#And like I guess it's not a big deal if there's no payoff I will just be sad about it :( | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

sullustangin · 11 months

Text

SWTOR 7.3 Feedback

Non-spoilery stuff first

No technical glitches that I experienced on two playthroughs on Pubside. Minus one or two moments with Odessen NPCs wandering around, nothing broke the game or immersion. All the quests worked for credit; I had the weekly for Ruhnuk not work the time round, so this was nice.

I am aware that there are some financial changes they’re trying to patch back. Basically, too much is being charged between trades with other players directly and when mailing to alts. Also! There is now a 30-day cooldown period between joining a guild and being able to access the guild bank. So get those alts in sooner rather than later, especially if you plan on raiding/doing group stuff with them.

On the Gunslingers and Snipers you now have a 2% per 3 seconds passive heal while in cover -- level 64 option. This is a big deal for survivability for these two classes. I ran dailies and set my companion to DPS. I had to pause and heal the comp after combat, not myself. No more glass cannon, but this might be nerfed soon, since it’s a little op. I’m going to have fun with it while I can.

If you love the Mantellian Privateer or Mira’s Armor from KOTOR II but can’t afford either on Cartel Market, good news: the Mira set from Bounty Association (the event that comes around every 1-2 months) is now unlockable in collections. So if you have a Mando char that goes hard on Bounty week, you now have a new cert sink + unlock with Cartel Points for the whole account. There are some subtle differences in the outfits for the discerning Space Barbie player.

The Date Nights don’t happen in this patch; I would guess it will probably be activated during Night Life in July. Speculation on my part, though

Non-Spoilery Plot Stuff: A lot of characters that we had the previous option to kill are present in this patch. This really gives me hope for future content; I previously complained that Bioware was writing to the deadest version of the game (where they assume everyone is dead and only work with Lana). We got A LOT of coverage with ‘optional’ characters, so this does give me hope for the future writing: assume everyone is alive, and some people get less content. I’ll talk about what that means later for this patch.

Onward to spoilery stuff.

Torian does get an Alliance alert, which his ba’vodu Eva answered; this is unromanced I feel good about the Torian piece I just reblogged, because it seems consistent with what we see here. Torian thought the drama over his father was over, the shame was done, the name redeemed -- and there is all is, resurrected from the dead. Even more content with our neighborhood Mando really does make me want equivalent content with Vette; given that (shitty) decision was almost 7 years ago now and we JUST got a storyline with payoff for that choice, Vette needs some love now, romantic or platonic, beyond Date Night.

The only downside to letting Torian live at the moment, especially if you’re a smug or bh, is that you lose quality screen time with Akaavi Spar on Ruhnuk. She comes to your rescue in the final fight. I also feel as if this scene should have been back with the 6.2 content drop, when the banner is first stolen, but it does work here as well, with the burning of it compounding all of Torian’s feelings about his history.

While Eva does hate that burnt tater thot, the content for Arcann was really good. I actively wonder if they are pulling things from the aborted third KotXX expansion. THIS is the character development many of us wanted to see before romancing him: we wanted to see the realization of what he’d done, the desire to fix things, the acknowledgement it may never be enough for some people. Ding Ding Ding! I did view both versions of the Darth Nul investigation -- I killed him on DS Eva and let him live on my sunshine and Rainbows LS smug Dyo -- and the version with Arcann in it is so much better. You also get an additional scene with him; romanced folks get a hug!

Like the Torian scene, this Arcann development probably should have been earlier in the plotline, but WAAAAY earlier -- like 6+ years. I think before the romance trigger, most definitely, but at least by the time of Nathema, especially if the Commander takes any of his advice to heart regarding Theron. I think this falls to fan fic writers to fix, in terms of char dev.

As I mentioned above, both of these guys are killable. And they got some great content this patch. The story feels better with both of them in it.

As for our dynamic duo, Lana and Theron do show up and play a vocal role with Shae in regard to the interrogation of Malgus. Theron does get to call Shae out on her working with Malgus to sack Coruscant 2x years ago (I have no idea what year we’re in since COVID screwed everything up). We also get wonderfully protective partners in Lana and Theron. Theron makes a comment that the work among other “benefits” keep him young if you’ve romanced him -- poor Lana. There is noticeable smoldering going on between him and the romanced PC. Theron does provide significant dialogue content and reaction shots, even though he’s killable. And of course you get a Theron letter, which alludes to Date Night. In sum, I don’t think Theron was at all side-lined compared to Lana.

The one weak part of all this is the tenuous connection between the Voss and Malgus’s plans. In part, it’s becacuse Sana Rae had to be on Voss and decided to kill a few birds with one stone (or one Commander). It boils down to a vision in which the PC saves the galaxy again. We do get the tidbit that if we outright kill Malgus, things happen faster, but ‘things’ are ‘inevitable.’ Some of the ‘mundane’ quests verge on the ridiculous, but Star Wars always stomps on character hubris when it can.

Did I enjoy going back to Voss? Yup. Did it make sense, given the nature of the Arcann content? Yup; if you didn’t spare Arcann, this feels more contrived than if you did, in my opinion. If I recall correctly, Voss was supposed to be visited in an earlier expansion but that was also canned.

The transition from Bioware to Broadsword may be bringing old things back to life to ‘finish’ the game -- or start a new beginning. I remain optimistic. I will say that the old story of Voss and the new story post Eternal Empire does spin together well.

Good patch, in my opinion, minus the issues with the economic system that are ongoing.

#swtor #swtor 7.3 #swtor 7.3 spoilers #torian cadera #arcann #theron shan #lana beniko #voss #arcann tirall #space barbies

21 notes · View notes

my-mt-heart · 4 months

Note

They wanted Daryl to grow... "Melissa wanted to be on the show"... "It was always the plan"... Excuse me, if that would be true, they're idiots. There're 100 ways to let Daryl grow alone and they'd done it for years on the main show while separating those two. The only truth in those three statements are the first two. They wanted a Daryl show and they knew Melissa wanted to do the spinoff. Obviously, she didn't fit in.

In one of the newest interviews of Norman, he said, both are going separate ways, the show will be about their story until they'll reunite. Yes, why not from the beginning? Because it might not have been the plan?

By separating them, they had the chance to let him grow but even that failed in the first season. He didn't grow, he went back to that redneck from years ago but forgot about his childhood trauma and some weird scenes were born.

Not seeing the nun on the bts pics might mean, A, she died during the first part of the shoot or B, they're hiding her like Melissa at first. B could be very unfuriating and I still don't trust the writers and EP.

If one event seemed to be a timetable, that's the final event and TTD afterwards. Nothing was settled then and MMBs future on the show still unknown.

They wanted the Daryl show, they got it and they had to pay for their pettiness. I hope they're finally able to accept they're idiots with too big egos.

The excuse that Carol's absence allowed Daryl to grow is exactly that, an excuse. Not a very believable one, just like when Gimple tried to say Carl's death in S8 was important for Rick's growth. Between him, Norman, and Nicotero, I'm really tired of hearing them defend the absolutely nonsensical choices they made for whatever personal agendas each of them had, and I'm tired of AMC letting them. I'm tired of the lack of concern for Melissa's professional reputation and for fans. Carylers look to these characters for strength and hope. They don't want to be treated like they're weak, undervalued, unheard, or unlikely to get what they want.

To me, it sounds like Norman and Nicotero wanted the spinoff to feel like the glory days of TWD, which is not the wrong way to go at all, except they thought they had to "reset" the character, having him behave the same way he did in S2, which like you said is the opposite of growth, plus it cheapens everything we saw him experience throughout the rest of the flagship show. Case in point, the childhood abuse. Case in point, his relationships with Carol, Rick, Judith and RJ, Lydia, I could go on.

I'm happy to see Melissa/Carol get the hero arc she's owed, so I'm not too bothered by separate arcs in S2, but it's frustrating at the same time since there are only six episodes and the wait has already been hard. My biggest concern is the potential unevenness of the arcs. I don't want to watch Carol go to the ends of the earth for Daryl while he's second guessing where he belongs. I don't want their reunion to be anticlimactic or ambiguous. The payoff needs to be huge, and like you, I'm having a hard time trusting any of the EPs other than Melissa. I know she'll push for the story Carol/Caryl deserve, but the level of misogyny and gatekeeping I'm seeing makes me extremely wary.

Melissa's deal closed at the end of last year, roughly when AMC sent out a survey regarding the title, so they were well aware of her future on the show, but still decided giving the male EPs what they wanted was more important than giving fans the Caryl show they were promised. I'm worried that they still aren't doing anything to fix the problem.

#caryl #carol peletier #melissa mcbride #darylneedscarol #twd caryl #the book of carol

11 notes · View notes

kitkatt0430 · 11 months

Note

Congrats for managing to finish The Flash! You're braver than any U.S marine, tbh. I left it when I could, lmao. It's been. . . wild seeing how it played out. Okay, here's a fun question: top 10 missed opportunities they failed to take. And which of those you wish to explore in fic? I'm sorry if this is a lot but yeah.

P.S: Eddie is genuinely back and alive??? No B.S?? I am shookth.

Thank you. I get most of my courage from my dog, who lets me rant to her about poor plotting when I watch Flash episodes as long as I give her scritches and encourage her vendetta with the squirrels. :D

Hmmm, Top Ten Missed Opportunities...

In no particular order

1.) Not bringing Harry back in S5. He still had a lot more story to tell and exploring how he learns to live with his new disabilities would have been better than what we got with Sherloque. I mean, the new Wells always winds up growing on me because Tom always had a lot of fun bringing the Wells variants to life, but Harry leaving the Team was very abrupt and his story wasn't done. And now it'll always be this big question mark hanging over the character.

This is definitely something I'd be interested in exploring in fic. I've done so already to very small degrees, but it's definitely something I want to take a deeper look at eventually.

2.) Leonard Snart leading the Rogues. There was the build up and no payoff, thanks to the Legends stealing Len and then killing him off. Leonard Snart and his Rogues are a big deal in the comics, so not having that group come together as a legitimate threat to Barry in the show is always going to be a big disappointment. It meant no more Lisa Snart too, which was really unfortunate.

Guess I'm just gonna have to keep writing my 'Rogues as a dysfunctional found family' fics and imagining what could have been.

3.) Failing to give Cisco a proper send off. After promising an interesting plot for Cisco before S7 began, the build up for him leaving was basically a series of background events in other people's stories. His final episode, though very fun, felt very much like they'd forgotten Carlos was leaving the show until the last minute and had to scramble to send off Cisco.

I've kind of written around the issue, but for me the fix fic is Cisco not leaving at all. So I don't think a proper send off story is in the works for me to write.

4.) Making Frost a lesbian. After failing to keep Hartley in the pilot and having a queer character on the main cast from the start, they should have had an openly queer character on the show at some point. Frost would have been a great choice for this and it would have avoided the relationship with Mark Blaine who was a character that never should have joined the main cast. Allegra being queer would have been lovely too. Or Chester. Just... someone ought to have been out.

Of course they're all queer characters when I write them, so... :D

5.) Never fixing the STAR Labs building. It's a little thing, but restoring the building would have been a great metaphor for the team pulling back together after a time of upheaval. Or perhaps showing the differences in the timeline after Flashpoint.

I did address this point. With squirrels. :D

6.) Taking away Cisco's powers instead of developing them further. Cisco's powers in the comics are truly phenomenal and watching Cisco grow from fearing them to enjoying them on screen was lovely. The abrupt one-eighty on his feelings towards his powers in S5 looks far too much like a bad reaction to breaking up with Cynthia and reeks of the show runners not knowing how to handle writing Vibe. After all that build up for Cisco as Vibe, throwing it down the drain was a massively wasted opportunity.

Giving Cisco back his powers or having him never ditch them at all is definitely something I feature in my fanfics with Cisco that take place in S5 or afterwards.

7.) Not making Hartley more like his comics self. They had every opportunity to grow his character, especially when they reintroduced him post Crisis. And they never did despite clearly being aware the comics character is a much beloved one.

Hartley fix-its are definitely a favorite flavor of my fanfic writing, however. And my fanfic reading. :D

8.) Wally 'graduating' from Kid Flash to Flash. Wally is one of the more popular Flashes in the comics and he deserved to have that acknowledged on the show.

This is something I'll get around to writing fix-its for eventually. I still can't believe the show ended and Wally is still just Kid Flash with the yellow and red suit.

9.) Not having children as metas. We got Frankie, but that's basically it. (Jax was a high school student in 2013, but had graduated by the time he showed up in S2.) The accelerator had to have affected children. Teens sneaking out at night, late night school events like band concerts, younger siblings at football games, etc...

I'm not great at writing kids, but addressing the lack of children as metas is something I want to write. Such as my much younger Joss Jackam that I want to return to at some point. (Also because that version of Mark Mardon is adorable too.)

10.) Only having Flashpoint as a single episode. Flashpoint was a big deal in the comics and would have been a lot more impactful if it had been a longer arc.

Personally, I think the resolution to Flashpoint should have been tied into Nora's death coming full circle for Barry. Though I did think the episode where that night did come full circle was well done. But eventually I will wind up writing my own version of both Flashpoint and how Barry came to tell his S1 self not to stop Eobard from murdering Nora.

And, yup, Eddie's alive again in canon. He's been thoroughly mind screwed by the Negative Speed Force and is still it's Avatar, but destroying the N!SF's crystal and actively choosing not to hate Barry - to set aside his resentment over the life he didn't get to have - seems to have had a profound affect on the interior of the N!SF. Hopefully Eddie's innate good nature will have prove to cause a permanent change to the N!SF itself, making them allies for Team Flash in the future. Though, as Eddie noted, he's not always going to agree with Barry or want to do things Barry's way, so... it's an interesting place to leave him even if I disagree with how he got there.

#kitkatt0430 answers #the flash #fandom meta #the flash meta #kitkatt0430 rambles #season 9 spoilers

11 notes · View notes

theowritesfiction · 1 year

Text

'The Guru'

I'll be honest... this new, happy and positive Zuko creeps me out. I don't trust him at ALL. It's honestly like he has been utterly brainwashed by the Dai Li. Hmm... he was in the catacombs under the lake, right? Maybe that's what happened... hence the fever, nightmares and now this 100% personality change!

Sokka's reunion with the Water Tribe warriors and his dad... I'm not crying, ur crying! I honestly had forgotten that Sokka gets his sense of 'humor' from his dad. The warriors in the camp totally look exhausted by dealing with Hakoda's jokes for months. :) Still, Sokka being treated like a man by his dad... it means the world to him <3

I love Azula and the dangerous ladies on their infiltration mission. King Kuei is still a dolt, though. Even if these Kyoshi Warriors were not impostors, why would you blurt out about your invasion plans just like that? Maybe not everyone needs to know about it? The scene with Azula plotting the coup and Ty Lee joking around with Mai and admiring Azula's confidence... it's an almost domestic dangerous ladies moment and I love it.

Watching Azula's plans unfold is just so incredibly satisfying. The setup of letting the Dai Li overhear Mai and Ty Lee... perfect. And obviously, I love the scene of Katara telling the 'Kyoshi Warriors' that the Fire Nation have infiltrated the city. Especially because she recognizes Azula by looking her in the eyes... interesting, very interesting. <3

Aang's lessons with Pathik are quite fascinating. Pathik torturing Aang with the banana and onion juice is a big part of the fun. But the issue of unlocking the final chakra is something I heavily dislike. That Aang would refuse to embrace his lessons and get rid of his earthly attachments, when the girl he thinks he loves has shown very few signs of being romantically interested in him... ugh, just no. And I really hate the eventual payoff of all this, when Aang got to unlock his full powers without sacrificing anything in return. He literally was handed his cake and got to eat it too. And to me, that's not satisfying storytelling. Learning to give up his one-sided crush would have been a far more powerful and wholesome message other than 'oh I guess I'll just not unlock my full potential necessary to save the world because of the girl who so far has acted like I'm her baby brother 99% of the time'. Aang gets 100 Jerk Points for not completing his training.

Also, I hate how in this way the narrative places second hand burden of guilt and responsibility on Katara for this. The viewers are being manipulated into thinking that because Aang gave up all this for her, she is now obliged to get with him. Gross.

Watching Toph figure out metalbending is just pure awesomeness. I have nothing else to say about that. She's just that damn impressive. It's not even hubris or exaggeration when Toph states that she's the most powerful earthbender that's ever lived. I believe her 100%. Also, she just locked two grown men into a tiny steel coffin and left them to die. <3

The ending is fantastic as well, with Azula letting Long Feng believe that he's in control. Azula is such an icon when it comes to episode endings. You can't go wrong with that ominous smile or a smirk.

Jerk Points for Book 2:

Iroh, Long Feng - 560 Azulon - 300 Aang - 290 Ursa, General Fong - 200 Zuko, Toph - 120 Ozai, King Kuei - 100 Sokka - 70 Bumi, Lao Beifong - 50 Pakku - 30

#my atla rewatch #atla book 2 #the guru

28 notes · View notes

murfpersonalblog · 1 year

Text

My Ranking of Anne Rice's Books

Full disclosure: My ranking is totally not based on the quality of AR's writing (which I absolutely love); it's just reflecting my own personal preferences for certain characters, plots, and themes. Some of her books I deliberately chose not to read; while some I only read once and didn't care for them, hence their low rank on my list. (I saw the Feast of All Saints movie but never read the book.)

S Tier: The Witching Hour, The Vampire Armand, Taltos, The Wolf Gift, The Wolves of Midwinter, Blood Communion

A Tier: Cry to Heaven, Servant of the Bones, Blackwood Farm, Prince Lestat, Queen of the Damned, Memnoch the Devil

B Tier: Realms of Atlantis, The Vampire Lestat, Lasher

C Tier: Blood & Gold, Interview with the Vampire, The Mummy

D Tier: Blood Canticle, Tale of the Body Thief, Merrick, Angel Time, Of Love and Evil, Pandora, Vittorio, Violin

(I used the tier template here as my base.)

MY THOUGHTS (I tried not to spoil anything):

S Tier: Spectacular!

13/10 The Witching Hour

My favorite Anne Rice book. The plot was utterly insane. The buildup surrounding the mystery of The 13, and the Door, and what exactly Lasher was and what he wanted was SO good. I thought Rowan was a effing idiot, but I LOVED seeing Michael slowly realize what his purpose was, in the face of this loooong tragic history about the "eunuch" Mayfair husbands. Julien Mayfair is really the GOAT! I was on the edge of my seat; it's a legitimately scary ghost story! IMO Lasher is AR's best villain, cuz he's so awful. (I'm waiting for Season 1 of AMC's Mayfair Witches to finish before I watch it--I'm already bummed from the changes I heard about. [EDIT] I watched it, and it's trash. 🤦)

10/10 The Vampire Armand

I am HELLA biased. TVA was one of the very first AR books I read in full, and I was hooked. Marius/Armand are my favorite vampire ship, leave me alone--the Renaissance was a different time; read a book. Armand and Lestat are my fave vamps, cuz they're both fabulous and crazy. But I empathized with Armand more, because he was so YOUNG. I saw the IWTV movie before I read TVA, and was so shocked that he was just a kid! (Antonio Banderas was fiiiiine AF though!) I was fascinated by Marius since TVL, and getting to see him in his natural habitat was such a treat, as he tried to deal with his feelings for his beloved black-winged angel/demon Amadeo. Plus we got to learn A LOT about the Children of Satan/Darkness, and it was SO effed up what happened with M/A & Santino.

10/10 Taltos

This is the payoff I was waiting for after The Witching Hour. I could care less about Lasher--ASHLAR was precisely the type of Taltos I wanted to know more about. I loved getting his perspective on all the Celtic lore about the Picts and Stonehenge, and the dwarves, etc--it was so mythological; I love it. And the whole icky background about the Talamasca, and the lengths they went through to get the Taltos together...dang. SUCH a good story. 10/10.

10/10 The Wolf Gift & The Wolves of Midwinter

These two are tied--the WoMW sequel flows perfectly from TWG, and I never read one without reading the other immediately after. AR is famous for her vampires, but IMO her werewolves are her very best immortals. They're just really well-adjusted to immortality, and are a big happy wholesome family, the way the rest of her immortal species are NOT. Like, there are very few setbacks to being an AR werewolf, compared to other types of supernatural--especially if you have Margon and the Goldings looking after you (Stuart, you lucky bum!). I want to live at Nideck Point, throwing holiday festivals and carousing with the woodland creatures. I guess kinda like WoMW slightly more, because it continues following the pack as they settle in together, but TWG sets up AR's werewolf universe so perfectly that it gives it that slight edge.

10/10 Blood Communion

I hate that AR was so nasty to fanfic authors and scared a lot of the fandom away, cuz all I want is 500k+ on The Chateau Era, as the vampires live together being fancy and lavish and finally getting their ish together. Blood Communion only gave me a taste of that, cuz it was so dang short (the illustrations were such a cute touch!). But my favorite part was definitely when Armand flipped the eff out over Marius--I was like YES! FINALLY!!!! ^0^ I was so tired of this will they/won't they thing that had stretched out between M/A ever since QoTD, and I just wanted them to come clean about how they REALLY felt. Plus, I was glad/relieved that Louis & Lestat finally ironed everything out; I felt really bad for them, for once! I just wanted more, but I kinda felt Blood Communion was likely where AR was gonna end everything, and TBF it was a really good stopping point.

A Tier: Awesome!

9.5/10 Cry to Heaven

Who knew reading about castrati could be HOT!? This book made me cry--the title was apt! Guido is one of my favorite AR characters; I felt so bad for him!!! Tonio reminds me a lot of Armand, but...I felt worse for Armand? Like, yeah, being castrated sucks, but Tonio got to have this amazing career, and the book ends on a high note--LOL! But Armand was literally psychologically tortured for 300+ years and never really recovers--he gets Trinity Gate & Night Island & his coven, but he's clearly unhinged and maladjusted. I just felt that Tonio was lucky to have a support system in Guido & his patrons, and Armand was decidedly more unlucky, and hence more tragic? Whatever--this was a really good book, even without any supernatural elements.

9.5 Servant of the Bones

I looooooove this book~! I'm a sucker for mythology and world religions and immortality and all of it--this was SO GOOD. If supernatural creatures were real, I legit think AR might be on to something--you can't tell me SOMEONE didn't do human sacrifices like that, trying to make their own "genie" or whatever. VERY Solomon's Ring. And I love how AR threw in all these historical events & characters--making deals with the "devil." It was so creepy; yet thoroughly tragic, as usual with this woman. I just wish we got a bit more clarification on what exactly Azriel was--cuz there's NO WAY he's an angel/djinn/demon, if everything that happened in Memnoch & Angel Time was legit. Is he just an incredibly powerful GHOST, like Lasher??? 🤷 (Azriel would beat the dog snot out of Lasher in a fight, IMO. He's just way more experienced.)

9.5 Blackwood Farm

I LOVE AR's ghost stories. Between Amel, Lasher, Azriel, and Goblin, I pitied Goblin the most. He's VERY similar to Amel, but because of the way he was created, and how he had to exist, I just really felt for him and just wanted to give him a HUG--my poor baby! :( I enjoyed seeing Lestat in a domestic sphere, with the grandma tryna adopt this whole vampire living under her roof, cuz the Blackwoods are like: meh, what's another spook; we're used to weird shenanigans in this family. XD And Mona Mayfair--she won me over here, cuz I did NOT like her around Michael & Rowan; get friends your own age, brat. I'm mad at what AR did with Merrick Mayfair though, like really???

9.5 Prince Lestat

AMEL. O_O I was already fascinated by whatever Amel was when Maharet gave her backstory in QoTD, but once AR started fleshing (LOL!) him out in the Prince Lestat trilogy I was like yaaaaaaaas~! I need DETAILS! As much as I like the other VC books, I really enjoy reading QoTD and PL back to back, cuz it's just a natural continuation of what happened to ALL the vampires afterwards. And it's effed up. Lestat's one bold soul, cuz I would NEVER.

9/10 Queen of the Damned

The hype was real! Maharet's lovely, but Mekare's the GOAT. I was TOTALLY on board with Akasha's plan though, NGL. But you could tell that she was crazy, too. However, getting Amel's perspective in the later books, and seeing what happened with Rhoshamandes, I sympathize with Akasha even more, cuz how much of that was REALLY her???? But yeah, she had to go. (I cannot wait to see who AMC casts--no one can beat Aaliyah's performance, but I want to see them at least try to prove me wrong.) However, the build up to the concert and facing Akasha was a bit too drawn out for my liking (I could care less about Tough Cookie and Killer and all the random AF auxiliary vampires that showed up at Armand's, or the compound. And I DO NOT like Devil's Minion--I love Armand to pieces, but Daniel was INSANE, and vampirism ALMOST turned him into another Nicky, which I was NOT feeling).

8.5/10 Memnoch the Devil

Dante's Inferno meets Dracula. I like this book. But it was confusing, because I was like what was the point? I would've tried WAY harder to keep Lestat in Hell, if I was serious about making THE Devil's Minion. I felt like MtD was an elaborate excuse for AR to bench Lestat, so she could focus on Armand & Marius & Louis for a few books. Like, we know Lestat's trash, but dang--just leaving him on the floor like that? XD And Memnoch's even more mysterious than Azriel in SotB, cuz what is he really? He was able to psychologically torture Lestat in that church from...another dimension?? WHERE was Lestat's eyeball REALLY? Were they LEGIT demons? Like...? Cuz I had the same questions about Louis in Merrick, like, was what he was seeing REAL? We know powerful vampires like Armand can use the Mind Gift to create whole worlds in people's heads. So who knows what actually happened to Lestat.

B Tier: Bravo!

8/10 Realms of Atlantis

I like the alien plot--SUE ME. It's weird AF, and I don't really like what happened to Amel (I'm undecided about trusting that he's redeemable and if he can be excused for being a literal MENACE), but I enjoyed getting those final answers. In TVA Armand said he saw a city of glass when he turned, and I nearly jumped out of my seat when I read RoA, cuz it tracks! And the alien parasites made sense. Look at what happens when regular HUMAN ghosts gained autonomy in AR's books. Look at GOBLIN in BwF. Look at Memnoch even--whatever he is [EDIT: I'm not buying AR's weak AF retcon that he's a ghost Replimoid, cuz then what was Angel Time for?]. Of course a whole extraterrestrial species would have drastic consequences on humans.

8/10 The Vampire Lestat

A must-read for context and mining information, but TVL's never been a book I ever go back to just cuz I want to reread it for funsies. But I enjoyed it WAY more than IWTV, mostly cuz the tone was drastically different.

8/10 Lasher

Anne Boleyn. Really? XD And folks wanna complain about aliens? XD I was not here for Lasher--let the devil speak and tell his story blah blah blah. I was with Michael the whole time, just counting down to when Lasher would stfu already so we could get back to business. There was NOTHING Lasher could say to make me care. Regardless of what he was when he was alive, in death he was thoroughly EVIL. Lasher's a very interesting parallel with Lestat, who was also very religious and wanted to be a priest and was physically & prematurely ripped from his home and from his life. And yes, vampires are mass murderers, and Lestat likely killed way more people than Lasher. And they're both totally selfish; parasites feeding off the living. But it's the METHOD that bothers me with Lasher. Vampires killing just to drink blood is one thing. But Lasher RUINED that family--it was SICK, the things he did to the Mayfairs--both in the past, and present. He DELIBERATELY drove people crazy and abused people for sport and strategically hunted the "eunuch" husbands and turned women into his sex toys, and god knows what he was up to with Julien--and for WHAT??? Lasher was NOTHING like St. Ashlar, and it shows. Bye, Felicia.

C Tier: Can't Love It

7/10 Blood & Gold

I was so hyped for Blood and Gold, cuz Santino was just a PLAGUE upon these poor vampires! I got a lot of answers that I really wanted after TVA, but I understand why some people hate Marius, cuz really my guy?????? It really is his way or the highway. I still love Marius, but my opinion of him definitely dropped quite a few notches--I was PISSED at him just like Armand was, all the way up to Blood Communion.

7/10 Interview with the Vampire

Groundbreaking, iconic, never done before, etc etc. But IWTV is one of my least favorite AR books. I honestly think she just got better as she kept writing. But also the tone of IWTV, and especially Louis as a character just never appealed to me. Louis never had a personality other than bitterness, like…. I just couldn't relate to him at all, like what are you complaining about???? If you hate being a vampire so dang much, END IT. Lestat honestly impressed me (Armand's patience was impressive too!), cuz I'd've been GONE, and left Louis to his own devices; eff how pretty he is. The movie--as fun and awesome as it is--definitely didn't improve my opinion of Louis; he was even more mopey, wtf! (AMC's IWTV handled Louis BRILLIANTLY, and went a LONG way endearing me to Louis, where I absolutely LOVE him now--protect Louis at all costs!)

6/10 The Mummy

This was REALLY good, until it wasn't. I got similar vibes with SotB, as ancient civilizations grappled with magic and immortality and the divine and the dead/undead--my bread and butter. But Ramses just reads as way more naive and clumsy than Azriel. It got tiresome, seeing Ramses scramble to fix all the mistakes he kept making, like omg dude--LEARN. And what was the purpose of that girl? Whatever her name was. Like...yawn. And then Cleopatra.... 🤦 Why is she so evil? Is it just the brain damage? What a walking disaster--and Ramses was AGAIN at fault! I couldn't take anymore, it got frustrating.

D Tier: Didn't Care

4/10 Blood Canticle

This book was DEPRESSING. First of all, I honestly don't understand why Lestat was even there? Just let Quinn & Mona & Rowan & Michael deal with it--a drug/gun cartel? REALLY? Morrigan! Ashlar was one thing, but come on, REALLY?? I was so bummed! Then Rowan had the NERVE--! I was disgusted. I never liked her, but even the scraps of empathy I felt for her EVAPORATED. Poor Michael! :(

4/10 Tale of the Body Thief

I was squicked out. There was nothing appealing about this situation. If he was in his OWN body, like if Dr. Fareed could "cure" vampirism, that would be one thing, but this was just...no. And poor David! I liked Mojo though?

4/10 Merrick

God, spare me. I never liked Louis in the books, so this was just one long psychological torture experience I wasn't feeling. Especially since I couldn't really be sure if the ghost was legit when I first read it. But having read so much more of AR's ghost stories, I'm more convinced now that it was the genuine ghost that had it out for Louis, which is awful, cuz that really puts into perspective what was going on in NOLA vs Europe/Paris. So, I feel bad for him--but the most interesting part was getting Lestat's reaction.

3/10 Angel Time

I barely remember what this book was about. It was a murder mystery in a hotel near a church in Cali somewhere and an angel selects some assassin because....? IIRC he went back in time and infiltrated a pogrom or something disguised as a monk? And.... I...don't remember.

-/10 Of Love and Evil

I own it, but literally don't even remember what this was about.

3/10 Pandora

I could care less about Pandora/Lydia/whatever her name was. I do not like this woman. I get that she's bitter about Marius ditching her, but omg. Stop. You don't see Bianca complaining; get over it already. There was something about bees and the Talamasca and Pandora being worshipped and....something.

-/10 Vittorio

I own it, but I literally don't even remember what this was about.

-/10 Violin

This was an impulse buy. I was so hyped at first, cuz I thought this was gonna be about Nicky and Lestat. Then I actually read the summary, and was immediately like wtf. But I gave it a go cuz there's wibbly wobbly timey wimey ghost stuff going on, but.... Nah.

Thanks for reading!

#anne rice #the vampire chronicles #the vampire armand #the vampire lestat #mayfair witches #interview with the vampire #anne rice ftw #i love myself some anne rice but #fanfiction #headcanon

19 notes · View notes

popculturebuffet · 11 months

Text

Breaking Cat News Years 4 and 5: Archived Footage (Patreon Review for Emma Fici)

Hello all you happy people and welcome back to my look at one of the best comic strips of all time, breaking cat news!

This time as you can probably guess by the title we're going back to go forward See as I outlined last time in what i'm supsecting to be late 2016, BCN was picked up by U-Versal U-Click, aka Andrews McMeel Publishing, aka GoComics aka Jimmy the Reach. For those not as familiar with them as a comic strip nerd like me a refresher: U-Versal/Andrews is a newspaper syndicate, which helps both distrbute comics to newspapers the traditional ways an din the last few decades also puts them online and maintains the archives, so even with print collections having died off for the majority of strips, you can still find the complete works of most strips. Their easily the biggest of the two that exist, having dozens of iconic strips under their umbrella: Calvin and Hobbes, Doonesbury, Bloom County (those two shared with the washington post writers group, a smaller syndicate), For Better or Worse, Phoebe and Her Unicorn, Heart of the City, Big Nate, Pearls Before Swine and SO much more. They also are nice folks who let you visit the archives for free.

Not only did they handle the collections, but they also gave her a nice bump, allowign Georgia to go from freeflowing strips published whenever she could to a daily format that still supported the long sagas the strip, and sundays to still do the one offs the strip was famous for. The fandom nicely moved with her, with many a longtime fan having come in from the web runa nd being just.. lovely to me when I started out. And with Go Comics still providing a digtial space there weren't a lot of downsides: Georgia got a more visable platform, more pay for her work, yearly collections.

This was all great news and in the long run it pushed the strip to even higher highs , and it's only gotten better. In the short.. it had one small drawback. For the next two years or so of strips… they had to go back. See it's the downside of a webcomic getting picked up: you need to spend some time, sometimes a few weeks sometimes longer, aclimating the newspaper audience, which pauses it for those who have been reading it all along. Most take a few months, wallace the brave did, crabgrass did, Phoebe and her Unicorn did, and reprint strips.

Georgia.. got a bit more ambitious. Instead of just reprinting the strip up to this point.. she redrew the whole damn thing. Every strip was represented either as a daily storyline that extended it or as a sunday strip, simplyt aking an old strip and reconfiguring it. Everything happened and even with two arcs skipped over, they still happened two, but it's simply expanded and redrawn to fit Georgia's evolved art style

So the big question i've had since considering this project in the first place is .. how the heck do I cover these. You'd think "oh well just skip em you stupid weak baby, you gonna cry now you stupid weak baby", and in that case.. please seek help or at least better simpsons refrences. But I really can't.. while the strip DOES go back in time… it's still moving forward in how Georgia does things: it's worth looking at how she adjusts to the format, changes up how she works with it, and what she changed. What she added> What new characters were introduced. And of course the handful of new storylines that are every bit as canon as what came before and simply come up between those stories i've covered.

There's entirley new running gags, character bits, and payoffs that simply were not there before. So I compromised: I'm still doing these bcause their valuable and well done strips, but I'm doing two years at once this time, discussing both how the strip evolves and the handful of arcs that are all new and all diffrent. And just as a heads up this isn't even the end of the semi-reboot as next time we have to deal with beatrix's arc, it's just out of the arcs covered that one has the most added bits.. mostly to help explain why bea didn't join the family.. but someone else we'll meet next time does. For now though let's get back on the ari and explore what's old, what's new, and what smells like toast.

Everything Stays, But It Still Changes

Something that caught me when doing this is that while a lot of story beats are repeated, Georgia used going back to the beginning to get new material, to use the fact she had to strip things back to do more antics with just the big three. We also get a nice prequel to Tommy's intro strip

You can also see with this the early strips of this run.. have a bit of a change. Georgia wasn't doing the coloring herself for the dailies. And .. i'm not a huge fan of it. I"m not against having the syndicate do colors, but it has to fit the art style. BCN has a very free flowy, painted style that's very beautiful and the coloring is a major part of that. I can't blame Georgia for trying it, being a daily cartoonist is exhausting and I also don't begrudge a single one that DOESN'T do their own coloring: the majority of artists don't. It's just in this case the syndicate also really didn't make the colors match the style, so their a bit flat.

The stories are still as sharp as ever, and like Tommy's storyline the characters moving in gets more expansion. For starters the woman is visibly pregnant for it, and is at the start of the strip, likely to speed up introducing the boy. While she was always precise with introductions, the newspaper run takes it to a new level as she had a very clear and well thought out two or so year plan. As such while , much like the original year one, we're mostly limited just to the main trio and tommy cat wise, things move on at a decent clip and the move is moved up, with Puck bringing his brother some tea and some nice moments.

The biggest most noticable change though.. is that THe Man and Woman are more active characters. They still have the primary role of doing thigns our heroes just don't understand or thrwarting them for reasons they don't understand while still being loved by all.. okay the Woman is loved by all, the man is loved by 2/3 and resnted by a cat who was there first dammit. While the strip had hints of it as it went, the daily run is where the man and the woman really become character sin their own right, with the woman becoming a vehcile for Georgia to chroncile her own life and foibles

And.. I love it. It feels like the last step to the strip reaching full speed. It's been great so far, at the top of it's game but allowing herself to be a character allows georgia to really vary up the humor. The primary focus is still on our intrepted reporters, as it shoudl be, but it opens it up for the woman/georgia's own loves of cozy mysteries, sci fi, and much more, to be fodder for some really great jokes. It's also where the strip starts to let more of Georgia's personal intrests in in general, leading to some great bits. The biggest of which we'll tackle later

And even with all the neat new stuff…. the old also gets a nice coat of paint as the cat's new level of expression (even if they still default to having no mouths when needed), makes already great moments even BETTER. Take for instance Puck's dramatic reunion with buzzy mouse after the people find him under the couch.

After this we get our first major addition to the lore in this new version, the mystical and wonderful creature, the mailman.

This also begins a trend for the strip that leans into the new format: normally most story arcs for the cats came and went: we saw something big happen, saw it play out , then moved on. The stories all had an impact.

Having a new format, Georgia now breaks up the storie, having ones that either play out over a few months with other stories inbetween or ones like this mailman that take quite some time to payoff. We also get the cats dealing with the terrors of the vacuum, their mortal enemy… another seed to payoff later.

I'm also glad because while i'm mostly glossing over previous material… there is one strip I DID not get to cover. okay there's actually a lot of them because Tumblr's image limit is bad and should feel bad, but there's one bit in paticular I was still sad I never got to cover and thought I never would as I was sure it wasn't recovered… but low and behold it was. Is it plot relevant? no, it's why I have to skip a lot of my faviorite bits sadly and enrouage you to read the full strip. But is it one of the funniest thing in the entire strip? HECK. YES. So when Georgia first had the baby someone around her she's never idenified… said this nonsense.. and the cat's reactions to this bullshit are just.. the best thing in the world.

After this glory we get more of the vacum as elvis gets stranded away from the others and his idnginacy soon turns to terror as the vacum strikes him where he is!

That last panel always strikes me as the most adorable thing. IT really underlines how close these two are, and during an earlier Vacum attack, Elvis rescued puck.. he really would do the same. So with that bit of bravery we enter our first proper full on new storyline. While this is somewhat based on the cats visiting the vet in the original there we really didn't see the visit any. Here though…

Also yes those are some familiar faces making an early cameo in the background. ALso I wish we'd see melty dog again. He's a very good boy.

We also meet Tommy's Woman earlier, as she's working as the vet's assitant.. and as a result gets to meet Elvis earlier too.. it goes about as well for her as it did for her fluffy boy

We also get our first new addition to the cast in this run, one who will be important when we catch back up with the regular timeline: Dr. Mann. And unlike the man and woman that's his actual name.

With the vet's visit over, Puck continues his mailman vigil, las gatos noches settle in up above setting them up for later and their woman gets a much earlier apperance, likely because Georgia decided to cut her intro arc.

The woman's costume confused me at first.. but the man's made what the heme was both more obvious and more awesome

Also yes, those really were their costumes for the boys first halloween. Just when you think you can't love Georgia Dunn more you find out this. As you can probably guess I fucking love little shop of horrors and let's just say if all goes well you'll be hearing more about that in october. Elvis takes his imprisonment well..

After that we get an arc that actually ran LAST WEEK at the time of this review. Yeah sadly the strip is currently in reruns as Georgia injured her wrist. Thankfully she's fully recovered and can draw again, it just means the strip is in reruns (ones chosen by the fans), until it catches back up. But it was still good timing as this arc about leftovers.. leads to one of the best stylistic touches of the strip: Waxing Lyrical. For those unfamiliar with the trope it's when a character drops song lyrics into conversation. The cats will drop many or throw in outright parodies of song staring with this banger.

Also why the Man was so opposed to giving the cats food I DO NOT know. I mean my dog also begs constantly, but you still give them a scrap.

We then get Elvis' Christmas Adventure Again, and this arc and the mice arc the next year are the main reason for the staggered introductions: Both stories NEED the Christmas setting and thrive off it: Elvis getting lost is all the more harrowing because of the winter chill, and also makes it that much easier to buy Tommy could talk him into finally accepting help, with with the mice the entire story revolves around it being christmastime. Both stories just dont' have as much impact if they aren't around santa season. So it was either skip them entirely and try to cram every character introduction into a week.. or simply slow it down slow it way down, which sadly means it's a while before we get back to present day… but as we've seen also allowed for a LOT of new stuff and will continue to.

While I was mildly inconvenienced by the former at first going through these archives allowed me to see the brilliance: while Georgia had to start over her it allowed her what all creators long for: a chance to go back to a story and add stuff they thought of only after they were done. Even as a reviewer myself, there are times after a review I think of a joke and simply can't fit it in the way the review's structured. So I can't begrudge her for seeing an opportunity to slot in stories from when the kids were babies or even new stories that just so happen to fit into the old timeline.

We also get SOMEWHAT of a payoff to the mailman storyline.. as afrter much exaustive searching… Puck's efforts bear fruit.

Sometime later, we get the introduction of Georgia's sister, aka the intruder, aka the love of lupin's life. We also get the start of another running gag where Georgia tries not to frame her special boy as the loveable garbage cat he is

And like many things the real elvis does do this. And it sounds adorbale. We also get to see some precious baby pictures of my precious boy as The Sister waas there for it

We then get the ceiling cats proper intro, the only big diffrence being we get subtitles this time for what fig's saying all the time, not just for the one strip. Though it dosen't change much it's still a nice touch

We do get an expansion on BCW, as it gets a new talent added to the roster

Who seems to be a take on Dusty Rhodes Baby. I approve. One match with a dq finish for Leapin Lupin to retain later and it's time for another grudge match…

Our heroes try the obvious tactic of just.. dumping the fur back on there but the woman simply vacums it back up leaving our heroes on the run… which is bad because Elvis can't run on linolem and puck refuses to leave a man behind. Luckily lupin leaps in, saves them.. but he's fed up and has a brilliant plan

Okay about as brilliant as you'll get out of Lupin. I love burt's caption humor here (explained in universe as him putting them on the archived footage) Also don't think I didn't notice him calling PUck cute ealrier. Maybe puck has a shot with him after all. Just saying.

As for said cutie, Puck's job is to guard the vacum's lair, aka the closet, as while Puck is the better boxer, the vaccum terrifies him too much. We also get a nice sweet moment from Lupin who reassures him it's okay to be scared. So with that the plan is a go, using the studio mikes and for Lupin the mobile teleprompter to cordinate. Lupin gets into naked fighting stance and while the woman sighs, Elvis tracks the cord and Puck decides to cautiously enter the lair…. and finds something shocking

Sadly he can't inform Elvis or Lupin in time as Elvis bites.. the av cord. I love that joke and that nice swerve. Puck swears this dusty cherub won't be an orphan, his exact words, and goes to stop lupin from fufiling his naked destiny. Thankfully he does and Lupin backs down, realizing she's simply been terriotiral because she's got a herd to protect. The bad news is Elvis is still trying to eat the cord to kill this mama bear.. the good news …

I mean in his defense The Woman, the toys are just as much for your amusment as him. Be honest about that…. though it's still really hard to loose an argument where the other person is trying to argue for choking to death.

Lupin and Puck take Elvis to the lineloim, a nice chekovs gun, and the Woman plugging the baby vacum in shows them. Elvis and puck order cords and take a nap and Lupin makes an agreement with the inanimate object

This arc is great: not only is it pateintly hilarious, but it has a weird but wholesome emotional core: yes we know what's actually going on but the strip does one of the things it does best: contextualize something from the cats point of view turning a simple vacuming session into a battle to the death and then a race to stop Elvis and Lupin from orphaning a majestic creature.

After this we get the million dollar debut of PENGO… he's the Boy's faviorite toy and willr emain a fixture for the rest of the strip, always by his child's side.

We also get introduced to the woman's love of cozy mysteries. I really wish I could show EVERYTHING set up, but well blame tumblr. Or blame me for not picking the best format for this blog there's plenty of blame to go around.

We move on to the birth of the girl, the boys shedding up the man's wardrobe (He's a video editor for the record), Burt makes his debut again, Pengo gets a bath hobbes style.. and with that we come to our final arc for today as novemeber and december are taken up with strips remade into daily arcs and naturally all I want for christmas is revenge closing out the year. But at at time when most major stories were being reprtined.. one coudln't.. so Georgia found a workaround

Save Our Pucky

So as i've mentioned in the past two posts the ghost arc… wasn't adapted for this run. Georgia PLANNED to.. but realized the amount of newspaper clippings meant it just coudln't be compressed into a daily format. The same was likely true for Wicket. Problem is Wicket, while very important to Baba's backstory, isn't really relevant to the main story, still being at the shelter at the time of this writing and thus not a concern to the rest of the cast: baba had long moved past him, our heroes vanquished him and it's unlikely he's leaving the comy confines of the shelter this time. He occasionally gets mentioned on dr.scuttles blog and while he likely WILL return I can see why it was way easier to just skip over his arc and fill the audience later if he returns.

Conversely though Tillie, the cat ghost… had a lot more to explore, and Georgia clearly wanted to expand the concept, so instead of recapping her arc, Georgia simply made a sequel, still aclimating the newspaper readers to the fact there's a ghost in their home but it's better than being alone, but allowing her to move forward iwth the concept.

So this adventure begins with Puck discovering a way to the attic early in the morning and deciding to go for a nice brisk climb complete with hoodie and backpack, long before his brothers wake. But while our boy is more cautious than say.. Lupin, which granted a chiuana on cocaine and 3 cans of redbull is more cautious than lupin, he can still make a mistake or too.

What I like about this arc's conflict is the stakes.. are distresingly real. Sure there's a ghostly fix.. but the idea of a pet getting stuck somewhere they can't be found in time is every pet owner's nightmare. I still haunted by finding my own cat dead and it was from natural causes simply lying down and going onto his eternal rest. Thankfully this is a comic strip so tillie can help.. unfrotunatley the only cats who can see her are less than helpful

Also while this goes on we get in the sundays the first of the tails from the space heater, aka the boys tellign spooky stories. It sadly won't get brought up much here but their a delight every year.

Anyways Elvis eventually gets over himself when Lupin reveals a note from puck. Puck was thankfully conteious enough to say he'd gone climbing. I mean given how Elvis is, it's required but it still saves his life as elvis now gets why Tillie was haunting him and since she's apparently spent the last ten minutes getting hissed at by tabitha, she's more than willing to give him another shot . So whlie Tillie goes to get Tabitha (Since she needs BOTH cats to rescue puck) and assure puck heis rescues on the way the rest of her crew and their radio show gets introduced

Sidebar:Tabitha's hissy face is adorable. Anyways Elvis bridges the gap, as well as explaning it to the other two what's going on. The godo news is they can use the dumbwaiter.. the bad is they have to use elvis as tilly has to guide them, even if elvis is the worst climber. Lupin bids him farewell. I'd be madder at him for pulling his annoying younger sibling schtick at a time like this but I love his t-shirt for the mew.

While we find out the other reporters are all the cats form the shelter, and the golden mouse,…. but despite all our heroes efforts..

Luckily.. help arrives

So with that everything is okay, PUck carries elvis back down and the humans find the two in the dumbwaiter. And with that we conclude today's broadcast and these two arcs. It was a lot more fun than I thought it'd be and there's a lot of good content. So while the binge may be a bit wobbly as you'll have read some of these arcs already (And are free to just skip over them, as most are about the same), I still highly recommrend reading this era. It helped solidfiy Georgia as a character in her own strip, added some fun new bits to the series universe, and gave us a great ghost story

Next Time: MORE RERUNS.. but we rerun to the end as we get setup for the future and finally enter the present as the station gets a new visitor on a quest. What is her mysterious mission? Can our heroes help her? And what is her utterly heartbreaking backstory? Find out next month and thanks for reading!

#breaking cat news #georgia dunn #comics #cats #elvis #puck #lupin #tabitha #the woman #the man #the boy #the sister #dr mann

3 notes · View notes

svperhero · 2 years

Note

I know Lauren and Leyla were never huge but I miss them and I used to love reading your takes on them. I knew things would be rough but I genuinely thought they’d make it which is my bad I guess because when has this show ever given af about relationships. But it’s like they just dragged shit out only for them to suffer for zero emotional payoff even the way they ended was stupid af! Leyla became so insensitive and obtuse because why would she move her new gf into Lauren’s apartment and why would Lauren just smile and take it? It’s they they tried to flip the script after Lauren’s bribe to make Leyla look bad but it was just dumb as hell. The showrunner confirmed that they’re over for good and it all just feels like a waste. And tbh I get why the show is ending because everything is rushed and messy and they lost Freema and sharpwin which who was why half the fans were watching lbr but I didn’t really expect the fan base to drop so much. The tag is empty and people hardly discuss it on twitter anymore. But I guess that’s what happens when you treat fans like shit lmao

I’M SORRY LEYLA DID WHAT?!?! Nope ya know what I’m pretending I can’t read that, I can’t see nope. Anyways, yeh Leyren weren’t big but they were big to me and I miss them immensely. Honestly, I stuck around with New Amsterdam because I really identified with Lauren and a lot of the pain she’s been through but they ruined that when they decided to treat Leyla like a white woman’s stepping stone and on top of that what did Lauren even learn from their relationship?!? Honestly, if it was really only about Lauren’s growth as a character, where is that so called growth?!? This show has felt completely different for a while and I mean that in the worst way. The way they destroyed Leyren, had Leyla barely be a full realised character on her own and then have tried to demonize her, just makes me feel ill. I’m not paying attention to anything they’re doing anymore so no more think pieces from me. I appreciate that you liked reading my ramblings but I have decided to preserve all my good Leyren memories, forget the bullshit they’ve put them through and just move on as sad as it is. It was fun while it lasted. Thank gawd that show is ending and thank gawd for fanfic tbh. I’m at the doctors rn and I can’t remember the name of the fix it fic I read that was really good and had Lauren actually having to face her shortcomings and deal with them like an adult. If you’re interested message me again and when I get back I’ll find the name and let you know.

#thanks for the message 🥰#ik it sucks #i hope it hurts a little less soon #leyren #new amsterdam #ask #anon

9 notes · View notes

adultswim2021 · 2 years

Text

Cowboy Bebop #18: “Speak Like a Child” | February 27, 1999 | S01E18 Adult Swim premiere: October 29, 2001 - 12:30AM

An episode where I’m in the episode. Guess which guy I am. I’m the guy who knows about VHS facts copping a squat watching St. Elsewhere instead of current CORPORATE entertainment.

In this one, the crew receives a beta cassette and need to track down a player. It’s addressed to Faye specifically, and you can probably guess where it’s going, honestly. In fact, the previous episode’s preview even sorta tells you this is a weaker episode but maybe you’ll like it anyway. I did like it, but yeah, there’s little payoff. It seems more like a teaser for something else to come. Anyway, the video tape has young Faye on it, which is a big deal because she doesn’t remember he past? But there’s no big revelation that I can recall other than she used to be young. Oh, wow.

MAIL BAG

Why do British schools wear uniforms. It's not too look classy. Think of the episode Lisa the Greek when Marge takes Bart shopping. Marge loves the clothing for Bart, he tries to warn her about being beaten up. Then later in the car.

A note from a secret admirer!!!!!

#adult swim #adultswim2021 #cowboy bebop

5 notes · View notes

hetakiba · 2 years

Note

For the character ask meme: Hannibal: 1, 2, 21. Ryo: 1, 3, 23. Aaaand Jiang Cheng: 1, 5, 12

Thank you so much, very excited to answer

Hannibal: so excited because I've been rewatching hannibal with my mom so I'm in the deep of it

1. First impression:

Well luckily for me I went into Hannibal also completely blind. I mean, I obviously knew he was a cannibal, but I didn't know how the show was going to portray him, so I spent a lot of time oscillating back and forth between whether I thought they were trying to make him sympathetic or not, if any time he showed emotion was real or not, ect ect. So I would say 🤔 there were a lot of moments in the first episode specifically where he comes across as very false (in regards mostly to will) but also very entertaining still. Cautiously optimistic I suppose, I thought he would be entertaining and interesting, which he was

2. When you truly started to like/dislike:

Funnily enough, I have an answer for both because my feelings on the man changed sporadically. Like wise, pretty hard to tell what moments made me really like him as a character 🤔 I remember thinking it was very fun when he would kill other serial killers or even anytime he gets snappy or annoyed with other people. Just delightful.

Dislike for me would probably be when he killed Beverly :/ still upset about it. And the way he killed her too... probably my most uncomfortable I've felt about any of the deaths in Hannibal. I may have been upset about him killing abigail but I assumed she wasn't actually dead so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

21. When do you think they were at their happiest?

Hard one. There are a lot of good moments to choose from. Tentatively, top three being. Killing with Will (obvious), when Will comes to see him willingly after he's arrested (obvious again), and not really in competition but probably pulling off the entirety of the framing will shifting into framing Chilton (Big payoff of a lot of work and probably in some misguided way thinks that it might get him back into wills good graces. Plus, I think he disliked Chilton a good deal). I'll get back to you after Rewatch finished

Ryo:

First impression:

The first time I saw Ryo was a compilation of funny moments from the OVA's, so I thought he was pretty funny and unhinged. And probably also gay

3. A song that reminds me of them: again, due to meme compilations, boys say go by depeche mode

23. Future headcanon: I'd like to hope a timeline or many where he and everybody else gets to live happily ever after :') and probably a lotta struggle but perhaps also growth

Jiang cheng:

First impression: Well, his first appearance I didn't know which characters would be characters so I only vaguely remember thinking 🤔 he's kinda funny in an awful way, kinda a mean guy. And as they got more into him as a character, tragic

5. Favorite ship with them: Gotta go with wen qing, also the only character I even kinda ship him with. They have fun energy, I only really remember him being like. Decent and nice to her? And the other characters he wasn't terrible to I just don't really see any like romantic potential

12. Sexuality headcanon: oh man I guess straight? Heterosexual? I could maybe see him being asexual or aromantic, but I don't necessarily think he is. Maybe asexual

#I could talk about hannibal all day #many thanks again this was good fun!#feel free to add any thoughts #hannibal #mdzs #devilman #personal #texts #asks

2 notes · View notes

magpiejay1234 · 2 months

Text

I can probably write entire novels out of Days like our lord, and master Kanemaki, but the latter half of Days is making me understand one of the core aspects of post-KH2 games, and even more prominently post-BBS stories have such messy payoffs is the whole Abrams-esque mystery box storytelling.

First half of Days works well since the mystery of Xion is not the core plot, and it is drowned by many other mysteries. There is a plot irrespective of the mystery arc. This is also why S1-S2 of ARC-V work better than S3.

Once the mystery arc becomes the plot, as it happens in Days/Coded/BBS (the latter trio as I like to call them), the overarching narrative starts to hang. However, unlike the even later ones, there is still a main plot ongoing.

Dark Road sort of gets away by playing the mystery arcs for mostly laughs, and KH3 mostly gets away with this by being a long boss rush, so the mysteries are mostly set-up for later games. Original chi also sort gets away with this, since it was written without the context of MoM being the next Big Bad, though without fully scrubbing that possibility.

I guess this is partly why I'm optimistic about MoM arc, Nomura has a clear vision here like he did in the original trio, and even if the arc overall falls short due to Nomura's low-writing quality, it is not going to be the end of the series. While there will inevitably be dropped plot-lines that will be expanded the likely reboot (this is Square after all).

****

Of course, one more thing we need to discuss is the problem of DLC. KH4 will very likely have two batches of DLC at least, possibly released in one year, or possibly released in two years.

Since there isn't going to be the usual Org. battles, this makes one wonder how they will deal with this, KH1's optional bosses were mostly Disney/FF characters, Heartless, and the usual next game promo. Additionally, since KH4 is not the conclusion of anything, we can't really expect an expanded final boss either.

So, with also the idea of Supergroupies artwork characters being possible side party members in various worlds, or various quests of Quadratum, best option would be more optional side-quests with more characters, but that's not quite Nomura's style, and it will take away from KH5's ideas.

****

Another issue I guess will be how they justify Sora's power reset in KH6. In the hypothetical Verum Rex spin-off(s), and KH5, they can just have Sora dying again for Strelitzia's return to life, but beyond that they will need to find some other gimmick.

We already messed around Riku, and Kairi through all the numbered titles, and besides Donald & Goofy & Jiminy, Sora doesn't have any strong relationships with any of the recurring cast members not named Naminé. KH3 sort of reestablishes connections with Roxas, and Lea, but within the context of MoM arc, those pale in importance to Ventus, due to his direct connection to MoM.

Easiest way to achieve this narratively would be doing the DDD situation again with MoM, and Foretellers that remain loyal to him becoming close to victory to force Sora's Level to reboot to 1 in KH6, but that would be incredibly cheap, and quite contrived narratively, especially considering the 13 lights vs. 7 darknesses thing we are now doing.

This is kind of important, since DDD, and CoM's plots largely exist for this power reset.

#keyache #shitposting

0 notes

self-loathing-angel-of-thursday2 · 7 months

Text

Beautiful Spouse’s Rewatch Thoughts SPN 08x02 What’s Up, Tiger Mommy?

“That was phrased on purpose I’m sure”

Somehow, we skipped Episode 2 so we’re watching it after SPN 08x03.

“Aren’t these guys worried about blood-borne illnesses at all?” “Something mighty important” “Fkn Chicago” “Why is Box 1 not in the top left?” “And she would never be there for the opening. That’s not a thing. They take your box out, put it on the table, and leave you alone.” “who cut who?” “Is it fkn hair cut day? Jesus Christ” “Back in my day…scratch out day and put purgatory” “You also wouldn’t be watering plants mid-day. Not usually anyway” “I guess I don’t know what time it is, but they are just dumb demons after all” ��Yeah, fuck em! And shake your head at them” “Wasn’t that her friend or something? Don’t they know that stabbing the host kills the host? What the fuck?” “Could have exorcised her?” “ehhh” “They all sound like they broke out of an institution. Holy fuck” “Just trying to imagine what Dean is thinking during his smile” “what the fuck” “that was cool as fuck. How did they not think of that sooner? That was so off-the-cuff. Oh yeah just say it backward” “Helluva lot of makeup.” “I don’t know shit about Ferraris. Just a red Ferrari to me” “eh” “little strong with the verbiage there but sure” “Fkn Willy Wonka or what?” “That whole thing was a little weird I guess” “Let me guess - mom’s car isn’t Eurotrash” “Not his gun” “Why even bring it?” “Was that fkn Patrick Stewart? That guy kinda looked like him at first glance” “Hey bitch” “That is his name” “That guy is from LetterKenny” “That’s, at least, 94%.” “Ok, Mr. Texas”

I wish we had more PurGAYtory

“Why is Purgatory gay?” Dean looked for Cas for over a year; Dean prayed to him every night. Cas trying to protect Dean.

“I feel like they’re going to work with Crowley after this” “Just go swipe your knife, man. Stab a bitch” laughter “thats funny” “Saying that within ear shot yeah ok” “Tell Sky Daddy to cram it. We’re going with the boys” “That was such a weird set-up for the episode to have this kind of ending” laughter “what the fuck is happening?” “Has that guy ever shot a gun before? Nobody’s really moving at all. It’s not rocket science” “Alright. We got our payoff I guess” “Still kinda weird” “Toodles” “So she’s soulless now?” No, the transaction wasn’t completed

“They’re not that crappy. Come on now” “eh” “They’re running away on you. No big deal. Gotta see that coming. Should have stood between them and the exit”

#beautifulspouserewatchesspn #supernatural rewatch #supernatural #supernatural s8

0 notes

hatter-and-his-tea · 7 months

Text

I just have to get this out of my chests…

Spoiler alert for ff16 if anyone hasn’t play it. Not that you will be missing much anyway because the game is an utter disappointment in pacing and gameplay.

My biggest problem is the lack of set up and payoff

- no consequences of destroying the crystal

- skipping clive’s life during enslavement even though it would be a great background story and growth for clive, especially since they are dealing with the theme of slavery.

I had someone with an audacity telling me that Clive’s story isn’t related to his enslavement. I feel like these gamerz don’t know good story / pacing even if it hit them right in the head. A story with theme of slavery and a main character that actually got to experience it? Got it to your head?

Its a shame they wanted to skip that bit. Felt like the writer / the developer just wanted us to play a grown up adult clive asap rather than thinking of the story pace and emotional moments. Like 13 years of his life were being skipped. And we have another unnecessary time skip where these guys don’t even change their clothes.

They wanted to make these super serious and realistic (albeit with magic) world but they don’t think of these tiny details.

- clive not being hunted down as a terrorist.

- bearers freed and yet have no safe heaven. Basically no spread out safe area or something. Or just a growth in these communities. Considering the story’s flow, we should have more chaos. I think even in ffx you got turned away at the temple towards the end because of your action. ACTION HAS CONSEQUENCES PEOPLE!!

- just the whole thing about bearers. We missed out on that personal connection because of the time skip, then the whole thing is just showing bad treatment towards bearers. There are just no growth and apparently the big fix is just destroy the crystal and problem will be solved. Oh guess we don’t have human’s nature factored in it. The whole power play and also now that the crystals are gone, humanity needs to discover new energy and way of living asap. Before that being stabilise, guess everyone just die or suffer. Thanks Clive.

The least they can do is showing us new technique etc to make it more believable.

God this game just made me made because of all these telling not show. There’s probably a bunch of stuffs but yea.. just need to vent these out.

#vent #story #game

1 note · View note

kitkatt0430 · 11 months

Note

here's an unpopular opinion: Flash s3 isn't a good season. It tried to be, and it had some cool ideas, but it overcomplicated those ideas too much and missed some cool opportunities

strongly agree | agree | neutral | disagree | strongly disagree

There's definitely a lot about S3 I like, but I agree it's not a good season. (I'd take it over S7 or S8 though.)

Flashpoint is a really big deal in the comics, but they only gave it one episode before unraveling the changes. Cisco being upset with Barry over his brother's death was actually pretty interesting plot wise, but having him forgive Barry and then un-forgive Barry was a bad choice just to add extra (unnecessary) drama to the crossover event. Alchemy was an interesting villain from the comics to go with, but then he turned out not to really exist it was just Julian being possessed by Savitar. Savitar was an interesting villain in the comics too, but it wasn't really Savitar we got. It was The Future Flash, which is an evil version of Barry. And, sure, having Barry literally be his own worst enemy was fun - really gave Grant a chance to play with his portrayal of this alternate Barry - but it was like the show runners couldn't make up their mind who the villain was supposed to be and thought a mashup of all three would work out. Somehow.

Really it just kind of felt like they kept yanking masks off a Scooby-Doo villain until they finally reached Barry with a scarred up face.

HR was adorable, but he definitely suffered in his reception by the audience because most everyone either really liked Harry or didn't want another Wells around. (Or they wanted Eobard back, careful what you wish for...) Julian was either the coworker from hell or the awkward atoner and there wasn't much in-between; his one-sided crush on Caitlin didn't help things. He was capable of being sweet and kind and a good friend, though, it's just he didn't really have a clearly defined purpose once he joined Team Flash so once he stopped being Alchemy during his blackouts... he was just kind of there.

The season had ableism left, right, and center. Savitar!Barry's scarred face. Caitlin's not-really-MPD with Frost. Julian's MPD-no-wait-actually-he's-possessed syndrome. More MPD with Frankie. Because of course all the alternate personalities are violent. Though, admittedly, ablism is a recurring problem with practically every season of this show...

Cisco developing his powers was lovely to see, if harsher in hindsight seeing him grow to accept those powers knowing he'll choose to get rid of them in S5. But having him crush on Cynthia when she worked for the ethical nightmare association was... questionable decision making, for all that I did enjoy Cynthia while she was on the show.

The handling of Barry and Iris' relationship was not great either. They did a dating to engaged to not engaged to engaged again speedrun that didn't give them time to breathe as a couple. I think a lot of people were looking forward to seeing those two actually, finally dating and instead there was this rush to get them married.

Wally's training felt like he was being built up to take on the mantle of the Flash, since Jesse was building her own reputation as Quick. That when the season ended and the Speed Force sent Barry to jail without passing go or collecting two hundred dollars, Barry didn't specifically tell Wally he was the Flash now... it was like they built up to this big payoff and then never actually had the payoff. (Will forever be bitter that Wally never got to be the Flash. Always a Kid, never a Flash. Ugh. Let him grow up.)

Jesse's arc was... questionable. She and Wally couldn't be bothered to stay in touch while she was on E2 during the summer break between seasons, yet she was going to move Earths for him? And then she goes to E3 to take over while Jay is gone and... does double duty on E2 I guess? It just felt a lot like her arc was about other people and not herself. So even though I'm not thrilled about the treatment of her relationship with her dad in S4, at least there she has come into her own as a hero and team lead - her story in the barely visible background is about herself.

And Iris being Barry's prize to be won has probably never been quite so obvious. Evil Barry can't have her so Good Barry can't either. Though I do love the look into Iris fears as she deals with knowing there's a high chance she'll die young and worrying that she won't have left any real legacy behind. She's overshadowed to some degree by the Killer Frost arc, which is frustrating but a side effect of packing too much into one season - physical transformation is always gonna be flashier than quieter emotional arcs.

I also appreciate Iris not wanting to be engaged for the wrong reasons, even if it did feel rather like the show was just building up artificial drama for the second crossover with Supergirl and an even more dramatically romantic second proposal. (Let a girl want her fiance to have proposed because he loves her, not because he's afraid of losing her. There is an important distinction there, I'm so glad Iris was allowed to make that point.)

There are probably a lot more points I could make about S3 being a hot mess, but I think I've hit everything that really stands out the most to me. (So much there already.)

#kitkatt0430 answers #kitkatt0430 rambles #ask game #the flash #fandom meta #the flash meta #season 3 #i mean also having a speedster main villain for the third season in a row was not thrilling either

9 notes · View notes