unserious Y series that's centered around two himbos not really understanding the consequences of their decisions, and being googly while doing it. It seems to be taking its unseriousness seriously. Good on GMMTV for taking initiative there.

4 Minutes? 4 Minutes needs moral closure, not sappy romance. I could have used a hint that we were gonna get punked earlier. I wouldn't have taken this show as seriously as I did if I had known otherwise.

[koboldfactory]

One again reminded that there is nothing quite like the Sonic Adventure soundtrack. So many songs that are needlessly long and complex in a good way. Like Red Hot Skull for Red Mountain is only heard for like a minute tops in game if you're slow but all of the ultra cool stuff in that song is after the 1:30 mark. Just so many masterful tracks that you don't get to appreciate unless you go and listen to the whole OST outside of the game.

Gonna put some of my favorites (that aren't like major popular tracks) below the break. I am begging you to listen to these if you haven't before and/or if you have any interest in game music in general.

you practically never hear the stuff after a minute in to this song and it's incredible:

And this song literally only plays in the last room of a level for 2 seconds unless you replay it because the flag is broken for the previous area to activate it:

And of course nothing will be able to match the incredible somber melancholy of Gamma's theme:

This song has one of the strongest openings of all time:

Another amazing track that only plays for like 7 seconds in a cutscene:

The regular boss themes in this game don't get enough credit for how awesome they are:

There's far more that I would put on here if I could, but this post is long enough so I'll just end with this: