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fishoutofcamelot · 4 years

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IT’S OFFICIAL! I’M MAKING A MERLIN-THEMED D&D CAMPAIGN!!! <3

Do you like Merlin? Do you like D&D? Do you like the idea of D&D but don’t know how it works? Then The Rising Sun campaign is just for you! (named after that one tavern in Camelot lmao)

CAMPAIGN PREMISE:

Jailbreak! The members of your party have been locked away in Camelot’s dungeons and must work together to bust out. But with a mysterious curse terrorizing the city, that might be easier said than done. Takes place during the three-year gap between seasons 4 and 5.

BASIC INFORMATION:

4-6 players, all at LVL3

Is this your first game? Your 50th game? All experience levels accepted!

Will feature monsters/characters/settings present in BBCM canon

The session will be recorded and posted to Youtube, so even people who don’t play can still join in on the fun!

Wanna chat about Merlin? (And D&D, but mostly Merlin) Join the Rising Sun Discord Server!!!

It’s a oneshot campaign, meaning there will only be one session

Submit your character sheet/s to me (email under the cut) by November 15th!

The exact length of the session will depend on player availability/preference, and how long it takes us to get through the campaign. But expect it to take around 2-4 hours

You can play as a canon character (like Mithian or Percival), or make an OC

We will be running this through D&D5e (5th edition) as this is what I’m most familiar with. If you don’t know what that means, don’t worry about it!

Players must have access to Discord. Announcements, party talk, scheduling, etc. will be held on an exclusive channel through the Rising Sun Discord Server

WANT TO GET INVOLVED WITHOUT PLAYING?

Don’t worry, we’ve got something for everyone! I want this to be something everyone in the fandom can enjoy :)

The campaign will be recorded virtually and posted to Youtube in 30-minute parts/episodes, with captions available

Transcripts will also be posted to AO3

Join the Rising Sun Discord Server!

Don’t have a Discord account? Information about the campaign will also be posted to the Rising Sun Campaign tag on Tumblr

Feeling artsy? Feel free to post it! Any campaign-related art sent to me (through Discord, Tumblr, or Gmail) will likely be posted to my Tumblr blog and also feature in one of the episodes uploaded to Youtube, provided you give me permission to do so <3

Interested? More details under the cut!

PROJECTED TIMELINE

November 1: Player Submission period opens

November 15: Player Submission period ends

November 20: Official player + character list announced

December 18-January 18: Campaign session held. The exact date/time will depend on the availability of party members, but this is just the time period in which it’s most likely to happen (it’s my winter break!)

January/February: Campaign “episodes” will be uploaded to Youtube on a weekly basis, with their respective transcripts posted to AO3. Official release schedule to be posted after the campaign has been recorded

SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS

Submit to my email: [email protected]

If you don’t know a lot about D&D and want me to teach you/help you make your character sheet, let me know through Tumblr!

Submissions should include your:

Tumblr URL and/or Discord ID

Time zone

Expected availability between Dec18-Jan18

Experience/comfort level with D&D

If you are willing to have your face shown in the recording

Character sheet/s

Any homebrew content you would like to use

You can submit more than one character sheet, but you can only play as one character, and only one character will be accepted into the campaign

If we get more than 6 submissions, players will be chosen based on their availability, friendliness, and how well I think their character will fit into the campaign/party

If you’re accepted as a player, I will let you know via Tumblr/Discord before posting the official player list to Tumblr. You will also be granted access to the Party-Only channel on the Rising Sun Discord server

You MUST be a member of this server, as crucial party discussions, announcements, and Zoom links will be shared there

Make sure to have everything submitted by November 15th!

GUIDELINES

My time zone is PST. Expect this to influence scheduling

If you aren’t comfortable having your face in the recording, you can turn your camera off! However, I will ask that you at least keep your mic on

The session will be held and recorded through Zoom. Make sure you have access to this program!

Due to Zoom restrictions, a Zoom meeting can’t be any longer than 45 minutes. So the session will probably be broken up into 30-minute meetings, with 5-minute breaks in between each one. The Zoom link/s will be posted to the Party-only channel on the Rising Sun server. If I find a more efficient way of doing this, I will let you know

There will be a session zero, also on Zoom, about a week before we record the session. This is just a quick and casual opportunity for us to meet, work out any technical issues, address campaign expectations, talk about our characters, and get to know each other better <3

General courtesy and Zoom/D&D etiquettes apply. Don’t be a dick!

I might end up commissioning/having art done of the Player Characters (PCs). If you’re not okay with that, let me know!

CHARACTER CREATION

Put your character at LVL 3

Homebrew content is allowed, so long as you have me look it over first!

Use the D&D5e character sheet for character creation (if you need help accessing this I can send you an editable pdf, or help you find an online character sheet creator)

CANON CHARACTERS

Make sure all information on your character sheet is accurate to canon. Any deviations from canon (like giving Elyan magic, or making Percival a time-traveler) must be talked over with me first

Does their canon background have holes or unknowns? Fill them in yourself! Get creative <3

If this character doesn’t have a race available in D&D, like a sidhe, then you have two options. You can either homebrew their profile, or you can using an existing race profile that’s similar while clearly establishing what their real race is

When writing their backstory, try to think of how they would fit into the campaign. Why are they in the dungeons? Is Merlin suffering the aftermath of a magic reveal gone wrong? Did Gwaine get into a tavern brawl? Has George been framed for murder?

OCs

Be creative! Time travelers, shapeshifters, orcs - as long as you develop it well enough, I’ll probably allow it

If your character has a race/species that doesn’t exist in BBCM canon - like an elf or a dwarf - then provide backstory as to why their people are never seen or mentioned in the show. Did the dwarves go into hiding during the Purge? Is your character the first of their kind? Were they cursed into a non-human form?

In the event that we get someone to do art for the PCs, please make sure the physical description of your character is very clear and concise. Consider including reference art of some kind as well. This will hopefully make it easier for the artist/s to do their thing

When writing their backstory, try to think of how they would fit into the campaign. Why are they in the dungeons? Did they get caught trying to kill the king? Did their friend turn them in for sorcery? Did they steal something from the vaults?

This should be a chance for us all to goof off and have fun, so I’m not gonna be super strict on the rules. And if you have any questions, hit me up on Tumblr!! <3

#yall its finally happening!!!!#i have been legit working on this for over 2 weeks now #i made graphics #and a discord server #and ive got a whole bunch of resources compiled for any newbies who need them #i taught myself some rudimentary animation + video editing stuff #i reread the entire dungeon masters guide for this #I. AM. READY #rising sun campaign #dnd #merlin #bbc merlin #merlin bbc #bbcm #fish post

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sunriseseance · 4 years

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HECK YEAH alrighty here we go then! 1. Broadly: what do you predict we'll see from Klaus in s3? I know you've mentioned him snapping a bit- what're your thoughts on what that might entail? (1/?)

I think that Klaus is experiencing his first full moment of independence, especially power independence, at the same time he is experiencing extreme emotional turmoil. They’ve told us that alcohol (at east) does jack shit to prevent his powers. I think that he has spent a long, long time with people who (IMO) do care about him, but don’t think about him all that often. “Klaus is still Klau” as a modus operandi for the entire family, at least at default. Now he no longer has a Powerful or Moral (although I have my problems with this interpretation) Ben to lean on, I think we’re gonna see a Klaus who is coming into his own, who is hurting deeply in ways the sibling do not (and possibly cannot, Klaus lies and masks A LOT) know, and who feels that the turmoil inside of him belongs outside.

2. Do you expect to see Klaus’ powers expanded on in s3, and if so, how do you think they’ll go about that? I think levitation and telekinesis would be amazing but seeing as they’ve already given those away to his siblings, I don’t think it’s all that likely. I love your clairvoyance theory (more on that shortly), and I've been playing with the idea of a telepath or empath Klaus, something akin to his "channeling" powers from the comics. (2/?)

I think that probably the primary thing in store for Klaus is commanding ghosts and being possessed. These play together interestingly and are both extremely powerful. He can command an army without a second thought, and they listen to him, but also if he slips up they can jump in his body, he’s gone and they’re in charge. It’s an interesting and fruitful dichotomy and power structure. Also I think he can make ghosts possess other people. They made a big point of showing that Klaus was conscious before Ben entered Vanya’s mind. If he can command spirits, and spirits can possess other people that is a great deal of power. (Also, like, Klaus is able to make Ben not possess him. Neither of them may know it, but he DOES command spirits. He does.)

As to his comic powers, I think we may very well get them!! They’ve teased levitation multiple times in s2 alone, and I think this idea that a show about shitty superheroes would care if their powers were redundant does not quite vibe with me. Like, what’s the point of Luther if Vanya can stop bullets and lift a tank with sound waves. Klaus’s version of TK could EASILY have its own niche (no need for a trajectory or sound waves). I don’t want to promise that it’s coming because, like, focusing on his psychic related powers is more cohesive, but I don’t think that the option is in any way off the board.

3. If they go ahead and give him clairvoyance, how would you like to see that play out? 4. Similarly, do you think his possession powers will be explored further in s3? (3/?)

I think that giving him clairvoyance would be a very handy plot device on top of being interesting for the character. Klaus’s powers have pushed him to the extremes of apathy. Imagine what that would look like if he has the capacity to know everything? He is a person who deals with the hurt of others by denying everything. He has had too much asked of his empathy and compassion. Giving him clairvoyance gives him access to all the hurt in the world. I would love to see that. I would love to see his brain forcing him to care about people because in this particular regard he CAN 100% help.

Yes absolutely I think his possession powers will be explored further. I know this is a controversial subject, but I think the show took care to make it clear that is is awful and terrifying for him (however it was for Ben) and that it plays interestingly with his ability to summon and command spirits. It serves as a way to even the playing field, almost. He command them, they can take him over. That’s scary for everyone. I don’t think this is one and done at all.

4. I would LOVE to hear more about your thoughts on Hotel Oblivion's influence on TUA s3- disclaimer, I haven't read the comics (yet). (4/?)

YES OKAY. Based on my own personal desires and my knowledge of the comics (Sparrows locked up) and also the Sparrow crest, I think s3 is going to include at least some of Team Zero locked in the hotel. It could EASILY be all of them, but I could see Reg deciding to keep Five, and even Vanya. This would be interesting because it allows Five to age, allows Five to rest, allows Vanya to see the horrors of actually BEING on a super hero team, and requires 1-4 to save themselves, and in my IDEAL world, save Five from Reg, as well. It would be so fun to watch 1-4 escape the hotel and rescue Five. IMO the hotel is going to be the best if it is treated as a piece of horror. Not something they can understand, something simultaneously enticing and hostile, and something that they have to fight their individual Bullshits to escape. Whoever is in it. I think that would be beautiful.

5. How would you like to see Klaus' character develop this season? Seeing as s2 has left him unprecedentedly broken, I think this will lead to an AMAZING pay off in s3, esp when it comes to him being without Ben. His powers have so much potential (even w/o the comic book expansion pack) but they have all have come back to Ben's help. This is true of his choices too- Ben is constantly supporting/criticizing him. I'm so excited to see him alone and newly independent. (5/?)

YES SO MUCH. We watch Klaus shatter and regress completely in s2. I know a lot of people feel he wasn’t treated with respect by the narrative, and I respect that, but my general thinking is that this is a part of the whole, and everything we saw of him is in line with a) intense hurt b) the act he puts on. I think that Klaus shattered in s2. He killed the love of his life, he relapsed, and he did his best to make sure nobody cares about him. Ben turned into more of a harmful figure in his life than ever before, and now he’s lost him completely, left with only guilt, resentment, and complicated feelings.

I think Klaus is going to actually have to DEAL with himself. He’s been able to deflect or hide or bury his hurt and his power and everything else. Like you said, he relied on Ben for a lot, and now it is only him. I think he is going to externalize the chaos he feels inside (and so does Sheehan), and I think he is going to have to confront who Klaus REALLY is, whatever that means. I think he will admit he is powerful, he is hurt, and he is angry. Ultimately, I think this will lead to him with more balance, and he will have a better understanding of himself. But I think he MUST snap a bit first. Nobody takes him seriously, not even himself. He has to change that before he can move on.

6. How would you like to see Klaus' relationships with his siblings grow this season? I am wondering how him mourning Ben will be received by his siblings. I am also thinking a lot about whether him hitting rock bottom & truly alone for the first time will push him to be more vulnerable and open with his siblings OR if it'll be his breaking point where he shutters out everything he can, emotions and more OR a mix of both. (6/?)

This is a really good question. I’m not at all sure I have a definitive answer, but here I am typing anyway. I think the obvious setup of the first 2 seasons is that everyone thinks Klaus is fine, and that he can Manage, whatever that looks like. This includes Klaus. So my Most Fruitful Idea is to show that he isn’t fine, in a way he cannot hide. I feel like possession could be a good start to this, but so could him diminishing in his ability to respect ghosts, or many other things. Basically, I want the siblings to see through Klaus’s act. None of them, fucking none of them, ever have. He’s done his best to make that the case. I want the act to spread thin in s3, which I think is supported by how the act looks in s2, and I want the sibs to see through it finally, and I want it to be almost too late because he’s lost and angry and goddamn POWERFUL and he knows them in ways they have never known him.

Also, I like the idea of Klaus and Allison snapping together. They are the two who lack hope, the two who accept as a blanket the end of the world, the two who enable each other, and also the two who bonded with Vanya. Seeing them go down a dark path, and seeing Vanya recognize it and help them stray away from it? Amazing.

7. Any songs you would love to see in s3? (7/7) Sorry for the IMMENSE amount of questions, comments, and concerns, I have been pondering these things for weeks and since I always adore your tua content, I would love to hear your thoughts and any input from others!!

YES SO SO SO MUCH

I would love “Be True To Your School” by the Beach Boys because of the 60s and the irony factor. Any Bob Dylan song would send me to an early grave due to joy, but I’m gonna say especially “A Hard Rain’s A Gonna Fall” which is an incredible song about futility and trying and hurt. I also love the idea of ANY Masseduction by St. Vincent song, but I would especially nominate Masseduction, Young Lover, and Happy Birthday Johnny.

ALSO NO NO NO NEED TO APOLOGIZE AT ALL THIS WAS SOOOOOOOOOO FUN OH MY GOD do this any time (or come off anon and into my DMs I promise I’m friendly). Thank you so so much!!!

#The Umbrella Academy #Tua spoilers #klaus hargreeves #allison hargreeves #answered #FUCK

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chacerider · 4 years

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I want to get into Ultraman but I don't know where to start any recommendations

tl;dr version: It’s tricky, but Mebius might be a good place if you’re not going to just start with the original Ultraman and proceed chronologically. You could also just jump into New Generations Ultraman with Ginga and go from there, with only minor confusion (and you might want to watch Zero’s movies before watching X or especially Geed). “Canon” is very loose and rarely required knowledge between seasons (though there are exceptions; hi, Orb’s Jugglus Juggler being a major character in Z! Hi, Geed showing up there as well!), so really, you can jump in anywhere.

expansive version, w/ reasoning and some discussion of official sources to watch Ultraman at:

Okay, so, here's the bad news: With only a few exceptions, just about every Ultraman series is at least going to LIGHTLY reference past seasons. (The OG Ultraman obv doesn't, and Cosmos doesn't as well -- I think a lot of the early 00s seasons don't, but I can't confirm that myself.)

Now, here's the good news: in MOST seasons, any references WILL be light and fairly well-explained for newcomers. (The largest part of their audience is young children, after all!) If you go in with an open heart and a bit of a detective attitude ("ah, so that's how it is? So, then, it works like this?") you shouldn't have any problems just jumping in-- mostly.

With that being said...

Obviously, you could just start with the original Ultraman and go forward chronologically from there, but since you're asking me instead of doing that, I'm guessing you're not necessarily into 1960s/1970s TV. Which is fair! There's a lot to love in that era, especially Ultraman-wise, but I too have trouble getting into it as much as I get into newer shows. So, skipping forward, my next recommendation would be...

Mebius is a fairly good place to jump in if you can find it -- it's a mid-2000s anniversary season, but it does a really thorough job of explaining/establishing worldbuilding & lore that's still considered mostly-canon today, and as an anniversary it'll introduce you to major recurring characters (the Ultra Brothers, among others). It's also genuinely REALLY REALLY good, and it's a full-length season so there's plenty of content.

After that... Ultraman Zero and his main villain Belial come up a LOT in modern Ultraman, and Zero's super fun, BUT -- he doesn't actually have a season. What he DOES have are a string of movies and DVD specials, so if you can track down those, I'd highly highly recommend them. The watch order goes Mega Monster Battle: Ultra Galaxy Legends, Revenge of Belial, Killer The Beat Star, Ultraman Saga, then Ultra Zero Fight finishes it off. There's a TV anthology (Zero Chronicles) that cuts the movies up for broadcast, but the editing's awkward and they do NOT follow the chronological release order for... some reason, idk. (They put Zero's first movie in the middle of the anthology! They spread the first half of Ultra Zero Fight over the end of several episodes! I do not know why!!) So if it's the only thing you can find, it's there, but... It's a mess, ye be forewarned. (The host segments are cute, though.)

At that point you're very well set for New Generations Ultraman (the current modern seasons) -- everything from Ginga onwards, though you could also just start with Ginga! It's a bit of a weird (and low-budget) one, but hey... it's where I started and here I am many seasons later, lol. I've loved every single NewGen Ultra I've watched, though I should mention that Z (the current one) very heavily references Orb and minorly Zero, and Geed also features Zero (though in a very good way!). I should also mention these seasons are shorter than older seasons -- about 24 episodes apiece. (Budget reasons.)

Long story short, though? Just jump in. It's a little tough to start out, but the more you watch, the more you'll get out of it. And hey, there's always the internet for looking up lore you don't know!

Oh, and finally: I didn't really mention where to find this stuff, because, well... It's all over the place. Some of it's on VRV/Crunchyroll! Some of it's on Amazon's Toku channel! Some of it's on Blu-Ray through Mill Creek Entertainment! (I love those Blu-Rays, very much recommend them if they're an option for you.) Some of it you're only going to find fan-subbed, for now at least. If you need a pointer towards something specific, I can try to help you, but... Google. Google is your friend.

(Also: Ultraman Z has been simulcasting on Youtube with English subs... however, episodes are only available on Youtube for a couple weeks, so at this point you’d have to find another source for the first few episodes in order to catch up. After that, though, Z’s great and it’s wild being able to experience it as it airs!)

Hope that helped!

#q&a #Anonymous #text post #Ultraman Recommendations #and if you want my personal favorites #it's ALL ULTRAMAN I'VE EVER SEEN #but in particular #Cosmos; R/B; Geed; Mebius; Ginga S; The Ultraman #these are deep in my heart #especially especially cosmos #FRIEND TO ALL KAIJU......

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soyouareandrewdobson · 4 years

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Dobson’s favorite cartoon reviewed: The adventures of spandex girl in New York aka the Miraculous Ladybug movie

So THIS is not going to be about a Dobson comic, but rather with the lack of Dobson posting shit out here, I thought I give my opinion about something Dobson would have likely sperged out within the last few months. What could it be I want to talk about? The riots? The death of RBG? Cuties?

Are you insane? My brain may function better than Dobson’s, but even so I am not touching those subjects with a tong, seeing how I myself am lacking detailed knowledge on such subjects. No. I am talking about the cartoon that makes Dobson’s little brain (and dick) all tingly: Miraculous Ladybug.

For starters, let me just say that despite being an animation fan myself, I am not really into this show at all. For a magical girl show that goes on for over three seasons at this point, I just feel like nothing happens in it. Sure, A LOT of tokusatsu and magical girl shows run on repetitive monster of the week formulas, but overall they will still have some progression to themselves. Growing up with Sailor Moon, I always loved the first season and how it actually made me feel like things are increasingly at stake as the story progressed. Especially in the final episodes when the Senshis actually died protecting Sailor Moon and it was only thanks to a Deus ex machina everyone was reincarnated again. As melodramatic as Sailor Moon could be, at least each story arc had a beginning and ending that did not overstay its welcome. Ladybug meanwhile can be summed up as followed:

Teenage girl is thirsty for obvious blond boy whose dad wants to get magic jewelry to necromance his comatose wife. Teenage girl gets magic jewelry and turns into heroine in ladybug mustered spandex suit that makes rule34 artists all tingly. Same goes for boy she has the hots for, only he becomes gimp catsuit shota bait. Bad guy transforms random citizens who feel down for some reason (often times connected to a blond whose family name Dobson can’t write) into action figure like super villains. Ladybug and Cat Noir defeat them, the damage is reseted, Ladybug and Cat Noir never figure out who the other one is despite things being so obvious Ray Charles could have seen that shit coming. Repeat not just for one, but ALL seasons so far and add as little as possible storywise to increase the roaster of characters, but not progress the plot.

All that said, I can say that there are worse shows out there and for a show meant to sell toys to girls and be about a female hero, it is not THAT bad. But a) the creator is an asshole (think of functional Dobson) and b) there are still better shows to watch, even within the preteen magical girl genre, than this. Not to forget that this thing may be the indirect successor of Totally Spies and give certain people internet related fetishes within the next few years.

So, why am I believing Dobson would talk about the show at least for today more than he already tends to do on average? Because Ladybug actually got now a movie.

Well, it is called a movie, but in reality it is more of a 3 parter to start the fourth season if you really look into it. The thing is called Miraculous World: New York – United HeroeZ. It clocks in around 65 minutes and focuses on Marinette and Adrien in New York, teaming up with new heroes that are so unsubtlety promoted in this movie, I expect them to get their own spin off series by the end of next year so the showmakers can milk the cow even drier.

Let me try to elaborate in what is going to be a less than just a bit snarky summary with a few critical points and jokes at Dobson’s expense thrown in here. In other words, the typical biased youtube reaction channel/movie review. Spoiler warnings are obvious and I promise than unlike certain pedos on youtube I am not going to focus on the assets of underaged French girls. I do warn however for increased levels of making a fool of myself by writing a multi page “mock summary” of this thing.

So because the movie is based on a children show, it has a very basic set up; Adrien and Marinette’s class is invited to spend one week in New York, because of a pointless international collaboration thing referred to as French-American Friendship week. The sheer existence of this showing that a) we needed any reason to get them there and b) this special was worked on LONG before COVID19 hit us all. And yes, I know animation takes its time to be done, I just think it is funny how in today’s international political climate and health situation this thing has become outdated already, when it is hitting the tv just now.

At the same time, Adrien’s dad suspects that an artifact currently shown at a museum in New York may be a missing Miraculous that was owned by the Marquis de La Fayette and gifted to George Washington during the American Revolution. And yes, we are going there and you can guess what Hawkmoth’s goal this time is, while at the same time history gets fucked up the butt.

But before we can get to any action in New York, we have to deal with the one thing Ladybug is known for best: Cringy shipping bait.

Look, I know that shipping is a part of magical girl shows in general, but the shit going on in this cartoon is not only drawn out tediously even for children tv standards, I find it makes some characters outright dumb and unlikable. We get it Marinette, Adrien makes you tingle. But can you stop cringing your way through life around him in a manner that would make Tomoko Kuroki say that you are freaking pathetic?

I don’t want anybody else. when I think about Adrien I...

Just three minutes into this movie she essentially melts away at a poster of Adrien and throughout the first 15 minutes she just simps away in the big blue yonder. For example by asking Adrien’s dad to allow his son to travel with the others to New York, obviously stumbling upon her words when she needs to remind herself that she can only see Adrien now as a friend and not love interest (because this is supposedly set after season 3, when she decided to go for the second price in form of the guy who plays guitar), insisting that she is only “friends” to the point even her best friend Alya gets fed up. Or when Marinette gets more than just “a bit” nervous at the chance of sitting on her flight to New York next to Adrien, resulting in her fucking that chance up so badly, I felt an headache approaching.

Not gonna lie, I had to pause a few times because it got so cringy for me, I wondered why Dobson makes primarily jokes on Adrien’s expense when Marinette herself is female thirst personified. Even the movie seems to point out how the two are so obvious to each other, when Alya has the following to say about them: I can’t decide if they are the most cutest people I know, or the most embarrassing.

Thankfully it is at 18 minutes into it, we FINALLY get something of a conflict. While still on the plane (And Adrien and Marinette watching a sunset through a window) a villain shows up, trying to steal the jet engine midflight.

Just roll with it

Thankfully, before the plane can go down thanks to a Gremlin on the wing- I mean TECHNO PIRATE, the real stars of the movie show up.

Wait, you thought this thing was going to be about Ladybug and Cat Noir being the primary heroes? WRONG!

Okay, to put the summary on hold and explain what I mean: This “movie” introduces us to “United HeroeZ”, a group of American superheroes. Yeah, turns out Miraculous is essentially set in your average “Superheroes are everywhere, but primarily US dominated territory” world and this story is meant to introduce us to them and have Ladybug and Cat Noir team up in order to save the day. And while I don’t necessarily HATE the characters, I have to admit that I can’t help myself but snark quite a bit about them. Not only are they for the most part just expies of well known superheroes, the way how prominent two of them in particular are featured in this movie makes it very, VERY obvious that (As I stated earlier) this thing aims just to create a tie-in show for the creators to make more money of the property. Not just that, but their presence in a way reduces Adrien and Marinette’s importance as characters, even though the new ones at best would count as supportive characters overall. Which again makes me wonder, what does it say about Ladybug and Cat Noir’s “impact” in their own franchise when I actually find myself more interested in the side characters made to promote new toys, than the actual leads?

Anyway, United HeroeZ defeats Techno Pirate and in doing so we are introduced to the main members of the group which are relevant for this movie:

So please, give an applause for…. MAJESTIA (aka actually decent Powergirl redesign/Non Superman)

SPARROW (Aka yet another Robin that may get hit by a crowbar)

UNCANNEY VALLEY (aka The Shipper on Deck/Cleopatra in Tin Foil/Vision as your Waifu/the dumbest name you could have chosen for a character!)

NIGHT OWL (aka Alan Moore is going to be pissed!/Oh look, it’s Batman!)

You get where I am coming from when I call them expies, right?

Anyway, with the plane safe the class finally gets to New York. Both Sparrow and Uncanney Valley get tasked to go undercover with the students and assure they are save during the trip, because plot reasons and New York is supposedly enough of a safe place that their services aren’t needed to fight bigger threats currently. Which confirms at the very least that a) this is not the Marvel Universe cause at this point the town may be ground zero yet again and b) a way more enjoyable version of the Big Apple than the real deal.

By the way, these are Uncanney (left) and Sparrow’s (right) civilian identities :

I can now imagine Dobson wanting to proclaim how problematic the character is for being a native American who looks the way she does. But believe me. It gets kinda worse in all the right ways.

Also, we are 28 minutes into the movie and we are introduced to the dumbest thing in the movie yet. The arch enemy of the Condiment King; Hot Dog Dan.

A superhero hot dog vendor seller with a flying hot dog truck, whose hot dogs give you temporarily some random superpowers when you eat them. And it seems he uses hot dog tongs as weapons.

I don’t know what the people making this show take, but I am torn between wanting some of that myself and putting them into rehab.

I really bring the character just up because he is as a concept in itself so ridiculous that part of me thinks he is a fever dream of Dobson. Otherwise he has no real bearing on what is going to happen on the rest of the movie. He is just relevant for a three minute long scene of a house roof party during which Adrien and Marinette dance for a bit.

Speaking of relevance, the next day the class finally gets to do something on the trip that leads into conflict for our heroes to face. During a visit of the museum where the La Fayette related Miraculous is hold, Uncanny and Sparrow decide to play shipper on deck by forcing Marinette and Adrien in a room and attempting to set a really stupid plot into motion (and no, I don’t mean they enforce a reenactment of Steven Universe or something). At the same time the villains finally do something, when Hawkmoth (now in New York) turns Techno Pirate into his latest minion and have him attack the museum to steal a saber by La Fayette as distraction, while he takes the charm he is out for. Long story short: Our heroes FINALLY transform and have to fight with Uncanney and Sparrow against Techno Pirate on the roofs of Manhattan.

And while I don’t think it is all that great of a fight, it still means something aside of Marinette cringing her way through the plot is happening and the heroes are actually in decent peril. Plus during the fight the movie gives me one of the funniest moments possible. You want to know what it is?

Well, while fighting the bad guy, Cat Noir and Ladybug obviously trigger their miraculouses. And what does Ladybugs miraculous turn into this time, to help her develop a strategy to defeat the villain and save the day?

A bikepump.

... yeah, I am going to give all of you now 5 minutes to laugh it off. Believe me, I needed them too.

Sure, it is a cartoon and I doubt anyone working on the show is even aware of our favorite uncare bear, but come on. At this point the universe itself is either mocking Dobson or tries to set up the perfect opportunity for an obvious joke from my side.

Not helped by the fact that once the bike pump shows up, the dialogue between characters that follows is, and I quote:

Cat: A bicycle pump? What are you going to do with that?

Ladybug: I may have an idea, but you wouldn’t like it

Anyway, believe it or not, the fight actually ends with a surprising shock moment. Cat Noir, while having his cataclysm powers active (you know, the powers that make him decompose anything he touches), being thrown by Techno Pirate at Ladybug, resulting in Uncanney protecting her and being turned into scrap metal. Which in turn causes Techno Pirate to make the acquaintance with Majestia’s fist, as Uncanney is more or less her adopted daughter and I guess she has seen what was going on (but did not interfere because the plot says so) until now, pummeling him so hard he flies through a few buildings and causes at least three 9/11 to happen on this day in New York.

So, yeah. Uncanney is dead. The heroes experiencing their darkest hour in the movie.

… welp, can’t have that for long, so less than 2 minutes later Ladybug uses the Magical bikepump…

5 minutes of laughter later

Got it out of the system? Good. As I was saying; She uses the fetish toy to reset all the damage done by the akumatized villain and in doing so fixes Uncanney too.

Welp, that was a waste of tension. Guess someone watched the entire Lars dying thing from Steven Universe.

So, damage undone, but Majestia and Night Owl pretty pissed at what happened, want Ladybug and Cat Noir to give up their miraculouses (I assume that is the correct plural) until they leave New York. You would expect this to result in some dramatic chase scene or confrontation with the older heroes, but because this movie has just like 22 minutes left and we need to close act two now, our heroes instead flee and end up in the sewers of New York.

There they do NOT team up with a group of mutated reptiles, but have a heart to heart talk (I never thought I would agree with Dobson on something, but I have to agree on this: The show is kinda fixated on having important stuff happening in sewer channels) that is sort of an argument Cat Noir and Ladybug also had during the fight. You see, because those two idiots haven’t figured out their respective civilian identities yet (something even Sailor Moon would have figured out AFTER THREE SEASONS!) Marinette assumed that Cat Noir would be in Paris while she is in New York to keep the city save. And Adrien/Noir was okay with making the promise of keeping the city initially save, because his dad only allowed him on the trip the day after he made the promise. So when the two transform out of sight of the other in New York and meet, instead of asking some logical questions (like “where is Marinette/Adrien and why is Cat/Ladybug here?”) they kinda argue wtf Cat is doing here while Paris may be in danger.

Long story short, she is angry at him, he feels guilty for having disappointed her and the thing with turning Uncanney into scrap, Paris was attacked by Hawkmoth’s secretary unleashing temporarily some monster clone because Hawkmoth thought that distracts the heroes in Paris (and really just results in damage that makes a city that experienced the destruction of Notre Dame the year prior just feel numb) and because this is the turning point in the plot, our hero needs to do something just a bit too melodramatic. Which is that Adrien gives up his powers and runs away.

… so, up to the final part in which things to care about start to happen.

Hawkmoth now has the Miraculous and unleashes its Kwami who is this eagle themed little thing referring to itself as the “Kwami of Freedom”.

… Yeah, this thing was NOT around for the last 200 years, wasn’t it?

Anyway, it states that its powers are based on “freeing” people of limitations to achieve their full potential. What does that mean practically? It means that when Techno Pirate holds its powers on top of his regular powers increased by being akumatized, he can unleash some energy attack that removes moral inhibitions when getting hit by it.

… So it basically unleashes the Purge.

Which is exactly what happens to Majestia and Night Owl, turning one into Man of Steel Superman causing nine additional 9/11s on top of the three prior (how the fuck did this movie manage to turn an American tragedy in a measuring unit?) and the other into All Star Batman.

Oh and it turns the President of the USA into a worse war monger than people accuse Trump of being.

Oh, this is NOT going to sit well with anyone...

… Yeah, sidenote: The president of the USA in this movie is essentially Michelle Obama who ALSO is a superhero with an American flag theme and besties with Majestica and Night Owl, trying to protect the exchange students. Because supposedly NOTHING better needs to be done. Once she gets hit by the “Freedom Feathers” or whatever you want to call the Kwami power, she pulls out the Football and activates turrets all over the USA, ready to blow up anything that moves into smithereens. Including at least 10.000 such turrets on the roofs of New York and a nuclear missile in the bay near the Statue of Liberty.

I’ll take it to the people with the eagle not the dove. If there is one thing that obedience is symptomatic of, it’s W-E-A-P-O-N-R-Y... WEAPONRY, from above!

(BTW, the rocket is animated like shit!)

I get the feeling someone on the production team is not the biggest fan of America.

Anyway, with the heroes being useless and Marinette and Adrien mopping around for what happened during the battle (and Adrien being tricked by his dad to leave New York and get back on a plane cause this town is not save and Adrien can’t fucking stand up to his emotionally abusive father), Uncanney and Sparrow have to get the ball rolling so the day can be saved. Which means that Sparrow and Ladybug try to fight and distract people for time (off screen mostly), while Uncanney hijacks Adrien’s plane and brings him back to take up the gimp suit of Cat Noir again. Oh yeah, almost forgot, Uncanney, cause she is a robot, has figured out easily who Ladybug and Adrien really are cause scanning. Making our heroes literally dumber than a walking toaster.

So the four finally together, fight Techno Pirate on the Statue of Liberty a second time (after some hijinx with another corrupted hero whose power is literally to create portals through doors, but he is irrelevant for anything so I skipped him up until now) and defeat him. He loses the Miraculous, Sparrow takes it on and becomes its next official owner, resulting in her costume turning into THIS

So now we have the native American girl turn into an eagle based superhero with a costume that looks like out of a western based Lego set.

Real talk here: Unlike Dobson I do not believe that everything is political or offensive or some other shit. In fact I hate his comic where he talks about “skin color changes” of the black characters in Ladybug, because he essentially tries to create a race issue and tension where there is none, just because he is a social justice moron. Which gets especially funny when his ideas for a progressive female results in characters like the black rat pirat who kicks you in the face for being hetero or infantilizing the characters of Patty to make them visually more appealing to Max Karson.

That said, in this day and age, doing a character like that… kinda yaiks.

Like, on one hand I think the girl has an enjoyable personality and the design of her hero outfit is okay for a kids cartoon. It’s not like she also talks in some cartoonishly native way or has suddenly a tomahawk as a weapon.

On the other hand, it is kinda stereotypical from multiple ankles and unfortunately there is nothing to the character past this point. Oh sure, Sparrow has now Miraculous powers, but really, all she does now is just use her powers to nullify Techno Pirates influence on the adult heroes before Majestia manages to reenact the bad ending for Majora’s mask and that is it.

Granted, there is Hawkmoth also almost starting World War 3, but that is really just happening at the site and dealt with almost instantly. To be more specific, because Ladybug and Cat Noir did not hand over their Miraculous, he lets Techno Pirate launch one of the missiles near the Statue of Liberty (worse president than Trump, honestly) but before the thing can hit anything, Majestia sweeps it away and throws it into the sun.

You know, if the show writers want to make Adrien’s dad even remotely “sympathetic” or interesting/intelligent, they increasingly fail. Cause I don’t know about you, but causing World War 3 does not really feel like it will benefit in bringing your comatose wife back.

Bottom line: Nuke has been burned, Techno Pirate gets defeated, all the damage reseted, Sparrow is now the official owner of the latest Miraculous and renames herself Eagle, everyone is happy, there is a big celebration for the class and Hawkmoth is convinced there might be other missing Miraculous all over the globe he wants to get his hands on, meaning season 4 may have more globe trotting Miraculous “action” once it starts.

And also the last scene of the movie shows Eagle and Uncanney meeting some other guardian of the Miraculous box who wants the Eagle charm, but she seemingly convinces him to team up, solidifying that this one hour “movie” was really just a backdoor pilot for a tie in series about an American centered heroine that is so big, a freaking monster truck could pass through this backdoor.

Yeah, if you can’t tell, I am not a big fan of what I saw.

Look, I will openly admit that my opinion on this is in large parts already tainted by me not being part of the demographic which enjoys the show. So this was never going to be considered “good” in my opinion. That said, I tried to be neutral to it for the sake of fairness. And I kinda failed.

Sorry, but I genuinely do not think this is a good “movie”. First, with barely 65 minutes I don’t really consider it a movie and more of a tv special meant to lead into the next season of the show. Second, I expect of a movie based on a tv show to have slightly higher stakes and presentation value to it than what you would expect from any average episode it has to offer. Which this thing doesn’t. Oh sure, the animation is slightly improved in some scenes, but overall just the same. And frankly, the writing is just still as “bad” as in the original show, if in parts not even worse. Aside of the typical stables, such as the cringy romance that does not move forward but is kinda on the forefront, the main heroes stumbling more or less into the situations instead of being more active in their duties, Hawkmoth not even in a movie having a genuine plan aside of “get this, see how it will help me defeat two kids and fail”, the movie also just never manages to induce a proper escalation of conflict to make it feel like something “special”. For example, we have a shitton of temporarily corrupted heroes. Do Ladybug and Cat Noir ever properly face them off at one point or have meaningful/fun interactions with Sparrow and Uncanney or each other outside of the first three minutes of the movie? Nope! I can name a few movies based on animated shows that gave me enjoyment, even those following basic shonen anime rules. But this one isn’t really among them. And taking into account that I consider at least the Steven Universe movie enjoyable in a dumb way, that says something.

There is also just the fact that it takes away from Ladybug and Cat Noir too much. Sure, I don’t like the romance stuff with them because I think it plays out in some of the cringiest way possible. But I would have been okay with them or other already established sidecharacters doing other stuff and having to face some conflict that is centered more around them.

Instead the movie finds this bizarre disbalance where it focuses too much and yet too little on completely new characters, that feel shoehorned in to create a starting point for a spin off, making Cat Noir and Ladybug secondary characters in their own movie.

I mean sure, I have seen many shonen anime based movies where there is a set of “movie only” characters interacting with our heroes, but they don’t take too much away from the heroes being heroes. Say what you want about the 13th movie of any long running shonen anime, at least Luffy, Naruto, Son Goku etc. are still the central characters of their respective franchise affiliated flic. Here however we take too much away from Ladybug and Cat, while at the same time focusing also too much on their “struggle” as Marinette and Adrien (or rather just Marinette making a fool out of herself while Adrien is utterly obvious to her behavior) while the major heroics are reserved for the movie characters only, that this entire thing should just be renamed “The Adventures of Mummy Robot and Not Robin, also starring two underaged kids that Dobson is obsessed about!”

All that said, I will give it a few things.

1) Uncanney and Sparrow/Eagle, despite my jabs, are kinda enjoyable in terms of personality. So are their partners/parents (Majestica and Night Owl are actually the (adoptive?) mothers of their sidekicks and also a couple openly caling themselves love, so yay, L(GBT) representation) and if the show would ever decide to focus also a few episodes on other characters aside of Ladybug and Cat Noir, I wouldn’t mind to see them. I just don’t think they are the most original characters out there and I think I may speak for some fans of the show when I say it sucks, that when it comes to the “action” within this “action adventure show”, they take up the spotlight from the actual main characters.

2) The fight scenes against Techno Pirate were okay overall. Nothing mind blowing animation wise but okay for the standards of this franchise.

3) Eagle’s costume design is not the worst despite my jabs at it being “stereotypical”, at least under consideration of cartoon designs (again, I can think of more offensive shit from the 90s or the Dobbear himself)

4) Well, it wasn’t for me, but I can say it was at least still on the same level of quality as the show. Make out of that comment however whatever you want.

My verdict: Three out of five Dobson’s would approve this movie. The other two would rant about stereotypes and be too busy incest shipping Majestia with Uncanney based on one shot of the movie. And none of them would acknowledge the flaws that make the “movie” a badly disguised jumping point for a spin off that makes the Equestria Girls look subtle.

Hope you got some enjoyment out of this rant that ironically may have been overall more retarted and detailed than anything Dobson may ever say in regard of this movie.

#miraculous ladybug #movie #marinette dupen chang #andrew dobson #so you are a cartoonist #syac #movie sperging #animated movie #sucks #mock #review #adrien x marinette

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betweenlands · 3 years

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i know you wanted anonymous opinions but--- the obscure mcyts you've recommended are all great (secret rivals is actually one of my favourite series now-) and so I was wondering,,, do you have any more you'd like to share?

oh boy uhhh. i’m assuming you’ve already watched kakujo bc like [gestures at my blog title] so. let’s see what else. this is rambly so it’s going under a readmore.

unfortunately i don’t have anything in the vein of secret rivals (a damn shame, bc it is SO good) but inro has done a couple other hardcores before, including her betweenlands hardcore, which is how i found her! there’s a bad joke abt one of the btl enemies looking like a certain... let’s say, hunger demon from a closed culture... but other than that it’s generally enjoyable.

obviously i have to rec kakujo but he’s also worked with stumpt on occasion, and apparently stumpt have an extensive long-running lore series of their own! here’s an overview video if you just want to start at their latest plot series (invasion) as of now. i don’t know as much abt stumpt as my partner @bewildercraft does tho.

in terms of “old nostalgia that is only obscure because people don’t remember it” i’m going to assume you’ve already watched redstoner, given that i never shut the fuck up about redstoner, but fun fact: there’s a spiritual sequel! here’s the link to a playlist that my friend aquelon made, which compiles all of Nick and Jon/Jonstoner into one handy playlist. i may have, uh, actually cried at this series before, good luck

if you’re looking for something with absolutely zero plot - like, literally just some guy doing minecraft to have on as background noise - you can’t do much better than toasgaard, who i don’t really talk about a lot on account of he has no character and is just some guy playing minecraft. he’s also an incredible builder, is actually good at mods, and is just... nice to have in the background while i’m playing cookie run. i’m a simple person.

on the absolute inverse end of the spectrum, there’s the abandoned but honestly kind of delightful minecraft roleplay mythoscraft, which i am the only fan of in existence. it’s the pinnacle of obscure minecraft roleplays and i’m still not over the end of season one (season 2 is where it was abandoned partway thru, but i honestly write my own damn canon for s2 at this rate, my city now)

uhhhh okay two more. first one will win me zero clout but i do think people should be watching simplysarc because i just think he’s neat, and also i would like him to be a hermit someday. i recognize that he is a whiteboy but his content style is still genuinely charming and just kind of fun. that’s all

last but not least (i literally saved this for last) is flux buddies! not really obscure by a long shot but the fandom is dead so it might as well be. please watch flux buddies, i care it a lot. here’s a playlist our roommate @autisticlalna made containing a good 101 episodes of flux buddies and related series so you can go through it without having to watch it for like an entire month straight. as a note - this is old yogscast so there is some off-color humor and very rare use of the r slur (they get better), and in addition the very first episode is unfortunately on a shithead’s channel. fuck sj*n. (that said: flux buddies is fucking amazing, i’m still not over 2.0′s finale, also the playlist doesn’t have the final season in it but tbh if you make it through the playlist you can kind of just watch all of flux buddies 4)

uhhhhhhh that’s about it. sorry for being a bastard on main

#long post //#txt #yt #misc #ask #Anonymous

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pynkhues · 4 years

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favorite tv shows of all time? (I might need some recs lol)

Okay, so, it’s always a horrible idea to ask me for recommendations, because I watch a LOT of TV shows and movies, and I inevitably get too excited and recommend a million things, haha.

So look, I have no idea what my favourites are, but I have a lot that I love. What I’ve done instead is break it down into genres and pick one that I recommend more than the others (while, y’know, still listing out all the others, haha). Also I’ve left Good Girls off, because I assume most people who follow me have seen it, haha ;-)

Put behind a cut to save your feeds!

Let’s start with comedy!

There are basically a million shows I could recommend here, but one of the ones I have re-watched a lot and just feel is supremely underrated is Playing House. The premise is pretty simple! Two childhood best friends reconnect after one of them – while heavily pregnant – discovers her husband is cheating on her, kicks the husband out, and the best friend moves in to help her have and raise the baby. It is extremely funny, and always makes me cry like a baby, especially because I watched it with my best friend after we’d both ended shitty relationships, so it kicks me right in the nostalgia feels too.

Other comedies I love: Insecure, AP Bio, The Mindy Project, Don’t Trust the B in Apartment 23, Nathan for You, Chewing Gum, Kim’s Convenience, Malcolm in the Middle, Veep.

Drama

I’m a sucker for a good coming of age story, and there’s just something so tender about My Mad Fat Diary. The story is compassionately told – a girl gets out of a psychiatric facility and wades back out into the same tumultuous waters that put her in the facility in the first place. It grapples gently and earnestly with issues of weight, sex, trauma and family, and watching Rae grow as she navigates that is pretty magic. While it ran for three seasons, there are only 16 episodes, which makes it a quick watch too.

Other drama series I love: Offspring, Atlanta, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, Chuck, Killing Eve, Dare Me, Freaks and Geeks, GLOW, The Get Down, Shameless, United States of Tara, Orange is the New Black, Offspring

Crime

I honestly think John Ridley’s American Crime (not to be confused with Ryan Murphy’s vastly less superior American Crime Story) is about as close to a perfect crime show as you can get. It’s harrowing, yes, but where it excels is that it’s less concerned with the crime itself than it is on the circumstances that led to the crime happening in the first place, and the fallout of it within a community, with a particular focus on race, class and privilege. It’s an anthology series, so each season focuses on a single crime in a different community - the first being a breaking and entering gone wrong, the second being a rape at a prestigious all-boy’s school, and the third being illegal immigrants forced into slavery on farms. It’s exceptionally good, but hard to watch.

Other crime shows I love: Unbelievable, The Night Of, The Number One Ladies’ Detective Agency, Big Little Lies, Breaking Bad/Better Call Saul, Hannibal

Horror

Channel Zero’s one of those shows that’s pretty flawed really, but I so appreciate the lengths it goes to to tell a different type of story. It’s another anthology series (spoiler alert: I love anthology series’, haha) but this one devotes each season to a different urban legend, and really building such unique, fun, dark stories out of them. Plus the visuals are usually A+.

Other horror shows I love: Black Mirror, The Exorcist, Bates Motel

Animation

I love animation (so much I actually wanted to work in it for a long time!) and watch a lot of it. There are tons of shows I could recommend here, but honestly, nothing really beats Steven Universe for me these days. It’s my comfort show in more ways than one, and it’s ability to handle generational trauma, high fantasy tropes, music, sexuality, love and the burden of heroism without ever feeling preachy or like an afterschool special is extremely amazing writing, and I love it.

Other animation series’ I love: As Told by Ginger, Bob’s Burgers, Bojack Horseman, Your Lie in April, Eden of the East, Futurama

Period dramang

I kept debating which show to put in here, but at the end of the day while The Knick really was a mixed bag, the stuff that I loved in it, I really, really loved. Combining the best parts of medical drama with the best parts of period drama, the series focuses on two doctors at the Knickerbocker Hospital in New York in 1900 – one an addict and brilliant surgeon, the other also a brilliant surgeon, and the first black doctor to be hired there. It’s dark and moody and often grim, but it’s also hopeful and smart and intimate, and well worth checking out.

Other period dramas I love: Boardwalk Empire, Mindhunter, Mad Men, Pride and Prejudice BBC miniseries

So there you have it! Do you guys have any recs? :-)

#tv #recommendations #welcome to my ama #Anonymous

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things2mustdo · 3 years

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The Ascent Of Money by Niall Ferguson is an introduction to modern finance and the rise of money lending, presenting a favorable view of their effects upon the world.

…financial innovation has been an indispensable factor in man’s advance from wretched subsistence to the giddy heights of material prosperity that so many people know today.

…poverty is not the result of rapacious financiers exploiting the poor. It has much more to do with the lack of financial institutions, with the absence of banks, not their presence. Only when borrowers have access to efficient credit networks can they escape from the clutches of loan sharks, and only when savers can deposit their money in reliable banks can it be channeled from the idle rich to the industrious poor.

…approximately $1 of every $14 paid to employees in the United States now goes to people working in finance. Finance is even more important in Britain, where it accounted for 9.4% of GDP in 2006.

The book gives an interesting history of some of the world’s most famous bankers and the power they accumulated, particularly the Medicis and Rothchilds, who brought value by facilitating trade and commerce while reducing transaction prices. It also described the role of European bankers during the American Civil War.

Though others had tried before them, the Medici were the first bankers to make the transition from financial success to hereditary status and power They achieved this by learning a crucial lesson: in finance small is seldom beautiful. By making their bank bigger and more diversified than any previous financial institution, they found a way of spreading their risk.

One of the biggest financial innovations was fractional reserve banking, pioneered by the Swedes. Other European countries improved finance while the Spaniards, still obsessed with silver and gold in their American colonies, kept defaulting time and time again, not understanding that the true nature of money lay in debt and not mineral reserves. One of the more interesting parts of the book was its description of the bond market and its powerful stranglehold on world governments.

…the bond market is powerful partly because it passes a daily judgement on the credibility of every government’s fiscal and monetary policies. But its real power lies in its ability to punish a government with higher borrowing costs. Even an upward move of half a percentage point can hurt a government that is running a deficit, adding higher debt service to its already high expenditures.

…countries that defaulted on their debts risk economic sanctions, the imposition of foreign control over their finances and even, in at least five cases, military intervention.

While the book paints a rosy view of finance, it also highlights cases where the abuse of it through hook and crook caused problems for entire economies, particularly through price inflation. A recent example of that was Goldman Sachs’ commodity manipulation that caused the price of common foodstuffs to rise. On the other hand, ignoring finance and having inflexible monetary policy can turn recessions into depressions. He suggests that Helicopter Ben Bernanke actually did the right thing in showering Wall Street with money to prevent a depression. He also thinks Alan Greenspan is a great man for admitting he shouldn’t have kept interest rates so low.

Economies that combined all these institutional innovations—banks, bond markets, stock markets, insurance and property-owning democracy—performed better over the long run than those that did not, because financial intermediation generally permits a more efficient allocation of resources then, say, feudalism or central planning. For this reason, it is not wholly surprising that the Western financial model tended to spread around the world, first in the guise of imperialism, and then in the guise of globalization.

You’ll also read about:

The abysmal effects of Britain’s weflare system on their economy

Argentina’s failed destiny to become an economic superpower due to bad economic decisions and poor leadership

How the “risk free” LTCM fund imploded and almost took the world economy with it

My problem with the book is that his explanations were too light. He glossed over tough concepts like sovereign bonds and other financial instruments without providing much in the way of examples, unlike a writer such as Matt Taibbi who explains the most complex concept in a way that laymen can understand. I felt like I had to read this book in front of Google so that I could look up things he mentioned only in passing.

The book also seemed hurried with its historical research, especially towards the end when it become a jumbled mess. Overall it’s an okay book but I don’t recommend it for the neophyte.

…it’s not owning property that gives you security; it just gives your creditors security. Real security comes from having a steady income.

Read More: “The Ascent Of Money” on Amazon

https://www.returnofkings.com/10595/there-is-no-hedge-against-inflation

You’ve seen him: an older man sitting next to a roaring fire or maybe walking the grounds of his ranch or he might be in a suit facing the camera. The messages are all the same: something about “troubling times” and “safety and security” —maybe they mention the federal reserve or money printing. Times are bad and could get worse, but they can help you. They have the answer. What is this company selling? GOLD.

Why would you want a gold coin or bar? It doesn’t earn interest and it doesn’t grow or produce anything. It is vulnerable to theft. The price can move down with astonishing speed as we saw last April (as of the time of this writing it has retraced over 50% of that selloff). But could it go up in value, could it “skyrocket” as the gold shills say?

Keep in mind that gold has already gone up a lot recently, about fivefold in the past ten years. And to simply say that gold is a hedge against inflation is misleading. If you compare the price today, let’s say $1500 per oz, to the average price in 1974, about $150/oz, it actually exceeded inflation. Using CPI over this period gold’s value increased at about double the rate of inflation. However, if you bought gold in 1980, average price that year about $600/oz, you’d have to wait until 2006 for the price to come back to that level and not inflation adjusted dollars either (inflation destroyed about 65% of the purchasing power in that timeframe – and this is using CPI which notoriously understates real world prices). Gold prices and inflation are not as closely correlated as the gold sellers would have you think.

But what about “these troubling times”? It’s different now, right? It might be. This is basically what they’re talking about: the federal government and the federal reserve have been acting in tandem to recapitalize the U.S. economy after the 2008 crisis. The government has been spending like crazy and running huge deficits (and buying lots of votes, funny how that works out for them). These deficits are financed by the issuing of bonds of which the federal reserve bank has been the main buyer under the guise of Quantitative Easing and the Zero Interest Rate Policy. This what they mean by printing money – the fed can buy whatever it wants and it has been buying these bonds that are loans to the government.

The Fed doesn’t need money, rather, it creates it. It is the central bank and it can just put the bonds on its balance sheet. A lot of people, this author included, think the government and the Fed are nuts to think that this course would enable economic growth and it will probably only lead to inflation which could become severe and maybe uncontrollable. Without turning this into a financial doomer article, let’s just say both sides make their case and we won’t know which one is right until this QE and ZIRP experiment is over.

This is what it comes down to: if the price of gold in dollars goes exponential in a hyperinflationary situation everything else priced in dollars is going to do the same. You can’t expect that your gold coin will buy the same goods that it would buy now if this happens. The actual purchasing power of your gold will surely decline as day-to-day essentials become prioritized. Put another way, if 1500 this week buys you one gold coin or 250 basic meals, in a hyperinflationary situation that gold coin might exchange for the equivalent of 100 meals or maybe not even twenty. Of course, 1500 in a bank account or your mattress would be worth much less – maybe not even one meal. The possible hyperinflation scenario is the most compelling reason to hold gold now. It’s not about getting rich. It’s about retaining some savings in the face of a massive financial collapse.

In reality, nothing keeps up with inflation like you will want. Agriculture futures are seasonal and your position has to be rolled over every so often costing you fees and changing your cost basis. Your inflation hedge could get destroyed by a good harvest or weak global demand. Stocks are typically seen as an inflation hedge but in a real collapse your brokerage company or even your local bank might not even exist anymore. You may eventually be made whole on the companies you own but this will take years.

Outside of a financial crisis the case for gold is weak. If you’re holding gold the best case scenario is unclear. Perhaps the price rises faster than inflation but that’s probably a longshot. Consider that if interest rates start to rise, if the Fed sees the light on the harm ZIRP is doing, and if inflation is mild then those holding gold are going to be screwed as many decide to sell, preferring actual cash. Expect gold to lose at least 30% from today’s prices and it could happen in a day or two. Don’t expect your dealer to give you a good price or even answer your call or email if everyone comes in selling.

The risk of gold losing value in the face of an improving economy is something you need to be aware of and in a crisis it won’t provide the kind of financial safety that the gold bugs allege. If you still need a place to park your savings you might consider silver. It’s incrementally cheaper to get into and has more industrial value than gold though it is historically more volatile. Or what about booze? A case of good whiskey or rum is highly barterable, doesn’t spoil, tracks inflation as well as anything, and if times get better (or worse), you can always drink it.

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miraculouscontent · 5 years

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Hi! If you could improve both Marinette/Ladybug and Sabrina''s treatment in "Miraculer", how would you do so? And how do you think the episode could be improved in general? Thank you! I appreciate your insights and conscientiousness for making the writing quality much better!

dkjfgnjdkfngj t-thank you!

The thing about “Miraculer” honestly is that its plot in terms of build-up is not technically bad.

In fact, it’s actually really solid for Miraculous standards.

It references “Style Queen.”

It brings back the Gabriel-Lila team-up from “Onichan.”

It shows what happens when Cataclysm is used on a person.

It addresses an issue concerning Chloe’s current standing as Queen Bee.

And, it continues the plot of Gabriel and Nathalie working together (I know that we’re clearly missing some episodes here but I’m not going to hold that over the episode itself. maybe they’re getting around Nathalie’s sickness in some way. I don’t know so I won’t judge until we’ve seen what’s up on that front).

In that way, it’s “Onichan,” Part 2, but… well… that doesn’t make it good or enjoyable (and it feels weird right after “Onichan” to see Nathalie being Gabriel’s partner rather than his employee).

Not only that, but it does exactly what “Onichan” does: giving too much focus to other characters than the one given the akuma.

This episode has a lot going on, and I don’t think it’s able to balance everything.

So, we’re gonna have to go point by point here… again.

[Safreena]

Will someone release this girl into the freaking wild already?

Because, okay, let’s get the akuma’s victim out of the way first, since we’ve been through this song and dance before.

This show cannot keep telling me that these two are “like, the best of friends” when Chloe keeps treating Sabrina like garbage. Chloe didn’t apologize to Sabrina for yelling at her, nor did Chloe make up for it aside from just letting Sabrina play pretend with her again (which is not an apology, even if Chloe lets Sabrina keep the Ladybug costume).

I can only imagine that the difference between Miraculer and Vanisher is Hawk Moth’s choice of words and the fact that Sabrina has someone else to target (i.e: Ladybug) this time, because otherwise, I cannot fathom why Sabrina wouldn’t be mad at Chloe again after Chloe has snapped at her for next to nothing.

It’s not healthy nor logical for Sabrina to stay in this relationship, and no, the show giving us three measly moments (that we did not even see in previous episodes) where they got along doesn’t make anything better.

Yet again, Chloe has taken over an episode where Sabrina gets akumatized. Once is understandable if it is a plot point (it isn’t; it’s a setup for Chloe’s plot point and Marinette to learn a “lesson”), but two with, again, no plot point that’s for her, is going overboard.

Having Chloe in a Sabrina episode, honestly, is inevitable. I understand that. Chloe is a huge part of Sabrina’s life.

But when Sabrina shows up in an episode that’s centered around her akumatization, it ends up being about Chloe. Typically, in episodes, when a person who’s akumatized, we get to know more about them, or they get to develop in someway, even if it’s a small amount.

Heck, even in episodes with characters who showed up for that one episode only, we got to learn about them. Just about the only exception was the kid in “Sandboy” who had zero time to get any development because the episode was packed with other stuff.

But it is Season 3 and we still know next to nothing about Sabrina. The episode may be packed, but we are shown the lead-up of Sabrina’s akumatization with no actual pay-off.

Sabrina, in this episode, is nothing but a tool that the writers are using to test Chloe. She’s not a person; she’s a prop.

That’s why she can’t separate from Chloe. The writers needed her to make Chloe look good by having her reject an akuma after it touched her object (something that no one has ever done). They needed someone to get akumatized, but they knew–they must’ve known–that it would look back if Chloe got akumatized over Ladybug again.

And we’ve established all the way back in “Evillustrator” that Sabrina shouldn’t be around Chloe, right? Yet here we are again, playing this charade and being shown moments that simply do not matter because they don’t take away the terrible things Chloe has done.

Speaking of whom…

[Showy Bourgeois]

Uggggggh.

Alright, yes, Chloe rejecting the akuma was a “good for her” moment and–maybe–a sign of her loyalty for Ladybug.

But that’s not the problem here.

The problem is Chloe’s behavior everywhere else. We’re just back to the bully Chloe who’s loud and complains and isn’t fun because she’s not given any good lines to work with.

And this has been the Chloe we’ve had for a while; for the whole show, honestly. She arrives, she’s mean, she yells a bit, does one maybe-nice thing, and then she goes off into the abyss until someone needs a good akumatizing.

I like Chloe best when she’s mean but fun. The “that’s three questions” line was a good example and I want more of that, because otherwise it’s just Chloe screaming at people until the plot kicks in.

I want Chloe to channel that cruelty and focus it solely on the villains instead of on Sabrina.

And really, I suppose we shouldn’t be surprised. No one’s around to keep Chloe in check. Chloe doesn’t have a reason to change.

Ladybug helped her take the first few steps, but Andre is still her father, Sabrina is still her friend, and because miraculouses aren’t permanent (and Pollen is submissive anyway), there is no one to tell Chloe what she should and shouldn’t be doing. The best Chloe has is Jean (her butler) and he can’t actively speak out because he can be fired the moment he oversteps his bounds.

Chloe is still too volatile. She’s still prone to presuming the worst in people. Even when Marinette tries to comfort her, Chloe is still acting like what Marinette did in “Malediktator” didn’t happen.

And I’d honestly be fine with that if I saw Chloe’s conflict with it. If the show wants to convince me that Chloe’s improving, the solution is not to have Chloe act the same 90% of the time and then have the other 10% be her acting differently than she usually would.

We, as an audience, should see what the difference between Chloe then and Chloe now.

When Chloe acts out of line, we should see a sense of regret. When Sabrina runs out in tears, we should see Chloe go from seething to shocked to horrified as she realizes that she took her anger out on someone who didn’t deserve it.

When Chloe yells at Marinette, we should see a flash of the party Marinette threw for her in “Malediktator,” followed by Chloe clamming up from her shouting and simply storming off.

The show doesn’t have to stop Chloe from doing any bad things right after “Malediktator,” but it needs to show that she’s been affected and impacted by everything that’s been happening to her. She doesn’t have to have regrets all the time, but she should start caring about people who cared for her. She can still be mean, but she needs to be mean at the right people.

Which, honestly, brings us to the big question that this episode doesn’t even try to address.

[Miraculoss]

Does Chloe really deserve a miraculous?

This isn’t about her identity as Queen Bee. This has nothing to do with the fact that she revealed herself to everyone.

This is about entitlement. This is about feeling that something is owed.

Should miraculouses be given out to those who feel like they earned or deserve it?

Does it even matter if they’re good at using their powers?

Is someone who uses their powers effectively worth keeping around regardless of the trouble they cause during their civilian life?

Can that even be a question when a miraculous can just be given to a person who hasn’t nearly killed dozens of people in a potential train accident?

But instead of talking about these things, the show takes another opportunity to push everything onto Ladybug.

Ladybug has to talk to Chloe. Ladybug has to tell her that she can’t be Queen Bee anymore. Ladybug is the one to apologize despite the fact that she is kept very busy (something that Chat seems to constantly forget about, even thinking that it’s okay to keep talking to her while her miraculous is going off like a fire alarm). Even just Marinette has to be lectured by Tikki to go see Chloe as Ladybug anyway even though Marinette already talked to Chloe as Marinette (which was an obvious thing that honestly has no purpose and could’ve been used to have Marinette talk to Tikki about if her feelings towards Chloe’s behavior has changed).

Would Chloe have believed Chat? No one knows because Chat didn’t try. Just like “Glaciator,” Chat doesn’t imagine Ladybug having personal problems or a life outside of superheroing. She’s the “leader” (despite them being called partner’s multiple times and talking like they’re equal), so Ladybug has to do it.

And it’s not like they explain why Chat doesn’t do it. I mean, is it Chloe; the fact that Chloe only would’ve listened to Ladybug?

…Because that’s all the more reason to not use Chloe at all.

We all remember “Antibug,” yes? We all remember the lesson that Marinette didn’t need to learn?

It was about teamwork. It was about listening to others. And that’s something Chloe needs to learn about.

If Chloe can’t respect Chat Noir, Carapace, and Rena Rouge, then she shouldn’t be on the team, period. If Ladybug is the only one she’ll listen too, then that’s not teamwork. Just because Ladybug is the planner doesn’t mean that Chloe would never have to listen to someone else.

Now, if Chloe was fighting with a specific member of the team–like Rena Rouge–and Rena was also fighting back, that’d be different. That would be a conflict that the two team members would either need to sort out or they would have to get out.

And that’s not something that’s discussed either. They don’t talk about the possibility of getting a new holder for the bee and instead still give it to Chloe even when something shady was obviously going on with the sentimonster and akumatized person not being a team (I know we know basically nothing about this yet but Ladybug says it’s weird so I’m rolling with it).

These are all questions I was asking mid-watch and they were never discussed, because it’s easier not to discuss them.

Discussing any of those topics brings Chloe’s worth as a person into question. If Chloe’s worth as a holder is questioned, then the audience will inevitably wonder why Chloe is let loose on the world in civilian form with no one reigning her in.

And, with the possibility that she’ll be given the bee again, that trend continues. Chloe gets a free ride where no one around her has to wonder, “Hey, is this worth it?”

Chloe is an effective bee, and that’s great. It’s good that she was able to take her akumatized father down in “Malediktator.”

And Marinette is a good person. She wanted Chloe to have the bee in hopes that it would make Chloe a better person. I see what Marinette was trying to do, but…

how much good would Queen Bee do for Chloe, really? Chloe has been given a miraculous, what, three times after “Malediktator?” She’s been Queen Bee for maybe a few hours?

When that transformation drops, Chloe still goes home to someone who spoils her rotten. She still goes to school with a girl who does whatever she wants. She still gets waited on by a butler who can’t do anything of value at risk of losing his job.

I’ve said it before, but what Chloe needs is not endless praise and kindness and people being “good examples.” What Chloe needs are boundaries.

When Chloe gets things taken away from her–when there are consequences to her actions–she reacts, but only as long as those things are still held against her.

Once she’s given full trust, she reverts right back to how she was before, with the exception that she receives praise for doing the slightest thing correctly because the tonal whiplash makes it look more impressive. That’s just how it is.

Is Chloe worth trying to “save” as a person? Maybe, but do I think that it should involve a gamble with a miraculous? Absolutely not.

[Bore Game]

Even disregarding Chloe and her constant shouting, this episode isn’t very fun. While the episode tries to squeeze in references and plot elements from other episodes, the final result isn’t something I enjoy watching.

Seeing what Cataclysm does to a person is… something, I suppose, but after Volpina’s illusion in “Catalyst,” it’s not anything special. It hurts, it drains energy, and that’s it. Now, of course, Cataclysm could do worse if used on a normal human, but because Chat’s catsuit is invincible, we don’t get to see any physical damage. We see the impact, we see Chat struggling, and we see Adrien and Plagg hurt and tired.

But then, Chat has to get right back up again to fight Miraculer, getting hit around like a ragdoll in the process. That first Cataclysm hurt, but it doesn’t mean much since Chat has other things he has to do during the episode, so he’s “hurt, but just strong enough to still do everything.”

I don’t need to see Chat bleeding or anything, but just something to show us visually (on his person, not through animation) that he’s roughed up. Belt slightly undone, wrist cuffs twisted, a cat ear bent down at an awkward angle, something!

If Miraculer’s powers were just a downgrade of the actual powers, that’d be different, but they’re not. Miraculer can take them and use them infinitely, which is like… show, I’m not the type to complain about the villains acting OP, but I don’t know what else I can say when it’s so obvious? I mean, they could’ve at least injected some comedy there, like maybe Lucky Charm is bad for Miraculer because she never knows what to do with the charms, yet Ladybug takes them and uses them to her advantage instead.

Anyway, not only that, but Miraculer doesn’t feel like a threat. She’s practically a child, still dedicated to Chloe and being annoying to all the wrong people.

Honestly, she’s in my Top 5 Most Annoying Akuma Victims, easily.

I see what the setup is doing, having Hawk Moth using Miraculer to lure Chloe to their side (even though I’m not sure exactly what they plan to do once they have her since everyone knows that Chloe is Queen Bee; do they only plan to akumatize her? Use her for sentimonsters? The bee is a close combat miraculous, so Chloe can’t hide in the shadows like they can and her miraculous is an easy grab), but with Miraculer being someone who annoys and mockingly imitates people, that’d be the perfect time to give Chloe a taste of her own medicine.

Instead, we just get the same old Sabrina, the same old Chloe with the same old “I might be a good person somewhere” piece of dialog, and the same old formula of having plots that could have potental but are left to the wayside because dealing with complex issues is hard.

[Raincomfix]

Adjusting this episode is… complicated, especially considering that Hawk Moth obviously has something planned for Chloe later (and the possibility that she could still get the bee back; honestly questioning how much the show doesn’t want to make new transformation models for other characters). Either way, I would take Chloe’s miraculous away, but the outcomes here change everything.

Firstly, let’s aim for redemption.

For that adjustment, we first have to change Chloe’s reactions. For example, Chloe’s attitude while waiting to be given the bee may start off angry, and Chloe may toss a few insults at how “useless” the team is without her, but here, she’s going to become very quickly anxious.

Maybe Ladybug didn��t see the signal.

Maybe Ladybug forgot where she lived.

Maybe Ladybug was too far away to get to Chloe in time.

Chloe’s reasoning with herself. She’s rationalizing. This brings back “Malediktator” where Chloe lamented how few friends she had.

And while stressing out over Ladybug, Chloe is neglecting Sabrina.

Meanwhile, Chat and Ladybug only very briefly discuss Queen Bee. Chat is hesitant to say that Chloe doesn’t deserve a miraculous and thus tries to focus on the identity issue, whereas Ladybug is concerned that Chloe isn’t improving enough in her civilian life.

Also, instead of mocking Carapace and Rena Rouge in front of Adrien and the others, Chloe is sulking while pretending she’s not sulking. Marinette approaches and, while Chloe’s initial response is hostile, Chloe softens upon remembering “Malediktator” and realizing that Marinette is trying to comfort her.

Then, Chloe immediately puts up a front and walks away, though isn’t aggressive with Marinette. Chloe just doesn’t like leaving her defenses down since it makes her feel vulnerable.

Marinette considers that reaction and talks to Tikki about a variety of things. Chloe seems to be improving, but is it a big enough improvement? How much should they expect out of her, considering her environment? What about the identity risk? Is the risk worth it if Chloe has been showing signs of good?

Cut to the scene where Chloe is frustrated and takes it out on Sabrina. As Sabrina runs off, Chloe realizes what she did and is instantly regretful. Instead of Sabrina remembering all those “good times” they had together, it’s Chloe, showing that those moments meant something to her. It’s made clear to the audience that Chloe is a mess due to the conflicting influences around her.

Hawk Moth senses that Chloe’s anger has faded and that Chloe cares about Sabrina, so Hawk Moth decides to let the akuma chase Sabrina instead, hoping to use Sabrina to lure Chloe to his side (much like in the original).

The episode plays out mostly as normal, only Chloe is left to consider the fact that she caused Sabrina to get akumatized again, except this time, she feels bad about it. She called herself a hero, but heroes aren’t supposed to cause akumatizations. That’s not right.

By the end of the episode, Chloe has already taken everything into consideration. Thus, before Ladybug can even start talking about Chloe no longer being Queen Bee, Chloe starts talking about how she “doesn’t even want the bee anymore, so Ladybug can just keep it.”

The wind just messes up her hair. She can’t wait around just in case Ladybug might give her the miraculous; she has important Chloe things to do!

In reality, Chloe has recognized that she doesn’t deserve the bee and that Mayura was stalking her. She’s just making the moment easier for both Ladybug and herself.

After Ladybug and the others leave, Sabrina runs up to Chloe, all concerned and friendly like nothing happened and Chloe didn’t snap at her. This affects Chloe emotionally and helps her manage to get out an apology, even if it’s a bit mumbled (apologies are still difficult for her).

The end of the episode is them walking back into the hotel, talking about their next game of pretend. A bit awkwardly, Chloe asks if Sabrina wants to pick who’s who this time.

The episode cuts off there, but that moment shows the audience that Chloe is really trying hard. It shows that Chloe cares about people and that she’s willing to do better.

Now, the unredeemed Chloe version of this episode honestly isn’t that different from the original in terms of how Chloe acts. The only notable difference is that her fighting back against Hawk Moth’s influence is more of a joke than some sort of “character growth” moment.

The big change to the episode, however, is Sabrina. Sabrina’s given a lot more focus.

Why is Sabrina with Chloe? Did Sabrina try to make other friends, and if so, why didn’t she succeed? Does Sabrina care for Chloe, or is it a fear of Chloe that makes Sabrina react?

This would all be addressed, especially as Jean shows up in the episode and would be the perfect person for Sabrina to talk to about Chloe. Instead of the episode stalling and keeping its attention on Chloe’s loud complaints about Ladybug not bringing the bee to her, the focus shifts to Jean and Sabrina, who had moved out of Chloe’s range of hearing while Chloe is “having a moment.”

Jean doesn’t technically discourage Sabrina from staying friends with Chloe, but he hints that Sabrina should question whether or not she’s happy where she is in her friendships.

Sabrina, of course, passes this off as silly. Her and Chloe are best friends! They fight sometimes–okay, Chloe fights–but that’s totally normal, right?

Jean gives her an unsure expression that makes Sabrina falter.

During the scene where Chloe is complaining to Adrien, Chloe’s yelling at Marinette just makes Marinette even more hesitant about letting Chloe be Queen Bee again, much less giving Chloe another miraculous. Tikki tries to suggest the good moments that Chloe’s had, only for Marinette to argue that… is it even worth it? Why bring along someone who needs time and effort to improve when she could find someone else who’d do the job without all this hassle?

Tikki doesn’t have a response to that. Experience means nothing when a different holder can just be trained all over again.

Back with Chloe and Sabrina (Chloe waiting for Ladybug again), Sabrina finally starts considering what Jean had told her after Chloe has yelled at her.

Hawk Moth, nonetheless, tries to get his plan in place, and manages to convince Sabrina (remember, Chloe’s defiance is a joke in this version) to become Miraculer to get Chloe’s attention one last time.

After everything’s said and done, Ladybug admits to Chloe that Chloe can’t have the bee anymore. Chloe is angry and argues that she does well as the bee.

Chat steps in to claim it’s about her identity, but Ladybug turns it on him, pointing out that Chat had refused to tell Chloe himself… why?

Chat stiffens.

Ladybug continues, saying it’s because Chloe sees Chat as a sidekick. Chloe isn’t a team player. Chloe listens to Ladybug and no one else. Ladybug knows what Chloe says about Rena and Carapace “behind her back” and she does not appreciate it.

This isn’t just about identity. This is because Chloe causes akumatizations, is still rude and inconsiderate to people who are only trying to help her, and feels entitled to a miraculous when that is something for Ladybug to decide.

Ladybug commends Chloe for the few times she’s tried, but also adds that it’s not enough. Chloe once told her that she wants to change, but isn’t putting steps in place to do anything about it.

Chloe is stunned by this lecture, then begins fuming, claiming that she “doesn’t need Ladybug anyway” and she “didn’t even want to be a part of their team” (obvious lies).

Chloe then storms off, demanding that Sabrina follow.

“…No.”

Chloe stops, spinning on her heel to face Sabrina. “What?”

“I…” Sabrina stands, not meeting Chloe’s gaze and practically shaking. “I said… no.”

“You can’t just say ‘no’ to me!” Chloe shouts.

Meekly, Sabrina looks at Chloe, voice soft. “I… just did.”

Chloe gapes.

Sabrina continues, nearing tears. “Ladybug’s right. You try, but that’s not enough. I just wanted to make you feel better and you snapped at me. You hurt me and… you’re not even sorry, are you?”

“Ugh.” Chloe flips her hair. “It’s not a big deal. We do this all the time.”

“And that’s the problem!” Sabrina says, raising her voice. “I’m sick of that! I’m stressed out and I can’t take it anymore!”

She turns, hugging herself, then walks over to Ladybug. “C-can you take me home, please?”

Ladybug is surprised, but nods. She reaches for Sabrina, pauses, then glances at Chloe.

“…Actually…”

She turns to Chat, who’s stood conflicted this whole time. “Chat, will you do it?”

Ladybug leans in, whispering, “I want to make sure Hawk Moth won’t come after Chloe.”

Chat nods, then gives Chloe a sympathetic gaze before picking Sabrina up and leaping away. Chloe shouts after Sabrina to come back, but her words are worthless now.

And with that, Chloe would glare at Ladybug, clearly blaming her for all these problems (classic projection), which would be a setup for a future akumatization from Hawk Moth.

The latter points out the faults in Chloe’s environment–that Chloe can’t improve without boundaries–and makes steps to change that by removing Sabrina.

The former probably won’t function for Hawk Moth’s future plans, but could if he was able to escalate a situation and make Chloe believe some sort of falsehood about Ladybug.

I wouldn’t call “Miraculer” a bad episode exactly. I like some of these setups and I like some of the references.

It just doesn’t work as a product that’s trying to make me feel something for Chloe. The only reason that any reaction to Chloe’s changes are so strong is because the writers intentionally write her as rude and nasty as Season 1 Chloe so that the flashbacks and false akumatization hit harder, which is not a natural state of character progression.

Instead of feeling bad for Chloe, I’m left wondering why Ladybug doesn’t just find a new bee during a time where there aren’t any akumatizations or sentimonsters so they can be trained to Queen Bee’s level. This amount of work to improve someone who doesn’t even feel remorse for yelling at her best friend is not worth it. It has never been worth it.

Like, here’s a question: how many episodes did it take for Rena Rouge and Carapace to get their stuff together? One each.

Alya’s moment of weakness was refusing to return the miraculous. Nino’s weakness was wanting to protect Alya but not having the strength to do so. Both of these were resolved in the episode that introduced them.

Chloe has had over four episodes that have her showing clear struggles of being Queen Bee.

“Queen Wasp” - nearly killed dozens of people to “prove herself,” then got akumatized because Ladybug obviously didn’t like that

“Malediktator” - tries to show improvement but then has a “Despair Bear” moment where she’s clearly still Chloe

“Heroes’ Day” - identity came back to bite her

“Miraculer” - is still being a terrible person and showing little desire to actually change her ways

So why does Queen Bee stand on the same ground as Rena and Carapace? Is gambling on her improving using a miraculous really the way to go?

No. No, it’s not. It’s not exactly hard to find someone with higher moral standards than Chloe who can just be taught the ways of the bee.

#category: critique #MC's Adjustments #adjustment: plotlines #adjustment: characters #episode: Miraculer #MC's Writing #writing: story #category: long post #word count: over 4000 #other: ask and answer

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thesophiewhit · 5 years

Text

On Writing My First Audio-Drama Podcast

A daring solo adventure with a big love for audio-drama (Welcome to NightVale. What’s the Frequency. The Enoch Saga. Raising the Dead (Again), The Byron Chronicles. Harlem Queen and more!) and absolutely zero idea how to work a proper editing program except for iMovie.

A recipe for disaster, you say? Or is it a daring adventure?

I decided it was a little bit of both, mixed with a chaotic storm of utter, well, chaos. But, I went with it anyway.

And what did I learn from producing? (Producing solo. Yes, that includes but is not limited to: writing the 200 pages for a first season, recording different voices like I’m Gollum, finding copyright free music, producing an original song cover even if I’ve never sang before, editing recaps, theme songs, setting up Twitter accounts, Instagram, YouTube channels. Email addresses. Websites. Blog tours.)

And on top of that, still waiting on getting approved by podcasting hosts? (Cries in impatience).

I have a little screensaver on my phone that says: write, finish things, keep writing from fave emo author Neil Gaiman. @neil-gaiman (the inside home screen says something about managing anxiety and is super sweet.)

So, I listened to virtual motivator Neil Gaiman and got to writing the audio drama.

I am an indie producer who’s really new at this, so take my word with a whole lot of NaCl grains, but here goes...

AUDIO-DRAMA PODCAST TIPS FROM SOMEONE WHO’S STILL LEARNING THE ROPES

1. It is a non-universally acknowledged fact that a podcast episode goes for 20 minutes- 1 hour. My episodes hit the 20 minute mark. 9 Episodes = approximately 180+ minutes of footage.

2. In script speak, a single page of a script runs for approximately 2 minutes of edited dialogue (leaving room for adding SFX and music). One episode for me (20 minutes), meant writing 10 pages of a very non-formatted script. (But it worked for me. What works for me might not work for you, vice-versa)

3. Music makes a podcast sound professional. I used FreeMusicArchive for a lot of my music. When I needed to produce an OG song for my season finale, I went with “House of New Orleans” and made it sound, you know, ghostly. It’s a horror podcast, it fit my theme

3.5. SFX also make your podcast sound so good. Yes, laugh at my for iMovie editing, but the SFX are free for use (iMovie encourages this). Aside from good dialogue, sound design really helps you build your world. (Outside of music, of course). Think of it like watching a movie. That sound of someone creeping along wooden floors in a horror movie, the background noise of traffic on a busy NYC street, even knocking on a door. These elements bring your audio-drama to life. I favored SoundBible and FreeSounds.

4. Speaking of themes! Pick a genre for your audio-drama. You can mix genres too, within general reason (this is for marketing purposes, you understand. And social media loves to limit how many characters you get to type. Twitter, I’m looking atcha). Comedic drama. Horror mystery. Romantic necromancy, whatever. Just find a branding theme and stay there. This will help you build a podcasting family! For example, I have a horror/paranormal podcast family. We’re tight knit. Lots of goth clothing.

5. Reach out to other podcasting peoples. You’re family, not dueling rivals. When I was starting out (heck, I’m still a pod-baby), I asked so many questions. I tweeted out into the void with my #PodernFamily #AudioDrama hashtags and asked about marketing yourself, sound design, podcast hosting etc.

6. Speaking of which, you’re going to need a HOST before you get your Podcast released onto iTunes, Google Play etc. I used Anchor, but I know others who used SoundCloud etc etc.

7. The host might automatically publish your show onto podcast providers (iTunes/Google Play etc), or you might need to manually submit your RSS feed. You can find it from your podcast host (Anchor you access settings, I believe), but this RSS is your ticket to distributing said podcast TO THE WORLD.

8. Set up a Ko-Fi or Patreon so you can have a lil nudge into buying equipment/funding your art. (Mine is https://www.ko-fi.com/sophiefae , what’s up? *winks*)

9. Make things. You’re the number one marketer on your team. Make trailers. Make graphics. Make a kickass cover for your audio-drama so people want to click on that badass-looking icon. I find this fun, some people might find this irritating. I’m just living my best life with PhotoShop even if I have no idea what I’m doing. What’s up?)

10. Learn how to do sound design. Okay, I’ll admit, I’ve been using iMovie up until now because I’m a coward. But a very lovely podcasting community helped me learn how to use Audacity. We’re getting there, fellow new-programs-are-scary-and-have-demons learners. We’re getting there.

Edit together bloopers/ a highlight reel/ a behind-the-scenes interview, or a little season trailer to play before your episodes so people can just dive right into your drama of the audio.

My trailer for Grimm and Glitter, by the way: (sup *winks*)

youtube

Have any other tips for budding podcasters or audio drama makers? Leave them below!

Social media for Grimm and Glitter Podcast if anybody’s curious...

Twitter: @GrimmGlitter @Fae_Sophie (like cheeky horror movie GIFs, me too)

Instagram @FirstAmongFae (fun if you’re into goth cosplay)

YouTube: Sophie Fae (trailers and episodes)

Website if you wanna listen to an audio-drama about goth and prep girlfriends battling demons together in a small beach town:

https://firstamongfae.wixsite.com/grimm/grimm-glitter

Meet Grimm & Glitter- two superpowered teens who fight evil in an isolated beach town. Just don't look behind the red door...

In the middle of butt-nowhere called “Calamity Beach”, 16-year old Grim and 17-year old Glitter find a hole in the abandoned amusement park just outside the town. The tunnel leads to a locked red door that not even light can get through. Things would all be fine and dandy (no questions asked) except for the strange noises seeping out of it.

That, and ever since going down there, Grim and Glitter suddenly gain mysterious powers. Grim can’t stop hearing people’s thoughts, and Glitter can see the ghosts of the dead.

Can these two teenagers discover the secrets lying beneath Calamity Beach? Or will time run out before the summer ends?

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woolishlygrim · 4 years

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Winter Weebwatch #1

So, because it is Good when I get to have opinions about things, I figured I’d try out doing a bunch of mini-reviews for the current season of anime, doing a new batch of reviews with each episode and seeing how they evolve and change over time, whether some do better, or some fall behind, or if I end up dropping any of them (and by any of them, I mean Plunderer).

The winter anime season is kind of a dead zone: Since it starts in January when everybody’s starting to get busy again and Christmas has screwed over their sense of work-life balance, it’s the season with the lowest amount of viewers, and so it’s the season where the shows tend to be noticeably low effort and low budget. It’s telling that, despite having huge franchises with a lot of brand recognition, Sunrise and A-1 Pictures put Gundam Build Divers Re:Rise and Sword Art Online on hiatus for the entirety of the winter season, choosing to take the hit that comes from a three month hiatus instead of wasting twelve or thirteen episodes on the Death Season, The Season Where Shows Go To Die.

So by and large, what we’re reviewing here are either the shows distribution companies didn’t care about, or the shows distribution companies did care about but couldn’t get a channel to pick up in any other season. We’re also not reviewing all of them, because there’s like ninety and my store of time and opinions is finite, so we’re reviewing seven.

While the intention is to follow these seven shows through to the end, what will probably happen is I might drop a couple that aren’t keeping my interest, and pick up a couple that catch my eye. If I pick up new ones, then whatever I pick up will get some kind of bumper review covering several episodes.

Also, I really dragged my heels getting this done, so most of these shows have already aired their second episodes. I’ll be trying to put out the second episode reviews a lot quicker, so that I can be relatively current by the time the third episodes roll around.

Anyway! Week 1, first episodes.

Infinite Dendrogram.

★★★☆☆

Infinite Dendrogram has a terrible and ridiculous premise that crumbles into dust if you examine it for more than 0.2 seconds, and I kind of don’t mind that at all.

The show follows Ray Starling, a player in the titular Virtual Reality MMO, which promises infinite possibilities owing to its two unique selling points: The first, that all the NPCs are fully-fledged AIs, meaning the world ‘exists’ distinct from its players or any manned oversight, with quests emerging naturally from the NPCs’ wants and needs, and with NPCs able to permanently die; and the second, that each player character has an Embryo, a superpower generated using their personality as a model, with infinite possibilities.

This is an inconceivably dumb premise. Leaving aside the obvious game balance issues with the Embryos, it’s clarified early on that this AI technology is unique to the game, which means that some game company discovered the technology to create fully conscious, sapient life, and decided to use that technology to create a video game (and in doing so, directly led to the deaths of thousands of those sapient lives).

But I … kinda don’t care? Infinite Dendrogram’s episode was fun, lively, not terribly original but consistently engaging, and managed to introduce five characters who I actually kind of like while telling a self-contained episodic story with good stakes and nice pacing. It feels like Sword Art Online if Sword Art Online was written by a competent writer and also not just a delivery system for creepy, irritating fanservice, and that’s pretty nice.

Also, bonus points for actually making the in-universe game look fun? We’ll call that one another advantage it has over SAO.

ID: Invaded.

★★★★☆

ID: Invaded has indisputably the strongest first episode of this season of anime (really first two, as it aired both episodes one and two back to back), by a gigantic margin. A video called ‘Defending ID: Invaded’ floated by my youtube dash a few days back, so clearly some people don’t agree with me on that, but that’s fine. It’s okay for them to be wrong.

When ID: Invaded picks up, a young man awakens in an empty white void full of floating chunks of a city, with his own body in pieces and no memories. Pulling himself back together, he realises, upon seeing a dead body of a young woman, that his name is Sakaido, and he’s a detective here to solve the woman’s murder.

Sakaido, it quickly turns out, is exploring a cognitive world formed out of a telepathic link with the killer, with a team of investigators in the real world watching through his eyes and picking out evidence to find the murderer with. When the murderer, a serial killer called the Perforator, kidnaps a member of the investigation team, the race is on to find him before he can kill again.

So, ID: Invaded has kind of mastered the art of dripfeeding information in a way that gets a viewer hooked very quickly while steadily delivering a series of twists and turns, and recontextualising the story and the mystery (which, it rapidly emerges, is not the mystery of the Perforator, but rather the mystery of Sakaido himself). It’s gripping and inventive, with a strong if slightly convoluted premise and a lot of interesting material to set up going forward in the series.

In a nice touch, director Ei Aoki turns the mental worlds Sakaido visits (two in the first two episodes) into homages to other surrealist anime directors, mimicking both their compositions and their cinematography. The world of the Perforator draws marked influence from the works of Mamoru Hosoda, an apprentice of Hayao Miyazaki and one of the original creators of Digimon Adventure; while the second world visited pays homage to the works of Akiyuki Shinbo, best known for the unsettling surrealist landscapes and equally unsettling cinematography of Puella Magi Madoka Magica and Fate/Extra Last Encore.

Pet.

★☆☆☆☆

Pet looks like a cheap OVA from 2004. Let’s just get that out of the way, it looks bad, but in a really inoffensive way where it just kind of looks cheap and outdated.

It’s … fine. It’s okay. If you’ve ever had a Burger King bacon and cheese burger, you basically know what Pet is like. If you haven’t ever had a Burger King bacon and cheese burger, go and have a Burger King bacon and cheese burger, and then you’ll know what Pet is like.

The first episode doesn’t really give away anything about the premise of the series, save that it involves psychic criminals, but it tells a decent self-contained little story about a guy who learns something he shouldn’t and is then psychic-ly tormented before his memory is eventually wiped.

There’s also just not a lot to say about Pet, though. It fulfills its function as a work of storytelling, and it doesn’t really ever do much more than that, at least in its first episode. It finds its comfortable niche in just being very average and unremarkable, and sticks there, being average and unremarkable.

Of all the first episodes I’m reviewing, Pet seems the most passionless. It’s such a middle of the road piece of art that I struggle to imagine why it was even made. It doesn’t seem like it’s trying to sell merchandise, it doesn’t seem like a passion project, it doesn’t really seem like much of anything. It feels like someone asked a creative writing class to write a short story about psychic criminals, and then one of those stories was turned into an anime episode.

Plunderer.

☆☆☆☆☆

Plunderer offers a moderately interesting premise that literally nobody watching the first episode will even remember because oh good god, from the second scene onwards the entire episode is just non-stop sexual harassment and assault, first from the protagonist to the deuteragonist and then from the antagonist to the deuteragonist, and I hated it. I hated it so much.

In a bizarre turn, when the protagonist sexually harasses and attempts to sexually assault the deuteragonist, it’s played as wacky comedy, but when the antagonist does basically the exact same thing, it’s played with all the sense of horror that those actions warrant.

I just … don’t really get how I’m meant to ever sympathise with the protagonist after this. I don’t know how you rehabilitate a character in the audience’s minds when our very first introduction to him tells us that he’s a sex pest.

Also something something numbers something something die if your number reaches zero something something magical items who even cares what the premise is, my patience for this show ran dry thirty seconds into the second scene.

If I had a way of representing it, I would give this first episode a negative number of stars.

Sorcerous Stabber Orphen.

★★★☆☆

Let it just be noted that ‘Sorcerous Stabber Orphen’ is the most unintentionally hilarious anime title of the season, so there’s that.

A remake of a 1999 series of the same name, Sorcerous Stabber Orphen follows Orphen, a disgraced former sorcerer turned small-time crook and moneylender whose ill-advised attempt to commit marriage fraud is abruptly interrupted by the appearance of a dragon crashing through the roof of his potential bride/mark’s house. This isn’t just any dragon, however, but Orphen’s sister, Azalie, magically transformed after a spell gone wrong, leading Orphen on a quest to turn her back into a human before the sorcerers of the Tower of Fang can kill her.

Side note: While he names himself ‘Orphen’ because he is an orphan, I’m not misspelling the name, that’s how it’s spelled in-show. This is everybody’s fault except mine.

So, this first episode rather shows the age of its source material. It looks very much like a spruced up late 90s anime made with current day animation techniques, and that’s actually not a bad look for it. It’s also not really a good look -- Megalo Box this ain’t -- it’s just kind of a … look. Which is there. It exists in a state of Neutral Retro.

As first episodes go, though, this is probably one of the emptier and slower ones, somehow managing to cover less of its plot than even Plunderer (although it wins out on a massive margin the basis of that plot not being 90% sex crimes), because seemingly not only is its animation style cribbed from late 90s action anime, but so is its pacing.

What’s there, though, is pretty fun. None of it is dazzlingly original, it probably wasn’t that original even in the 90s, but we get introduced to a likeable cast of characters, we get a decent central conflict set up, and the worldbuilding is, while bare bones at present, at least interesting enough to hook a viewer who likes fantasy.

Also, it’s called ‘Sorcerous Stabber Orphen,’ so, you know. Extra star just for that, man.

In/Spectre.

★★☆☆☆

I’m not sure what In/Spectre is trying to be, and it doesn’t seem to be sure either.

The marketing set it up as an atmospheric, brooding supernatural mystery. The first third of the episode frames it as a romantic comedy with emphasis on the comedy. The second third of the episode switches back to atmospheric, brooding supernatural mystery, only for the third third of the episode to switch tracks yet again, this time to an action comedy with an emphasis on the action.

I don’t know whether I’m coming or going with this show. I get mood whiplash constantly, as it veers from genre to genre like a drunk driver on the freeway. By the time the last third of the episode hit, I felt completely unmoored not just from the plot, but from how I was even meant to interpret the characters.

It’s not bad at any of those genres, either. The romantic comedy section was actually pretty funny, the supernatural mystery section was suitably ominous, the action comedy section established stakes and followed through on them pretty well. None of it was blow-me-away-amazing, but it was all competent, it’s just that there’s no coherent sense of tone to any of it.

Darwin’s Game.

★☆☆☆☆

Full disclosure, I completely forgot I was watching Darwin’s Game. I finished these reviews, thought ‘haha, well done, I’ve reviewed all six shows I wanted to review’ and didn’t remember that there was a seventh on my list until I saw its name come up on a streaming website.

That’s a large part of why I’m scoring it so low. It’s better than In/Spectre, Pet, or Plunderer, it’s probably at least as good as Sorcerous Stabber Orphen, but at least those shows actually made some kind of impression on me. Darwin’s Game is good, but I can’t exactly justify giving two or three stars to a show that had such little impact that it vanished from my memory as soon as I stopped actively watching it with my eyes, like some kind of middling Doctor Who monster.

So, Darwin’s Game follows, um. It follows … a guy … with a name that I can’t recall … who is unwittingly dragged into a death game played in the streets of Tokyo. With each player given Sigils, seemingly magical abilities that they can use to gain advantages in the game, and with points exchangeable for vast sums of real money, the players of Darwin’s Game are set to the task of hunting down and murdering other players. Unable to back out of the game, Some Guy finds help with, er … with … a person … whose name I also don’t recall … and …

God, trying to recall the details of this show is like trying to recall what you had for dinner last week just after a severe head injury. You know, but the details just aren’t there.

I’m kind of at a loss as far as opinions go, because I don’t … know? If I think hard, I can remember the order of events that happened in the first episode, but I can’t remember what, if any, emotional response I had to them. All of my memories of this show are a blank, emotionless void, this is like asking me to review Solitaire. Like, I guess it was fine? I guess?

I can’t remember the main character’s face or voice.

Note to self, write all Darwin’s Game reviews from now on immediately after watching the episode, otherwise all recollection of it will melt like ice cream in a heat wave.

I’m still giving it one star, though, because I refuse to put it on the same level as Plunderer. For a start, the main character doesn’t belong on some kind of registry.

#infinite dendrogram #plunderer #id invaded #sorcerous stabber orphen #darwins game #anime #winter weebwatch

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thesnadger · 5 years

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eregyrn-falls replied to your post “Channel Zero is, in theory, a show where each story is based off a...”

Hmm... okay, so a question is: if I'm a real Horror Wimp, would this be for me? Because mostly I'm a HUGE horror wimp. (going back to those SAR stories -- the first time i came across the first couple of posts, they freaked me out enormously. for some reason, when i came back to them a couple of months ago, and reread them, and read the rest, i was less truly scared by them. but like... yeah, even that level of thing can massively affect me.)

It depends? Every season is very different, and has a different type of horror. Also, gore and certain themes are easy to identify but it’s always a little hard to say what is “too scary” since that can vary so much from person to person.

Extremely long analysis of the various seasons under the cut:

For Season 1 I’d mostly want to give a content warning for child death and endangerment. There is a lot of that, really the story revolves around it. I don’t remember a lot of gore, but there is certainly violence and, again, a significant amount of it happens to children. Besides that there’s a lot of cool creepy imagery.

Season 2, aside from one or two moments, doesn’t have a lot of violence or blood. But it is one of the most psychologically affecting pieces of media I’ve ever seen. It’s quite possible that it hit me harder than it would most people because of some of the themes it touches on being very difficult for me. But that said I found it very intense, and there are points where it was even emotionally draining.

There was a point in the middle where I thought to myself, “I don’t like this. This is torture porn, not physical torture but emotional torture.” But I’m very, very very glad I kept watching because the second half of the series and the ending turned me around 100% and made me want to give it a standing ovation.

(I’ll never fully forgive it for not giving Jules’s story the time it deserved but what it did with Margot’s story was still incredible.)

The ending taught me something about writing, horror writing in particular: you can take your characters through the absolute depths of hell if you want. BUT. If you do that, there has to be something they gained from it. Something important and significant, that they would not otherwise have had.

(And just saying “they’re stronger because they went through all this” DOESN’T COUNT, it needs to be something you show that we can really believe they gained and couldn’t have had otherwise.)

That doesn’t necessarily mean they are better off for having gone through hell. Margot also loses many things she doesn’t get back, she loses more than she gains. But she still gains something very important. And the mixed emotions of pain, comfort, validation, sorrow and things I can’t even really name that the ending left me with stayed with me for a long time.

Content warning is probably required for depression/mental health stuff, parental death, suicide, and possibly abusive relationships?

Season 3 has a lot more gore, though it’s mostly the “fun, silly horror gore” type. In fact, there’s a whole lot more fun and silliness in general in Season 3. Though I’d hesitate a bit to call it “lighter” because there are definitely some heavy themes in it.

One of the most interesting things about Season 3 is the way it deals with schizophrenia. Horror media is usually terrible with mental health in general and schizophrenia in particular, (hell, all media is pretty terrible when it comes to representing schizophrenia.) And while I think Season 3 has a few missteps that I won’t get into because spoilers, it may be one of the most sympathetic, least demonizing/fetishizing depictions of schizophrenia I’ve ever seen? (A low bar to step over, admittedly, but still.)

The two protagonists of Season 3 are a pair of sisters. One (Zoe) has schizophrenia, the other (Alice) is about to reach the age where it typically manifests. Since their mother also has schizophrenia, Alice is well aware that it’s highly likely she does too. Alice’s fear of the insidious onset of schizophrenia, Zoe’s feelings about her own illness and the tension between the two sisters over these feelings drives the emotional core of the story.

There’s also a secondary theme about the types of people who fall through the cracks of society, who authority figures and law enforcement officers are willing to look the other way on. (And while again, there are a couple of points I would criticize on this front, it works that theme into their story very well.)

Of all the seasons this is the one I’m most likely to rewatch. A good story with some interesting themes and a lot of fun moments. Good characters, creepy, surreal imagery and fun, over-the-top gore.

(Might be worth an animal death cw because there’s a moment where you see a cat die but it turns out to be in someone’s mind and the cat is fine.)

Season 4 is a more of a creepy mystery mixed with a personal story. It dives back into the psychological, but I personally found it much less emotionally intense than Season 2. (This is kind of a good thing, even though Season 2 was impressive as hell two seasons like that would have probably been exhausting.)

Which isn’t to say it doesn’t get emotional, or put the protagonist through some intense shit. There are some strong themes of trust and betrayal, as well as sooooooome . . . really creepy shit? And I mean creepy as in “unsolicited nude pics” creepy.

There’s also some violence, you see a few pretty bloody, brutal murders. (I personally have a high tolerance for blood, gore and guts but a low tolerance for human pain and suffering.) These murders didn’t bother me particularly, but it may vary for others.

Also there is . . . uh . . . arguably some animal death and child death? It really depends on how you define ‘death’? Honestly hard to say.

#eregyrn-falls #channel zero #horror

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j4nn4s · 5 years

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rules:

always repost the rules

answer the questions given to you by the one who tagged you!

give 11 questions

tag 11 people

i was tagged by @isakvdhflorenzi, ty miss lorena <3 1. Is the social media presence of the characters important to how you view the quality of the remake/show?

hm well skam nl is my favorite and their social media game is trash LMAOOO so generally No but i do feel like remakes who DO have such a good presence kind of elevate the show and i think it’s pretty heartwarmin to see some remakes go sm farther than skam with social media and puttin out educational and IN CHARA resources like skames does this so well and i feel like in that way, the team is really really spreadin skam’s spirit via these resources (like joana’s billion bpd awareness ig accounts and lucas rubio’s yt channel)

2. Least favourite clip of the show? Why?

tbh there are definitely some duds but probably one of the clips with sana gettin herself into a hole in s4 just bc some were hard to watch cus cringey or yikes .... idk i cant think of others LMAO

3. Which character did you feel the most connected to and why?

ijeoiqjiwoij even tho even is my all time fave skam chara, i have to say isak for all of these reasons

4. Your least favourite part of every season?

season 1 - tbh even though i really enjoyed this season, it does take a while for it to build up like i rmr at first not being that interested until ep6 maybe ?? which is hard when you’re trying to get your friends to watch but they have to wait until ep6 before shit starts RLLY buildin up and gettin wild

season 2 - hm ig noora chasin after william ??

season 3 - bro NOTHINGGG call me a purist but its such a refined masterpiece like the pacing is good the characterization is so good ugh i deadass cant think of anythin

season 4 - i always felt a little ??? w noora being sana’s bff ig bc from s1-s3 it didn’t Feel like they were that close like even in noora’s pov, sana wasn’t really a part of it that much ?? like eva was more of noora’s bff ?? so i feel like it would have made more sense if maybe sana spoke more with chris or vilde bc sana and vilde eventually seemed to get closer esp with kosegruppa and chris has always been by sana’s side ?? idk that always confused me

5. What is your opinion on the cast’s participation on social media? Do you prefer it when the cast aren’t that involved like the Skam cast, or do you like a lot of content like the Fr cast do?

tbh i don’t care much abt the casts LMAOOO if anythin it kind of brings more harm as seen with the harassment axel and maxence get and also can bring more controversy like with irene (which honestly is p sad considerin how much i love skames bc now i feel super :/ watchin it like she shouldve just had private accts at this point)

6. Favourite song you found from Skam or the remakes?

OMFGGG love this question .... def doorman by slowthai and mura masa bc its one of my fave songs now and i got it from skam nl <3 ugh taste

7. If you could decide which characters from Skam got a season, who would you choose?

OOOHHH ugh torn bc i like isak’s pov but also i want even’s so might have to forfeit isak season for even season ....... hm so probs vilde, sana, even, noora (maybe not w william tho) and honestly maybe jonas too ??

8. Are there any moments that you liked in the show that everyone else seems to hate?

IJXDWQOIJJ yes .... remakes-wise, people hate skam nl s2’s last half but i enjoyed it for the most part ... i think the pacing was off for the last ep but personally, clip 50 made up for it and is p god tier imo ..... and also don’t think the first half of ep10 is enough to discredit the entire season bc i rlly loved seeing liv’s pov and have sm fave moments from the season

but skam wise, omg might get a lil controversial w this one IM SORRY !!! im bein honest and its Just my opinion ok

personally s2 got me more invested than s1 and i don’t think its a super bad season like i didnt really say many problems wrong with it until i got on tumblr wiejioqjoiqjq i was sort of interested in the questions that the noora/william dynamic brought up which is, as expressed in william’s war speech to noora, that nothing is ever black/white which i feel was a huge message and feeds into the ‘you never know what ppl are going through’ theme of the season ... like i like the idea of someone like noora, who can have a black/white mentality (as seen in the first clip of s2 when she tells vilde that they can’t have the tannin company as their sponsor bc they objectify women or smth but misses the context and what it could mean for the bus monetarily bc shes caught up in bein ‘woke’) having to break out of that and see more than one side ... and i think remakes like skam austin expanded on this idea well like when zoya was like ‘must be so nice being right all the time’ which i Do feel like is an important for youth to know today .... bc i think its so easy to get caught up in the idea of being so objectively right and morally superior that people lose sight of the more nuanced characteristics to life ... (omg long ramble BUT)

also LMAOOOOO this one might be more controversial as it pertains to bench scene s4 ok oops again doNT GOTTA AGREE !! ........ but i feel like the scene had a lot of good intentions ... i was def kind of cringing a bit tho bc i understand the subject’s sensitivity and how these topics are hard to talk about but i genuinely feel like they both made Some points and should listen to each other .... like as Hard and as maybe ‘unwoke’ it is to admit, unfortunately you sort of do have to answer the tough questions bc that way we learn from each other .... and i perfectly understand why some ppl wouldn’t want to do this and i certainly am tired abt havin to answer shit abt my sexuality or stupid male questions abt women but if u dont answer them, people do go lookin for answers still and the internet is such a shitty place that its pretty easy (esp with youtube’s algorithm) to lead you to ignorant ppl and perhaps radicalization .... questions help us to better understand our community and sometimes they can have good intentions too but we have to ask and answer them or else people will make up answers (which ive literally seen and its honestly worse to see fake as shit and UNINFORMED answers bc ppl did not want to ask you or ppl of ur identity, esp when they’re already startin from a place of hate .... but i rather have ppl ask me patronizing questions than have them spread false info bc that can do much more harm in the long run) however i DO think that isak should also consider sana’s side and i sort of wish we saw him conceding more bc they both have smth to learn from one another, like sana shouldn’t just be learnin from isak, isak needs to learn from sana too

PHEW SORRY QWIOJQWIO girl i just got opinions on some things this is when my desc rlly comes in handy .... oqjdwqioj

9. What did you learn from the show?

omg honestly too much to write here tbh ..... but if it says anythin im (very slowly) in the works of a three part skam essay about basically how skam teaches us to be better humans and how to better treat the people we care about diowjqioj essentially the three biggest themes of the show: you never know what someone is going through so always be kind, always communicate with your friends, and no person is ever alone and i feel like these are definitely rlly good messages to live by (also livet er nå BITCH !!!)

10. What is your favourite headcanon about your favourite characters?

omg tbh i could not tell u at all how the skam charas are doing except i hope even is okay thats all im thinkin of ok .... OIWXIOJX omg remakes wise tho ..... honestly im so bad at this girl IDK !!!!! LMAO i have to really think i have a bit of vdh and dutch even but thats bc we know like Zero abt them so its easier oijwiojqio idk liv and noah bein cute as shit ..... OH WAIT personally i feel like janna got a bunch of pansexual energy so my BIGGG hc is that she’s pan also bc she’s one of my all time fave charas and my fkn url so itd be dope if she was pan ok boom

11. What is your opinion on fanfiction in the fandom?

tbh i don’t read skam fanfiction but i don’t mind reading some from the remakes (tho still its rare) ... eiojeioqw i just don’t trust anyone but julie to write skam charas bc i think that’s how precious the show is to me LMAO like idk everything ive seen of skam fanfiction and ficlets and one shots, i could never get into bc the tone is just so out of character or there will be lines that just take me out of the fic bc im like this !!!! is not !!! how the chara acts !!!! so yeah idk not rlly a fan bc of my purist ass but i dont mind others reading it

Questions:

1. Favorite quote of the show?

2. Which country would you like to see have the next remake? Do you have any headcanons?

3. Which season would you rewrite and how would you rewrite it?

4. What clips do you personally like or don’t mind, but others hate?

5. Which songs do you think SKAM or the remakes should have included? For which moments?

6. Who would you give SKAM season five to and what topics and themes would it cover?

7. What moment spoke to you or touched you from SKAM the most?

8. How did you find SKAM? How did you feel about it right after watching?

9. Have you shared SKAM with any friends in real life? What did they think of it?

10. Of the remakes, which characters are your favorite of their SKAM counterparts? (Ex. who is the best Vilde remake? Eva? etc.)

11. How do you feel about the SKAM (and remakes) tumblr fandom?

I tag: @smileykeijser @whatadaze @queenofpurgatoryx @itlukey @skamyeets @shaykeijser @megeliz01 @isakcijser @wackpainterkid @axelauriantblot @kar-d-momme

(omg ik some of yall have been tagged so just ignore if u dont want to do it ok im srry it was in the RULES!)

#long post #skam opinions #tag meme

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bmpmp3 · 5 years

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does a funky little dance

i just finished watching the first three seasons of channel zero and im gonna have some opinions about em :D

season one candle cove is.....odd.....im pretty sure its bad.......the acting is weird, the pacing was weird the dialogue is weird, the themes and motifs are all over the place, it has nothing to do with the candle cove creepypasta but i feel like if you hadnt read it youd be confused.......but i kinda love it? i thought i didnt care for it but i cant stop thinking about it and i think i love it i dunno man THERES TEETHBOY.......WHATS THE DEAL WITH TEETHBOY......like i know its his twin brother but why....the teeth motif? the skin takers called the skin taker but they only use skin as a spooky horror thing in the last ten minutes.... why teeth? oh well i love u teethboy, u do u the pacing was high key garbage, it was like slow down.... grab the wall....speed up now... gas pedal like it was be super slow for like half an episode and then like twenty things would happen in 3 seconds and then itd be slow again, it was just some Weird Pacing qwq the weirdest thing to me tho is the fact that the main character had a kid? like he was acted so weird and twin peaks-y that i was like.....this man Cannot Legally Fuck does that make sense? am i making sense? in conclusion i didnt care for it but then i loved it and its my favourite season so far i also adore the original creepypasta (was the thing that got me into creepypasta in the first place as a kid) but i went in expecting it to be nothing to do with the creepypasta~ i was just hoping for a wild ride and I Got It :D

SECOND SEASON the no end house.....so the original creepypasta i had read and i did like it a lot! but i wasnt as obsessed with it as i was candle cove, plus despite reading the no end house sequels i didnt care for them as much as i liked the first, they were probably fine? i was just bored by them and i dont remember anything orz anyway so i liked the original story but again i wasnt expecting it to be super similar or anything lol, the season was really good though! i think this one, out of all of them ive seen, is probably the most well done? there was some pacing weirdness but mostly it was great, and again with the theming and motif weirdness (what was the deal with the glowing orgasm orb) but for the most part is stayed consistent! i really liked it a lot, also jules and margot are in love, otp the acting was good i think, the visuals could be a little boring as times but it had some cool stuff, the villian reveal i thought was great, the soundtrack has some Absolute Bangers, it was a good time! i dont have a lot to say about this one, its my second favourite season next to candle cove but id also recommend it more than the first season ‘cause its technically better lol, its just a solid season i think , some Good Stuff (what Was the Deal with the glowing orgasm orb tho)

THIRD SEASON BUTCHERS BLOCK okay so uh just finished this one ten minutes ago... I have.... Many Opinions first things first the original story, Search and Rescue Woods, hmmm well uhh.... its one of my favourite nosleep stories of all time but uh.... you dont really need to know about it in the slightest to watched this season lol which isnt really a problem! like i said before im watching these less as completely faithful adaptations of creepypastas and moreso hoping theyre able to use elements of the original stories to create a cohesive story for a general audience who knows nothing about the originals? thats what i want from any adaptation really qwq (candle cove kinda failed this but no end house did this great!!) and I think butchers block did that but uh.... its kinda wild to me that they looked at all the crazy shit in the SAR series and were like “lets take nothing from these stories except that sometimes theres staircases in it” like GENUINELY....it has nothing to do with the stories its kinda surreal? did they get a lot of complaints about the creepypasta stuff being too hard for general audiences to follow? so they just abandoned it? not bad....just weird qwq ANYWAY THE ACTUAL SEASOn uhhh i had a lot of trouble watching most of it, some of the gore i thought was like....cmon man..... chill but also the first two episodes made me Really Nervous because 1) not a fan of when horror media uses physical deformity as a shorthand for spOOooKineSS like in the beginning when they showed the character with the eye thing and were like OH HES SCARY LOOK AT THE EYE THING and i was like its just an eye thing whats wrong (then when he got a knife out he was scary but like....cause of the knife) but luckily it seemed to tone that down later and 2) the whole theme of schizophrenia cause I mean if any of yall are into horror you too know that horror tends to not be...tasteful with mental illness qwq and im still not sure if in the beginning it handled it well, but by the end it seemed to kinda get its feet on the ground and figure out where its going with it and it was a lil more tasteful? like by the end it was less demonizing people with schizophrenia and more exploring both fear of your own genetic diseases and like letting that fear consume you? the theme was interesting, i still dont know if it was done well or not agsdjkasds i dont have that much experience with schizophrenia so take my opinions with a lot of grains of salt orz the pacing was fine, the acting was fine, the imagery was really good at some parts but again some of the gore felt like... a little much? maybe i just wasnt a fan of the long unbroken static shots of self harm, had to look away for a lot of that qwq the sound design was interesting! i had trouble keeping track of the characters of the Peach family,....who was who....what was whos deal... girl i dunno it was okay, wasnt the biggest fan ‘cause it always felt on the edge of a slippery slope into some more distasteful horror tropes? the acting was good and i think the pacing was solid Luke is the best character and i love him and hes so good

anyway i should watch the fourth season sometime, the dream door, hopefully its good!

#time for shadowfairyy talking about whatever she just watched unprompted C:

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hideyourfiresrp · 6 years

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The Rules

Hello, everyone! With us nearing the end of our site buzz, we thought now would be a great time to release the site’s rules. Please read these thoroughly and if you have any questions feel free to send an ask so that we can clarify anything or add anything you think we might be missing. Please note that these are copied from the site, so some of the information may not be needed right away. Please also note that these are subject to change.

Here on Hide Your Fires, we pride ourselves on being understanding, relaxed, and welcoming, and we like to think our rules reflect that as well. Still, we do expect everyone to adhere to the rules as we have posted them, and staff withholds the right to change or add to these rules as they see is fit. We'd like to thank you in advance for taking the time to read through our rules as well as joining or considering joining our site. We know this is long, but it's to make sure everything is absurdly clear. Below, these rules are split into sections to make things easier on you.

REGISTRATION

We ask that you register with your character's first and last name in all lower case, i.e. daenerys targaryen. If you wish to change your name, please do so in the control panel. We have this set so that they are automatically accepted. For surnames, we accept canon ASOIAF houses only, and do not accept made up houses for surnames. The only area this would be reconsidered is for wildlings and for bastards, which will always have one of the canon bastard surnames. If you need help finding an open house for your character that you can work to fit your idea, please reach out to a member of the staff team. For aliases, we will not be allowing duplicate aliases, or at least not duplicates with some sort of distinguisher, i.e. lena and lena2, or lena and lenaaa. Please look at the member directory prior to joining. If you do register with a taken alias, we will ask you if you could change it or add a distinguisher, just to make everything easier and less confusing for everyone involved.

CREATION

We do not have any gender ratios or rules of what kind of character you can make, though this can change at admin discretion should ratios become terribly uneven. That being said, we do utilize character limits. Each member can have up to three major canon characters total but up to five characters total with original characters or lesser canons to start off with, and more characters will need to be purchased through our points system to prove activity. As for faces, we only accept period faces or faces that can pass as period faces, such as models. If there's questions regarding a face, please feel free to ask a member of staff at any time and we will always help with resources. Some stipulations we do have for characters, however, are the following: First, if you plan to play a character that is in close relation to another character you play, please get admin approval prior to registering. Second, if you play a major canon and are planning a plot that involves marriage, please also get admin approval for this as well as any other large plots that would affect the world or the region the character is in as a whole. These conditions are mostly for plot reasons, and while we can always make exceptions there are certain characters and their matches that would be too big to the plot to make exceptions for and some plots that would come across as power playing, which is strictly prohibited. Most major canons should marry other major canons, and any marriage of a major canon should be run past admins for approval. To touch of the subject of the Game of Throns TellTale series, we do allow the characters featured in the games. That being said, we do not keep to the canon featured there. The magic lore and iron grove lore features in this game is not permitted on site, but if you would like to make Mira Forrester and have House Forrester feature the known words and lore from the game, we won't say no to that. Just note, some of the canon will not be the same, as we do not follow the game's lore and we are au from asoiaf canon as well.

ACTIVITY

When it comes to activity, we try to stay as laid back as possible but we also have to balance not allowing members to simply hog faces and canons without actually utilizing them. Because of this, we try to be extremely clear on what is expected of you prior to joining. For every account you have, you must have at least one in character post per week. This will not count games or development, but raven threads can be used. For canon characters, this requirement is doubled to two per week. Absences will excuse you from this requirement, but staff also reserves the right to negate an absence if we feel you are abusing this policy. We also ask that you do not make any new characters until your absence is up. We will be conducting our own checks of activity roughly once a month, looking back on the previous month and how many posts were made. If the month had four weeks, we will be looking for at least four in character posts for characters who are not considered site canons, and at least eight for those who are. If you fail to meet this requirement, we will send you a message to check on where you stand with that character. We all have bad months, and if you get back to use within two days we will not archive your account, but if you need to be messaged for a third time in a row we will automatically be archiving the character as inactive due to the inactivity. If you want to mark your character as active again after this happens, you must meet the activity requirements that you missed. You may post a reply to an existing thread or start a new, open thread to re-activate. Please post in character moderation to have your character and their topics moved back to the correct places only after this has been completed. As far as archiving goes, threads and requests will be archived if they have not been posted in or bumped in one month. For requests, we allow one bump every ten days. For communication threads, this time frame before archival is lowered to two weeks. Incomplete apps will be archived after ten days, and pending apps will be archived after seven. You may have a thread moved from the archives back to its original forum at any time by posting in our moderation thread.

BEHAVIOR

Just to be very clear - we expect you to follow the general roleplay rules - be nice, no drama, if you have an issue take it to a member of staff, etc. This shouldn't have to be listed but we are going to be very clear with this one. Be respectful, don't steal content, always treat others with respect. Please do not at any time pester others for plots or posts. If you're not sure if something is okay to post, ask an admin prior to doing so. Please do not link your shipper or wanted ad in the cbox or in any discord channel except the designated channels unless it is asked for specifically. Please also remember that we all are into various fandoms with new seasons, new shows, new movies all the time as well so please note that we do not allow spoilers of any kind in the cbox or discord. If you want to chat about these things please make a discussion thread in the out of character forum so as to keep this from people trying to avoid them, with an [s] in the title for spoilers. As far as our cbox goes, tumblr links are okay, in-site content is okay, youtube videos are okay, but anything that pertains to other roleplay sites is not allowed.

AESTHETICS

We have a code bank here on site that will be added to as often as possible and because of this we ask that you please do not use codes from third party hosts, such as cttw, candyland, wecode, etc. We have included a thread for coding requests, so feel free to suggest codes or specific styles of codes for us to offer. That said, we do allow members to use codes they themselves have created, as long as the codes do not break any other coding on the site. Another thing we would like to add here is that we do not allow our codes to be used on any other site. We also do not allow our codes to be recreated, used for inspiration, or distributed as your own. If you rip our codes, we will take outside action and those found guilty of it will automatically be banned from the site. Please do not do this. The graphics necessary for our skin include the following: a 250x400 avatar, one square gif that will resize, and one rectangle gif that will resize. We post this so everyone knows in advance what graphics they may need to create, find, or request. We do have a graphic request section as well, so if you're not graphically inclined please don't worry.

MATURITY

We have jcink premium, implying that all adult themes are allowed, and because of this we do not allow members under the age of eighteen. Should we find that a member is lying about their age, they will be banned immediately. Keeping that in mind, we still urge our members to be respectful of one another. If you're going to be threading violence, sex, abuse or anything that may be deemed inappropriate by sensitive guests/members, please tag your thread with a [m] for mature or [tw] for trigger warning. If you feel like you need to ask if your theme is okay, please just tag it anyway to be safe. It is always always always better to over tag than to under tag. This goes for posts in developers as well. Now, on the flip side, if there is something that is triggering that you notice and there is no warning, please pm an administrator so we can go to that member -- do not go to that member yourself. On the same note of eighteen and older, please remember to refrain from blatant nudity in your avatars and profile imagery as well. Another thing we would like to touch on under maturity is that we have zero tolerance for member on member coercion. We take harassment seriously, and we ask that all members message us if they feel harassed or pressured to write something they do not feel comfortable with at any time. All threads should be consensual between all partaking members. While we don't care what you thread as long as everyone partaking is comfortable with the content, we do care when someone isn't and is being made to feel like they have to write that. Please do not pressure each other, be that for posts, plots, character, or mature themes.

ET CETERA

Just as a disclaimer, the admins reserve the right to pend or deny characters if we agree upon a just reasoning as to why. Please note that a pend does not mean we do not like the character. Please see this as a chance for revision and character development. Roleplay is roleplay for a reason, so please remember that this is supposed to be fun. At any point after joining if you wish to leave or mark a character inactive, please just let us know. We have included this in our moderation thread to make this as simple and easy as possible, and we will never blame someone for wanting to leave our site. We want everything to be as fun and comfortable as possible, so feel free to talk to us at any time if you are having any problems. WE ARE HERE FOR YOU. Always.

#previews #rules

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aion-rsa · 3 years

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Pokémon: The Evolution of the Dub Opening Themes

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

When you talk to any casual fan about Pokémon, they’ll remember three things. Pikachu, Porygon seizures, and the theme song. The original theme of Pokémon has entrenched itself into pop culture, and is arguably the biggest song to come out of an anime dub ever.

But the Pokémon franchise has had a long journey since that initial success, its opening theme songs changing with the times. Even as theme songs for TV have mostly gone away, Pokémon has kept the light of them alive with no fewer than 24 songs across as many years!

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Why don’t we take a look back and see how they’ve evolved in that time? It’s worth examining how music trends influenced the songs and which ones are just straight up bops. Along the way we’ll look at how the songs match up to the visuals of the openings as well, because these songs don’t exist in a vacuum and exist first and foremost to be paired with the shows.

Pokémon Indigo League

‘Pokémon Theme’

How do you begin to discuss perfection?

This is the theme song by which all Pokémon theme songs are judged. That isn’t just nostalgia talking, they hit this out of the park. The opening notes convey a sense of wonder and mystery, aided by the sights of Mewtwo and Mew. The lyrics expertly convey the core appeal of the franchise and the anime in particular; you’re traveling on a big adventure to catch as many of these creatures as you can! It should feel like cynical marketing, especially with “gotta catch ‘em all,” but it’s inspiring! It’s right up there with ‘The Fellowship’ theme from Lord of the Rings as one of the best adventure songs of all time.

But you know what this song has that the Lord of the Rings theme doesn’t? Visuals timed to the beat of the song! Let me tell you, Lord of the Rings would have won 11 Oscars for every single movie in the franchise if they started their films with opening visuals edited together this perfectly. Damn near every cut in the opening is put on the beat or matches the flow of the song. The perfect example of this is the shot just before the logo where Ash tosses the Poké Ball. The timing of that ball toss with “gotta catch ‘em ALL” is expert level.

You may think you remember this opening solely because of the song but those visuals do a lot of legwork.

Pokémon: Adventures in the Orange Islands

‘Pokémon World’

Pokémon could have stuck with the original opening forever, endlessly remixing it (Degrassi style, baby!) but they made the bold decision to make ‘Pokémon World’ it’s own thing and it earns major points for that. The original theme is a classic adventure song but this feels more like an adventure song specifically for the summer. It’s bouncier, breezier, and lighter but still communicates the wonder of the Pokémon world.

The visuals aren’t timed quite as well but we’ve still got shots like that one of Officer Jenny and Nurse Joy perfectly synced to the cadence of the “CROWWWDS” lyric.

Pokémon: The Johto Journeys

‘Pokémon Johto’

‘Pokémon World’ boldly broke free from the original but it still maintained the general feel. This one does something completely new. This isn’t an adventure song; this is a fun time with your friends! It’s practically a campfire sing-along song! This reflects the general shifting of what the Pokémon franchise was at the time, from a game and anime with some shades of gray to a bright and colorful, suitable for every demographic with all the edges filed off. That isn’t a knock by the by, the theme needs to be an accurate portrayal of what you’re getting and this song does an excellent job at that. It’s just not as exciting as what came before.

The editing and visuals are above average here but we’re seeing the beginning of a noticeable issue with the opening themes. They’re mixing visuals from the Japanese opening (which clearly has better animation) and visuals from the show. You’ve got this crisp and bright animation next to the softer visuals from the show. It takes you a little out of the experience of the theme, even if it’s only subconsciously.

Pokémon: Johto League Champions

‘Born to Be a Winner’

Oh I am HERE for this song. First off you’ve got the song leading with the chorus of the original theme but it’s got a solid new beat behind it. That beat drives the entire song and it only gets bigger and better as it goes. This is the feeling of adventure the first two themes gave us but with a new edge!

And man that cut when Ash and Pikachu land that’s timed perfectly to “JOH-TO” is sublime. Shame the visuals, which look so crisp and uniform, are oddly broken up with that shot at the end of Umbreon taken from the show. Why is it the only one? It’s a good shot but come on, keep it consistent!

Pokémon: Master Quest

‘Believe in Me’

This one is… fine. It’s fine! It’s biggest sin is that it’s pretty generic. Besides the two shouts of “Pokémon!” it feels like it could fit any other early 2000’s anime dub. Also we’ve got the first (and not the last) awkward shoehorning in of the title of the season. “I’m on a MASTER QUEST!” I mean, I get it. Ash wants to be a Pokémon master. I get what they’re going for but… eh.

The song also doesn’t have a strong beat behind it so I guess they decided not to care about matching the edits to the song. It’s not bad but again, very average.

Pokémon: Advanced

‘I Wanna Be a Hero’

…I wanna be a hero? I know Ash has saved the world way more times than he can even remember but that really isn’t his focus. He’s not a hero. (And don’t you dare come in these comments and talk about Slowking and the world turning to Ash, this ain’t the movies!) He’s not trying to stop evil, corruption, or the dozens of criminal organizations that challenge children to Pokémon battles. He’s just a guy! The song itself is once again fine but generic. The editing is a little better than last time, if only for finally making all the visuals consistent.

Pokémon: Advanced Challenge

‘This Dream’

Now THIS is more like it. That guitar adds so much! The lyrics are back to feeling more like Pokémon. Dreams! Rising to the challenge! Friendships! This theme is proof that Pokémon openings are far better when the lyrics reflect the show. I know someone in the Pokémon music office (I imagine there’s just 100 Jigglypuff plushies in there) has dreams of one of these openings taking off on the pop charts and wants to make it as generic as possible with as few references to Pokémon as possible to do so. That’s a mistake. This isn’t some generic anime that has a song about love or whatever and never mentions the title in the song (looking at you basically every anime opening ever.) This is a gigantic franchise! Let the song be unabashedly about the series!

The power is back in the editing as well! Should almost every opening time its music to Ash tossing a Poké Ball? Yep!

Pokémon: Advanced Battle

‘Unbeatable’

We are on a roll! Great instrumental, good singer, and those lyrics really hone in on the battling aspect of Pokémon. What really makes this one work is that, “from the stars and the ancient past” lyric. Hinting at the mystery of the Pokémon world adds a richness and wonder to any opening theme and it breaks up all the lyrics about battling. Also I’m just a sucker for “Ooooowhoaaaa” in songs.

This one feels like they had the clips they wanted to use in the opening and gave it to whoever wrote the song because they all fit so damn well!

Pokémon: Battle Frontier

‘Battle Frontier’

Uh, well that roll was short. Also, this song is way too short! It has no time or room to build! Not that it has much to work with, it’s an extremely weak song which isn’t helped by needing to get “BATTLE FRONTIER” in there somewhere. It worked for Advanced Battle because those two words are cool. Battle is cool, obviously, but the word frontier is wasted on a song like this. If this was more of an adventure tune like the original opening it might work but this is just generic filler music. The first opening that falls into the “below average” category.

Pokémon: Diamond and Pearl

‘Diamond and Pearl’

I take it back! Give me ‘Battle Frontier’ back! When you start a new era of Pokémon you need your opening theme to hit hard and this is beyond weak. Working in the lyrics “it’s a new game” and “DIAMOND AND PEARL” does it zero favors, nor does the speak-singing. These openings, both in their music and visuals, are quickly becoming forgettable.

Pokémon: DP Battle Dimension

‘We Will Be Heroes’

We’ve got a stronger singer this time but the song has no energy driving it! On paper the lyrics are fine, even if someone at the Pokémon office does not understand, once again, that Ash and company aren’t heroes. Also this theme just isn’t exciting. A Pokémon theme song NEEDS to be exciting! Come on, you’ve got a shot of the team on jet skis! How is this boring?!

Pokémon: DP Galactic Battles

‘Battle Cry – (Stand Up!)’

Okay, we’re back on track! Great singer, sense of adventure, a chorus echoing the lyrics (always a good move) and that killer drumbeat! A drumbeat that the editor smartly timed a lot of the clips to. I dig it! It also smartly only busts out the “GALACTIC BATTLES!” at the very end, which more of these seasons with awkward titles should do.

Pokémon: DP Sinnoh League Victors

‘We Will Carry On!’

At this point I need to ask, why are we even bothering with an intro? Sure Galactic Battles was okay but the songs are so short they don’t use that short time properly. 30-second intros can be done, OK K.O! did an amazing opening song in 20 seconds! This song though is just some mindless Disney Channel level butt rock.

Pokémon: Black and White

‘Black and White’

I wish this had more of that male singer. It sounds like he’s trying to do an ‘80s ballad impression (a little Michael Bolton) which would have been INCREDIBLE for a Pokémon theme but instead we go for a passable if generic vocal. I think there’s a lot of potential in using the “black and white” concept for a song (good and evil in the Pokémon world is a thing!) but then I remember. It’s Pokémon. We’re not wrestling with deep moral and ethical questions about good and evil here.

Also the choice of a CG opening is… a choice! It’s certainly unique for the franchise but if the show isn’t CG what’s the point?

Pokémon: BW Rival Destinies

‘Rival Destinies’

Look, I love some butt rock. ‘Phenomenon’ by Thousand Foot Krutch is a killer song but you need more OOMPH in your song to pull it off! Pokémon is one of the biggest franchises on the planet! It needs a better song than one you’ll forget five seconds after it ends. Embrace the butt rock! Let these singers really go for it!

Pokémon: Adventures in Unova and Beyond

‘It’s Always You and Me’

I didn’t know Christian Kids Rock was a genre the Pokémon series would try and tackle but here we are. What hath God wrought? I guess I can give it a point for its commitment to not have even an inkling of edginess? Honestly I’m so distraught by these openings at this point I’m just trying to find anything good I can.

We’re also long past the visuals and editing that bother to match the opening song and it’s a shame. I know the anime is a disposable product meant to prop up the games and franchise as a whole but man, the lack of care in the editing is a little sad. We’ve certainly come so far from the very first opening.

Pokémon the Series: XY

‘Pokémon Theme (Version XY)’

Oh. Oh my god. Oh my GOD. It’s good. No, it’s great. No, it’s INCREDIBLE. I’m saved! You may think it’s only because of nostalgia but let me tell you, they could have done that original song dirty. No, they pulled out all the stops and gave that classic a new lease on life. They pick up the pace and give it a harder rock sound. It’s still only 30 seconds but they use every moment to its fullest extent.

This extends to the visuals which, for the first time in a long time, perfectly match the song. When the chorus hits and the song picks up they toss endless battle shots at you! It’s epic! It pumps you up! After so long it finally feels like a Pokémon theme song again in music and visuals.

Pokémon the Series XY: Kalos Quest

‘Be a Hero’

Welp, it was nice while it lasted. Look, Pokémon, I need to explain to you that Ash is just a kid on a quest to make friends and catch Pokémon. Stop trying to make “be a hero’ happen. It’s never gonna happen! The song itself is back into generic land but that singer going ham on “heeeeROOOOO” did make me smile. It’s total butt rock and I’m here for it. As much as the hero thing doesn’t fit Pokémon the visuals of the opening do sell that FEELING and that deserves some points.

Pokémon the Series: XYZ

‘Stand Tall’

Stadium rock for a Pokémon opening? I’m kinda here for it! If Ash was a wrestler I could easily imagine this as his entrance theme. It certainly stands out from previous openings, even though it doesn’t utilize its 30 seconds well enough. Ash seemingly tapping his feet to the beat is glorious, even if the rest of the visuals aren’t well timed to the song.

Pokémon the Series: Sun & Moon

‘Under The Alolan Sun’

I. Love. This. Opening. It’s the second best Pokémon opening, just behind the original. It’s so fun! It matches the slice of life comedy vibe that Sun & Moon did so well. More than that it feels inviting in a way so many of these themes haven’t been. The original theme made you excited to go on a journey but this one makes you want to live on the island with these characters!It’s that shot of everyone dancing alongside their Pokémon that does it. How can you not groove along and smile with that? Then we’ve got those crossfade shots of everyone with their Pokémon that takes it over the top. This is how you start a new era of Pokémon!

Pokémon the Series: Sun & Moon – Ultra Adventures

‘Under The Alolan Moon’

A new genre for these openings, which I’m all for, but the problem is that it feels like the song is ramping up to the big chorus but before it can get there the song just ends. The beat is fine but after the fun of the ‘Under The Alolan Sun’ opening this pales in comparison.

Pokémon the Series: Sun & Moon – Ultra Legends

‘The Challenge of Life’

The drums make this song! It feels big yet keeps the fun of the first Sun & Moon opening. It even sneaks in some of the grand feeling that only the Pokémon world has. I can’t say this is a song I’d put on repeat on its own but it sets the tone for the series pretty damn well. Plus that shot of Ash jumping into the water at the top is just damn cool.

Pokémon Journeys: The Series

‘The Journey Starts Today’

Pokémon, but what if it was sung by Imagine Dragons? The first half is bland but once we hit those “Whoaoaoaoa” I can’t help but want to clap along. It’s not a memorable opening by any means but as a kid I can imagine getting into it. That tracking shot that starts with Pikachu helps a lot.

Pokémon Master Journeys: The Series

‘Journey to Your Heart’

That guitar riff! Holy hell, this song does not mess around with its 30 seconds. A powerful hook, rockin’ beat, and engaging lyrics. Look, “journey to your heart” is kind of a meaningless phrase but damn if it doesn’t get you pumped! It’s so anime. It’s so Pokémon!

The editing of the opening visuals matches the song. We start with a calm shot of the team looking over a cliff at sunset but then as the drums kick in we get that jeep flying into the air! Majesty, action, and not too long after we’ve got Ash dancing! It’s so cute and it matches the song!

Conclusion

I’m glad we could end this look back through the Pokémon openings on such a high note. The Diamond & Pearl through Black & White era was easily the roughest but the last few series have managed to get back some of that original Pokémon theme song glory. I’d be lying though if I said any theme managed to stand up to the original though. They knocked it outta the park from the jump. I can only imagine how intimidating it is for any band to come in and try and add to the Pokémon legacy after that, especially with it now being watched by many corporate overlords. It’s honestly a bit of a miracle we could get something as good as ‘Under The Alolan Sun’ from a franchise as big as Pokémon.

Still, anytime a new Pokémon theme drops I always give it a listen. The ones that manage to capture the magic of Pokémon are some of the most special and fun opening themes out there.

Also if anyone from the Pokémon music office is reading, please release a full three-minute version of ‘Under The Alolan Sun.’ The world needs it!

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