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Post by Ian Wolf-Park on Nov 10, 2020 7:47:11 GMT -5
Day 2 of the Video Game Spirit Week Super Mario 3D All Stars-Nintendo Switch Should I ever decide to get Super Mario Odyssey, at least I'll have some practice with this compilation of 3 Super Mario Games (64, Sunshine and Galaxy) as I am terrible with these type of games and haven't made that much progress into the games because of numerous deaths (usually via poor timing on my end). Of the 3 games to make the 'transition' to the Switch, Sunshine is probably the one that suffers the most, which is noticeable with FLUDD's dialogue and could potentially cause some problems for those who played the original version on the Gamecube.
The neat thing about this compilation release is that it also comes with the soundtracks from the games itself, which can be accessed at any time when the menu is loaded and can be listened to at any time if one is not playing the games, even when the screen is off (similar to what Super Smash Bros for 3DS/Wii U does). Overall, it's not a bad deal as each game works out to be $26.66 Cdn (it may be more or less depending on where you live), which is significantly less than what an usual game for the Switch would cost
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Post by Ian Wolf-Park on Nov 11, 2020 11:00:45 GMT -5
Day 3 Bloodstained-Ritual of the Night-Nintendo Switch This game is also available for PC, XBox One and PS4, but I only have the Switch version, so I cannot compare them. If one got the game when it first launched on June 25, 2019 or prior to any updates (which I did), you might be hard pressed to finish it, due to the massive amount of lag throughout the game. It has since been improved. Of course, even if if you complete the game, there are still other ways to play.
One of my key complaints is the crafting process, as the monsters are stingy with item drops need to craft weapons and items, especially if they appear infrequently and the chests scattered throughout the game may not net you that item you desperately need. Same goes with the shards, especially the passive shards.
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Post by Ian Wolf-Park on Nov 12, 2020 23:31:34 GMT -5
Ooops, nearly forgot about this Day 4 Pokemon Mystery Dungeon:Rescue Team DX-Nintendo Switch This is remake of Red Rescue Team (GBA) and Blue Rescue Team (DS), so the plot remains the same. It also takes on cues from later Mystery Dungeon games.
Compared to the originals, travelling through the randomly generated dungeons empties the belly a lot faster, placing more emphasis on finding the stairs instead of exploring the entire floor and/or dungeon, if possible.
I found the game enjoyable at best.
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Post by Ian Wolf-Park on Dec 12, 2020 20:46:29 GMT -5
It's been while (well, one month), but it should be enough Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity-Nintendo Switch I'm actually playing this a little bit blind as I have not played The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild prior and this game serves as a prequel. However, just like with the Persona Q subseries, knowledge of the game is not essential but can help you with the story overall. Other than the title, this also has no connection to the first Hyrule Warriors. Actually, MASSIVE SPOILERS, below. You have been warned. The Legend of Zelda series is no stranger to timeline shenanigans. Age of Calamity and Breath of the Wild are no exceptions. While Age of Calamity does take place before Breath of the Wild, the outcome is vastly different.
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Post by Thorn on Feb 1, 2021 5:54:15 GMT -5
Nights of Eveningstar
Eveningstar is a twitch stream/series of youtube videos! An actual play D&D 5E camapign, I've been enjoying it a lot lately. The story revolves around a brother and sister who have recently become the baron and baroness of a run-down town called Eveningstar. Along with their magister (arcane minister) and minister of arms (stabby boi) they set out to improve the town and make many friends and enemies along the way!
The layout is clear and eye-catching, it's a much more manageable length than many streamed games, the players are lovely and the DM is my fave streamed DM, Mark Hulmes!
It's heavy on social intrigue and light on combat (although what combat there is is exciting and compelling, always tying back to the wider story!)
You should give it a try if you like: -Morally ambiguous fey. -Dragons!!! -Drama. -Talking cats. -Stronk knight lady and magic lady ship!! Oh and there is beautiful art of the core cast and a scattering of supporting characters! Only now do I realise three of them are the exact same height... www.artstation.com/artwork/3d9N3o
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Post by Celestial on Mar 10, 2021 13:58:42 GMT -5
I finally got around to watching "The Terror", a show based on a novel by Dan Simmons of the same name, based on the doomed Franklin expedition to th Arctic in 1845. Been wanting to watch this show for ages, so when it finally appeared on BBC's streaming, I thought I'd break the ice (heh). Mostly going to be talking about the show, but will be making some comparisons to the book, which I have read. So... The TerrorQuick bit of historical background. The Franklin expedition, consisting of over a hundred men from the UK on two ships, Erebus and Terror (hence the name) left Britain in 1845 to find the North-West passage. The ships disappeared and everyone went missing, presumed dead. It is believed they spent several winters in the ice before abandoning ship and trying to go overland. Several camps have been found. It is believed a combination of lead poisoning from the improperly made canned food they ate, cold, starvation, illness and harsh weather killed them all.
The book was written in 2007, and the show made in 2018. Between those two dates, a lot about the expedition and its crew has been found out, most notably that both ships have been found and there have been some attempts made to explore them. This is one thing the show does do: it incorporates the subsequent research done since the book's publication into it, and I think it is better for it. It feels more respectful.
Plotwise, it follows the general historical timeline I gave above, but why I say it's based on the book and not the real event is because there is also a massive demonic polar bear stalking the crew and picking them out one by one, on top of the challenges of just surviving in the Arctic. So, that's fun.
There is a big cast, and for my part, I had trouble telling them apart aside from the main six or so characters. Doesn't help that they are all similar-looking men wearing almost identical clothes. Thankfully, the focus is mostly on, like I said, six people, and they're the ones with actual character arcs. Lion's share of the attention, and the one I'd call the protagonist, is Francis Crozier, second in command, played by Jared Harris. He's an interesting but flawed person. He goes from being a bitter alcoholic to someone who has to step up to be a leader to a thoroughly broken man. There is Henry Goodsir, who is an assistant surgeon, and slowly becomes the only medical person in the crew. Consistently the best of the bunch (appropriate for his name) and an overall a great person. He was my favourite out of all of them, though it is hard to get attached given what happens. James Fitzgames, third in command, is one of the biggest changes from the book and for the better. In the book, he's an arrogant showoff who talks big game but isn't. In the show, he's show to talk a big game but all of it stems from insecurity and proving himself to make up for his illegitmacy. This is another bit of "vindicated by future research", and I am happy they did that. Fitzjames is a far more likeable character this way, and his bond with Crozier is stronger for it. It makes it all the more heartbreaking when Fitzjames dies.
There are two others, but I will talk about them in a bit.
This show is bleak. Naturally, given it is based on the worst polar disaster in British history, but it is still bleak. It also does not shy away from gore, both when the demon bear attacks and when the crew turns on each other. It also is not shy about showing the effects of illness such as scury, tuberculosis and lead poisoning. Definitely not for the faint hearted in that regard.
However, the worst part for me was the emotional toil. Especially Crozier. Watching his friends die, watching those under his command die, having to lead against insurmountable odds and believe that they will make it back...I felt a ton of respect for the character and the real person he was based on. Even aside from him, seeing people realise their deaths are imminent and accept that death...it's hard.
Looks great though. It is hard to believe it was not filmed on location because they capture the cold, barren Arctic landscape so well. Probably for the best they did not film on location though. Cannot imagine how hard that would have been.
The conflict in the show and the book comes not just from the demon bear and nature, but also one of the crew. Cornelius Hickey is someone who is consistently trying to charm, undermine and sabotage everyone. At points, it is fair to say he is single-handedly responsible for everyone's deaths due to his ego and wanting to be the one with all the power. Absolute monster. Which, ya know, isn't fair, because all Dan Simmons did was look at the list of crew members, point to a name and go "yes, this is my antagonist". It is something that always lingered in my mind when reading the book. Which is why I am glad that the show tried to rectify that by making the Hickey we see in the show be a criminal who killed the real man and impersonated him. It at least makes sense why he is such a psychopath and petty tyrant.
The biggest change in characterisation, however, belongs to the only non-white, non-male prominent character in the book and the show: Lady Silence/Silna (the crew call her the former, her real name is the latter). More than Hickey, the book's portrayal of her was the most uncomfortable. There was a lot of sexualisation and exoticisation of her in the narrative, which given she is an Inuit woman and the author is a white man...it was not good. Fed into a lot of gross stereotypes. What the show did with her was amazing and fixes all of those issues.
First up, they cast an actual Inuit woman to play her. Nive Nielsen, who is a singer more than an actress, does an amazing job, in my opinion, although it is not a heavy acting load they ask of her. Secondly, they remove all sexualisation from her, up to and including her last-minute romance with Crozier. There is a tiny bit of romance with her and Goodsir, but it does not progress anywhere as she is not shown to be interested in him in that way, and Goodsir's infatuation and care for her can easily be read as stemming from him being a genuinely good person. It's more mutual compassion that leads them to care for one another. Secondly, they give her a bit of an arc. In the novel, after the accidental death of her father at the hands of the crew, she effortlessly takes control of the demon bear as its shaman. Here, she is hesitant and afraid, understandably so, before her desire to help them makes her do it. Even after that, her helps them, once again, out of compassion instead of any sense of "I must because this is who I am supposed to be with according to fate" as it was in the book. So much more delicious agency for this lady, and I adore it.
Another very good change was removing most of the supernatural elements from the book, save the demon bear. In the book, Crozier has psychic powers (which is why Silna is interested in him), the weather is supernaturally out to get them, and there is something supernatural implied with the ships at the end that is not explained. In the show, none of that is present. The conflict is very grounded and real, between the men, nature, and the dissent within their own ranks. To the point where the demon bear felt very out of place. In the book, it fits perfectly with all this other weird stuff, but in the show, it could have been cut were it not for the fact that it is an essential element to the plot. Just it does not fit the tone they ended up creating. But it feels more like an account of the Franklin expedition instead of a supernatural horror novel based on those events.
Overall, because of the better treatment of Hickey, and especially the amazing portrayal of Silna, as well as the more grounded tone of the show, I prefer it by far over the book. Book was a good read but I would only recommend it with those caveats. Show I'd recommend wholeheartedly if you've a strong stomach and a resilience against the brutal emotional onslaught.
Also may not be the best show to watch when you are trapped in a confined space while an invisible threat stalks you outside and prevents you from leaving. But heyo. Going to maybe give it a rewatch after quarantine to maybe try to better follow the minor characters and tell them apart.
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Post by Ian Wolf-Park on Mar 26, 2021 20:13:04 GMT -5
Persona 5 Strikers-Nintendo Switch (also playable on PS4 and PC via Steam) This game serves as a sequel to Persona 5/Persona 5 Royal, so there may be spoilers to the previous games mentioned. Again, like the Persona Q subseries, knowledge of the previous games is not vital for the overall story. Like the Persona Q subseries, this is another 'fusion' between games, this time between Persona and Dynasty Warriors (or for those unfamiliar with that game, Fire Emblem Warriors or Hyrule Warriors, as all 4 mentioned are made by the same development team).
Despite my lack of knowledge on Persona 5 (other than what I know), I actually enjoyed playing the game as it is vastly different from playing Fire Emblem/Hyrule Warriors, using more of the mechanics from the Persona games, which is not a bad thing.
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Post by Lizica on Jun 26, 2021 23:38:08 GMT -5
Just saw the My Fair Lady 1964 movie for the first time. I'm pretty displeased with the ending, if I'm honest. =| I didn't really want Eliza to come back at the very end. Like, Higgins, buddy, dude, sorry not sorry, but just becoming accustomed to someone's face doesn't mean that that person should stay with you, especially when you've consistently been a jerk to them. Maybe you should have spent fewer songs talking about how great you are and how much women stink, and instead spent more time growing as a person. "But I treat everyone terribly, so that means that I treat her equally =D"--come on, man. =| ...On the plus side, of course, the songs were good, and after hearing bits of them in pop culture my whole life, it was nice to finally hear them in context! And I loved the general theatre of it, with all the choreography and great sets. We genuinely laughed aloud a bunch of times throughout the movie, so points for that, too. The commentary on class was also interesting, and I especially liked Eliza's observation that status was not in how you spoke or acted, but in how people treated you. So overall, we enjoyed it! But just...how they handled the general character development rubbed me the wrong way a bit.
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Post by Ian Wolf-Park on Jul 31, 2021 12:00:14 GMT -5
Transformers-War for Cybertron trilogy (available on Netflix) I grew up on the Beast Wars era, and to a lesser extent, Transformers, so to hear this brought back my inner child. It comprises of 3 chapters (Siege, Earthrise and Kingdom, respectively), which is why I'm reviewing them all at once as I wanted to review them together. My biggest complaint is the length of the series. At 6 episodes each, this makes this version of Transformers the shortest. This may be my bias coming out, having watched Beast Wars, but with the short length, it does not do much to develop the characters. The plot also suffers a bit from the short length
I am also aware that the Beast Wars characters would be replaced by new voice actors, so my expectations were low as it would be a tough act to follow to replicate the performances of the characters from the original Beast Wars. Definitely a mixed bag as some of the voice acting are decent, while others are cringe worthy, but this also applies to the G1 characters. If this had been given a few more episodes (say, between 10-12 each), I think this would have been better in terms of pacing and character development.
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Post by Liou on Sept 13, 2021 13:39:28 GMT -5
Twilight - Yeah, That MovieAfter years of seeing Discourse, seeing parodies, reading roasts, seeing the actors move on and apologies being made for their roasts, I have finally actually watched the entire Twilight movie from beginning to end. I did my best to watch it with New Eyes, however, anything I say about it will inevitably be some sort of response to all the conversation that's been had around this series. I won't say much about the serious issues with the central relationship in the story, because many many more qualified people have already spoken about it over the years, and I watched because I was curious about the rest of the experience beside that. (For context, I read all of the books in the series before being exposed to any online Discourse.) Aside from the big red flags, most of the movie is fine, I guess.
Let's start with Kristen Stewart's acting. I found it okay? Awkward, cringe, yes, like a teenager. Teenagers are awkward, they are learning to social, they have reactions and mannerisms that adults later learn to cringe at and repress or not. In fact, I found that movie-Bella reminded me a lot more of real life teens I'd met in real life than of the usual Hollywood teens. Maybe that's why a lot of people found Bella off? Or maybe it's because I'm a weirdo that other weirdos are just normal to me lol!
Now, Edward, on the other hand. Hoo boy. I giggled almost every time he came on screen, at first. He's just too much! I don't know exactly what went down between Robert Pattinson's interpretation of the character and those who had another vision during filming, but. There were scenes where his brooding character did make sense to me as an emotionally stunted hundred-year-old with serious mental health issues, while most of the time he was stuck being a smooth love interest type? I suppose it's in his best interest to be roasting the character in interviews now. There were a few scenes where I thought he made more sense. When he dramatically rescues Bella from a group of bad guys in town, for instance. Okay, the death glare he gave the bad dudes was not death-y or glare-y enough and I could not believe it. But after that, while driving away and freaking out in the car, he sounded genuinely distressed by the thoughts he'd heard from the guys. That could have been an interesting thing to explore about the character, too. Telepathy woes. Could have been interesting. Could have.
I was not impressed by the dialogue, the delivery worked for me sometimes. I was all right with the first... half or so of the film? Essentially the part where Bella inquires and discovers Edward's nature, while still engaging in normal social things in this scenic setting. By the time they got to the vampire reveal, I thought they had a bit of chemistry going, see? I could imagine Bella being supportive of Edward's secret, having introvert hangout times with him, slowly getting to know him better, listening to his vampire problems, giving him a fresh perspective, maybe getting to hear fascinating things about history in return. You know, like good friends! I thought they could be good friends! It would be nice if they learned to respect each other and protect each other while respecting each other's consent and boundaries, and became good friends! Not like, madly in love in a matter of days, that would be silly and make no sense, haha!
Oh, right.
So he soon starts to use threatening body language and also reveals that he has been literally stalking her, and all the problematics. There had been red flags when he was still avoiding her and gaslighting her about the van incident, but at that point he was still protecting his identity so that was a little bit less bad. There were moments when Edward says that Bella should not be around him, for her own sake. And I did like those particular lines, because they sounded sincere in that one moment, and actually sensible, coming from the much older dude. But the much older dude should very much have been stricter about this and also taken responsibility for removing himself from the dangerous interaction?? This circles back to my impression that there were two versions of Edward's character being played at the same time.
By the way, the timeline may not be very clear, but thanks to Reasoning With Vampires we know that these two start dating in a week. Between Edward's dramatic rescue in town, to Bella being driven across the country to escape the evil vampire tracker, there is less than a week. Good to remember what Police Chief Charlie Swan sees.
The jolly band of high schoolers that Bella joins also felt reasonably teenagery to me, although, like in the books, they still seemed to me like an obvious prop given to Bella as a sample of high school life. What bugs me more than the cardboard characters is Bella's dialogue in those scenes. I can believe that the local kids would be interested in the intriguing new girl, sure. At first. But if she does not seem to reciprocate that interest and constantly sulks at them and barely says a word to them, I cannot believe they would continue to engage her. That is not how teens do. Bella did have one supportive line to Angela on the topic of asking a guy to prom, and one supportive line in the dress shop that was obviously perfunctory, as all she had in mind was her vampire research. That is not nearly enough, compared with the number of times the other kids have addressed her. Maybe the film expects us to assume that she is more conversational off-screen to keep their interest, while all the scenes focus instead on the Bella meets Edward plotline. Well I, for one, am not assuming.
While I quite like the Cullen family as a concept - just the assortment of characters, not the way they live or anything! - I had the same problem as with the high school kids when they welcomed Bella. Vampires cooking human food for the human is adorable as a scene! Fanfiction-worthy! Bella did not even thank them out loud! Let her say polite things!! There was awkwardness with the family, she went into Edward's room and they went monkey-jumping into trees, and.
What happened to the food??? I wanna know?!
I want to give Jasper Cullen credit for being the weirdest creepiest vampire in this film, maybe even in this series - sorry Aro Volturi - because he out-weirds Edward by a long way, and I think that really helped to make Edward seem less cringe.
Something that disappointed me was the execution of Edward's shiny glitter skin. People may have mocked the concept of sparkly vampire for over a decade now, but I think if it had been executed differently, if they had stopped making Edward look like a pretty boy for a moment and dared to make him look really inhuman, it could have had a greater impact, it could have looked eerie, even eldritch. The effect on the vampire's skin could have been more sharply angular and faceted, for instance, maybe kaleidoscopic. There could have been some sort of distortion of his proportions, and maybe another strange light effect centred on his eyes, too. This could have been terrifying. Which would have given Bella's acceptance greater impact, in turn.
Something I found surprisingly enjoyable was the vampire baseball time. Sure, their superspeed is not consistent and looks like teleporting due to using effects similar to teleporters in other films, whateeever, my puny mortal eyes and time-blind brain can't tell the difference anyway. In that scene, the Cullens made having superpowers look really fun. That's the kind of goofing off I wish we got to see more often between superpowered beings - the kind that happens in superhero fanfic but not in superhero canon, in general. tl;dr I want another story in which they just become friends! Friendship is better.
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Post by Liou on Sept 27, 2021 15:21:24 GMT -5
I have so many creative, rewarding things I could be doing! Scary! So instead, I just watched The Rest of the Twilight MoviesA Thoughtdump so you can live that experience vicariously you're welcome, all contained neatly in boxes to spare you the textwall, except it's several textwalls all waiting to ambush youMy opinion on the first film still stands: this story would be more bearable if - after pruning the Quileute misrepresentation and casual domestic abuse, of course - you took out all the romance elements and focused on the friendships, family bonds and supernatural creature problems. HEY by the way did you know the Quileute tribe has a fundraiser? Yah, it's super easy for adults with their own income to find it via their favourite search engine! On how the different films compare to each other: I usually see critics rank Eclipse highest or least low, New Moon gets criticism for being slow, Breaking Dawn One also, and Breaking Dawn Part 2 tends to get praise for the action and criticism for the fact that the action was not real. Mmm. Well, I would say both of the Breaking Dawns were more enjoyable than Eclipse.
New Moon was a long, overly contrived and not earned Romeo and Juliet analogy, with the merit of depicting depression not too badly, and also the merit of. Not having Edward in it most of the time. No, really. By the time Eclipse rolled around I was longing for Edward to go back to Brazil. Another problem with New Moon is that the Edward Hallucination was not properly explained as such in the film, leading to many non-book-readers getting angry at the inconsistency of him. Heck, even in the book it wasn't entirely clear that Bella was only hallucinating him. Also, not how this works.
Eclipse, though. Eclipse holds all the worst of the love triangle, shows Edward at his most controlling, and I found the pacing just boring. Like we spent the entire film just waiting for something to happen already, while listening to the "marry me" - "bite me" - "pick me instead" - "hey we'd like to step in and kill you sometime when you're available" argument.
Breaking Dawn One still had dumb issues but goodness, I'll take honeymoon awkwardness over cringey proposals any time, at least the plot had moved forward somewhere! Yeah, there were many moments of standing around tensely, but at least there were high stakes, tension, and actual uncertainty! It also has the merit of having much less internal Bella narration as far as I remember. Some criticised it for having too many moments of accidental humour. Boo. Keep the humour in, this story is ridiculous anyway, might as well include some levity! What really brought down Breaking Dawn One in my opinion was the wolfy subplot. It was just really dumb to see wolves growl-talking at each other with weirdly human expressions. I preferred the wolf CGI in New Moon, to be honest.
I don't know if Breaking Dawn Two had not enough material or tried to compress it too much, but it felt oddly sparse to me. There was far too much Bella narration which could have been converted to dialogue to flesh out her relationships, especially to Renesmee, who, as a noob in the 'verse, had a good excuse to need stuff explained to her! As for the big action scene, it's all very chaotic and absurd and indulgent and has the merit of going all out, heck yeah, but I do wish the costume design had made it clearer who was on which team. You have Pale People all in Black, VS More Pale People all in Muted Dark Colours. Either the badpires could have had more dominant red in their uniforms, or the costume design should have given the goodpires a more striking palette. On Jacob Black: RIP to the designated hypotenuse of the love triangle who went through a brutal character assassination before he even really had a character. Maybe Jacob could have redeemed himself with some different acting, but out of all the actors, I think Taylor Lautner is the only one whose delivery really really did not work for me. His tone never seemed to match his lines, to the point that, when Jacob says something actually nice about the Cullen family like he's sincerely started to see their good sides, I could not tell if it was sincere or sarcastic. I know that not everyone speaks with great variety in their inflection, but here it really prevented me from guessing at any emotion the character might be feeling. Jacob only becomes less terrible as a character when he stops acting like he has a chance to yoink Bella from Edward - and that happens way into the fourth film. He's still kind of bland after that and does one of the most problematic things in the series, but at least we get to see him do other things than pine, like question his orders, question his position, switch alliances, and figure out creative solutions to problems, like stripping in front of Bella's dad. Yes that helped. For an adaptation, I find these films remarkably faithful to the source material. There are plenty of small, almost inconsequential details, that might have been ignored in other film adaptations, maybe because they didn't match the director's vision or so as to make room. But small things like the bracelets Bella gets as gifts, the pendant and congratulatory message she gets from the Volturi, the book in which Alice leaves a message, that's all from the books! For fans of the franchise who are watching this to see the story they know on screen, I think those details can help to get into it.
However, there are details that are included with too little explanation for viewers, maybe even for fans to fully get. Like when Bella's mum mentions the possibility of her going to college in Alaska, which had never been brought up before. It's not that easy to make the leap of logic to "she wants to go to college in Alaska because she wants to stay with the vampires and they will sparkle less up there" (I also question the way the series categorises Alaska as one of those places where vampires are safer from sunlight exposure, by the way. It's kind of big.) The Avengepires who gather in the last film are really well conserved from the book, but. They could have dropped a few of those people, maybe left them unnamed, to make room for more important dialogue.
Alice Cullen's power of Plot Advancement, I mean, Future Vision, really could have been explained better, too. In the books, her power is a gigantic convenience, but it at least has some sort of consistency. She can see potential futures as the results of decisions that people make, and so if someone keeps changing their mind or not really thinking about it, she will not clearly see an outcome. She also cannot see anything around shapeshifters, and if I remember correctly, it's because their transformations make them too unpredictable - perhaps the same applies to vamphuman hybrids. Either way, that's a pretty good nerf for her power. And in the films, it is way too easy to wonder "but why didn't she predict this, and that, and the other"
But a really big thing that the adaptation messed up, in my opinion, is Bella's vampire superpower In the film, in episode five / four-part-two, when all the good guy vampires are gathered and training for epic battle, their various superpowers are explored, and it is discovered that Bella is a "shield", whose brain is impervious to other vampires' psychic powers. Bella has a training sequence during which she learns to project her mental shield to include Edward. Later on, during the "battle" scene, she tries once to project it to Edward, but loses her hold on it when he walks too far out of her reach. Then, she uses it on a few occasions to counteract Jane Volturi's (you know, Dakota Fanning-vampire) pain power, giving them a nemesis dynamic.
And that is rubbish. Let me tell you how it happened in the book.
In the book, Bella also discovers her "shield" power when the Denali coven is around, and she also starts training to project it, using the other good guy vampires' psychic powers as obstacles. And she trains long enough to project her shield way out. And! by the time everyone gathers all dramatically on the snowy plain, she can project her shield over everyone! Over the entire Avengepire squad! AND! over the wolves AS WELL! And Jane Volturi is very annoyed by that, she and her sibling's mind powers bounce off Bella's brain firewall even though they make several attempts. There is a third, arguably more dangerous mind power that a Volturi vampire can use to switch people's loyalties, especially the vampires with superpowers that the Volturi want to recruit for themselves, and Bella blocks that one too. And it is epic! She is said to be the most powerful "shield"-type vampire so far, which makes SENSE, because she could already block Edward's, Jane's and Aro's mind powers while she was still a puny human!
This was something special that the heroine got to have! It made her powerful and a considerable threat to the rulers of the vampire world! I liked it! Mental battles are not that easy to depict as a visual but they did have means of doing it, just make a few bad vampires do X-Men telepathy glares, show a few whooshes bouncing off Bella's whoosh, and voila! THEY DID BELLA SWAN DIRTY, DANGIT. One of the big points that had the internet going "what the heck" in the wake of the fourth film was the horrific gory pregnancy and birth scenes, this is your content warning. Well, if the horror had been toned down, I think it would have felt dishonest. They had a horrific semi-vampiric pregnancy to adapt on screen, and they went for it, and I can respect that. Actually, the book had even more gory details than the film did, just so you know!
The birth serves as a prelude to Bella's vampening. Her transformation is kind of what the entire series has been building up to, what she's been wanting - however questionably - since episode one. It is a big deal.
For as long as she's been wanting that, the vampire transformation has been described in very different ways: from Bella's point of view, it seemed to be the best thing ever. According to Edward, it seemed to be the worst thing ever. (Cullendad sounded more like a "hmmm :/" and Rosalie sounded like a "you're cancelled" and the other Cullens sounded like a "if you want lol idk")
There was also the issue of depicting the atrocious pain of the transformation. We'd already seen some writhing in the dark when Victoria turned some kid to be her lieutenant in the prologue of episode three, it might not have been interesting to see the protagonist writhing in the same way.
Putting her vampening after this harrowing thing made her go through the long-expected pain with a different twist and entirely different stakes. Because I didn't find it clear enough in the film: the reason she's so still instead of writhing during the transformation, is that her system is still full of morphine from the birth (I dimly recall morphine reacting to the venom something something from the book?) and apparently that's why the vamps can't tell if the venom is working until she jump-scares us by opening her eyes.
The fact that this pregnancy happens at all in the story is still very questionable. About the choices that Bella makes concerning her body and the other characters' reaction to those choices in the fourth film: (yes, I am tackling this topic, be warned, reproductive choices content warning and all) What happens is: Bella becomes pregnant during the honeymoon. This was not even supposed to be possible, due to undeath. Edward is Doctor Cullendad is Bella is pregnanting much faster than anyone is supposed to pregnant, which they understandably find alarming. She is also presumably pregnant with a being of the superstrength-having variety, and since the honeymoon was filled with the angst of Edward accidentally hurting her with his superstrength, this is also worrying. Edward's immediate reaction is to travel back, with the intention of making Bella not pregnant anymore. He does not discuss that decision with her. At that moment, he is in full control of the travel arrangements (Bella didn't even know where they were going for the honeymoon), of the money, of the phone, and remember, he has superhearing. Bella is silent, but visibly concerned. By the way, I do not recall any Bella-internal-narration in this chapter, which was a good call and gives the acting more weight in my opinion. When they get to the airport and when Edward is outside the car, standing next to a loud airplane engine - good job with consistency here, movie - Bella grabs his phone from his bag, and calls Rosalie Cullen, known as the vampire who is forever resentful at having been robbed of a traditional married-with-children bliss. Fast forward to the Cullen House, where Bella is convalescing through her horror-pregnancy, and Rosalie is being the superpowered bodyguard preventing any of the other superpowered beings in the house from doing anything to Bella's body without her consent. It's a tense standoff between them. (In the book, it is specified that when Bedward got off the plane to be greeted by the other Cullens at the airport, Bella immediately ran into Rosalie's arms.) So. The actions depicted here: Bella insists on carrying on with this very risky, supernaturally unhealthy pregnancy even though no one knows her chances of survival. She was already planning on becoming an immortal and she knows the vampires can turn someone on the brink of death. Doctor Cullen is heard informing her of the risks, including the risk that she would be too far gone for the vampire venom to fix, and he works to keep her alive in the meantime. Various Cullens argue about her safety. Rosalie Cullen is trusted by Bella to assist her with personal hygiene, and prevents anyone from overriding Bella's consent. Those are the actions. My problem here is with the dialogue. At no point does Rosalie voice concern over Bella's choice being respected. Her actions guard Bella, but she only voices concern for the foetus. Edward has a conversation in which he voices frustration at Bella sacrificing herself and leaving him, essentially. These feelings are actually interesting to hear, credit to him for communicating. However, at no point does he balance that by voicing respect for her choices, to make it clear that her choice matters more than his feelings. Which is only made worse by his long history of not respecting her choices. The other problem is context. If Bella's choices were more explicitly respected, and if you considered this story in a vacuum, it could be fine. But since it's not happening in a vacuum, it's always going to have some kind of influence and message in this world that's full of reproductive rights issues. And what this story shows is that the protagonist is loving and brave for risking her life for her progeny, and that the better characters are those who focused on saving the foetus. Even if it was more explicitly about her choice than about the foetus, while it is true that too many people have been coerced into terminating pregnancies, the reality is that the opposite happens much, much more often and is a greater risk. So, I do not think this story has a helpful message when it comes to reproductive rights, and it could be spun against them. On Bella's first hunt (animal death mention) In the book, Bella's first hunt is part of her long-expected vampire stuff, so a pretty special moment, in which she catches a mountain lion. I don't recall the hunt being described in too much detail in the book.
In the film, she also catches a mountain lion, but. First, she stalks deer, then she notices the mountain lion also going after the deer, and there are close-ups on the deer with their big deer eyes before Bella goes for the lion, and another view of them fleeing after the lion is caught. This scene shows that Bella gets a nice big catch even though she's a noob, but. It also comes across as "poor little prey! Bella is sympathetic to the prey and SAVES them by catching the predator instead!"
Which is a load of crap. Thanks Bella you just took out an apex predator that reproduces slower and has a valuable role in the food chain. This is why you should have gone to college before vampening, or at least paid attention in biology instead of fawning over your vampoyfriend. A very big complaint about the fifth / fourth-part-two film was the fake epic battle. Well, guess what: I think it was the right call.
What? You've got all these superstrength vampires gathered with all those absurd fancy superpowers, and you don't want to see them use them? You don't want to see what would happen if they really threw down? Of course we don't want to see them use the superstrength to rip humans apart, ew, but they can rip each other apart like cardboard, and jump like giant grasshoppers. You mean you want to walk out of the final movie in the saga, having seen all the vampires, and still thinking, "man, I wonder what it'd look like if they all threw down, guess we'll have to imagine it in our minds forever instead of seeing it in a big-budget production"?
Of course fans were curious to see that! But of course nobody actually wanted the characters to die and everything to go wrong for realsies! Firstly, because that's not what this series is about, the narrative focus has never been on combat but on protecting (sigh) loved ones, and secondly, because it would have been so dumb! It would just have been one of those end-of-movie battles where you want to roll your eyes, because this could all have been prevented if someone had used their words. That's the entire purpose of Alice showing Aro her vision - she's telling him "don't be dumb", essentially.
With this decision, you get to see your canon, AND your Bad End AU. THANKS, movie. On minor characters The high schooler squad is still cardboard, but I would like to give them credit in New Moon for their awkward reactions when Bella, after being depressed and apparently silent for several months, abruptly goes back to socialise with them, still in a morbid mood. They know she's been going through tough times and they shouldn't be mean to her, but they just don't know how to cope with her. It is so awkward. And pretty relatable, methinks.
Charlie Swan is pretty great, I don't even like cliche protective gruff American dads but he has some good moments, like when he awkwardly tries to give Bella the talk and they both implode from cringe - a series highlight, honestly - and the moment when he meets her again as a vampire, and she cannot tell him what is going on, but she hugs him, and he is clearly shaken by how inhuman she feels now, but he is still hugging her and touched that she still wants him in her life in spite of the unimaginable things happening to her.
In my imagination, Rosalie and Emmett do make a good pairing. The way I picture them, she's on her guard and somewhat resentful, but can feel safe enough to let down her guard around a big soft himbo. While he's always goofing, but when it comes to her, he can be serious. Alice and Jasper had some dialogue together due to having various uses as plot devices, Esme and Carlisle also got some nice moments together, I wish Rosalie and Emmett had had that too - I actually don't remember any dialogue at all between them? they just cling to each other when plot happens because oh no, stuff is happening, touch your love interest and you're safe??
And Emmett Cullen just deserved more love overall. His wedding toast was a series highlight, and he should have been allowed to get serious more often, as a trusted protector. He came on screen too early, before we knew to appreciate himbos. If the series came out today, he'd be really popular as the Himbo Vampire. You know what we don't see these vampires do enough? Make stuff! Yeah, they've got the superstrength, but they've also got the superspeed and the superprecision - Cullendad is a freaking doctor. Are you trying to tell me that with decades of life and no need to rest, they wouldn't knit a miles-long scarf? Where's all the macrame in that house? Where are all the paintings? Why isn't the garden done up all fancy? I want! to see! a vampire thread a sewing needle! In my AU, Alice Cullen does not throw colossal amounts of money into walk-in closets full of ridiculous designer stuff, she uses her time to lovingly design and craft her own clothes! and ropes the others into helping her too!! tl;dr Well that was An Experience and I am never watching these again byeee
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Post by June Scarlet on Apr 24, 2022 14:00:10 GMT -5
I treated myself to a movie out today. I saw "The Bad Guys," and I thought it was a good, cartoony romp, I really enjoyed it. But what I really came here to point out was... Guinea Pigs!!!! Yes, I still get unreasonably excited over guinea pigs.
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Post by Liou on May 4, 2022 15:10:48 GMT -5
Liou Reviews Estonian Sweets
Hello my name is Liou and today I will be seriously and scientifically ranking a selection of Estonian sweets according to how much I like them.
Coming in Sixth we havvve! the!
Mesikäpp Batoonike! This little bar of uncoated chocolatey wafer does just fine with its crisp mouth-feel reminiscent of thick, crystallising honey. The sweetness of the wafer and extra sweet milk chocolate and uuh whatever else they put in there does get a bit cloying, though, and these bars do not top the other interesting things that come next.
Casually ambling along into Fifth we see...
Tõmmu! Tõmmu is a rum flavoured fondant hiding a very very sweet interior, offset by the tang of the rum, within a thin coat of darker chocolate, a bit too thin perhaps, as the two tastes do not harmonise as much as...
sneaking into Fourth position when I wasn't looking,
Tiina! Like Tömmu's annoying overachieving sibling, Tiina decided to rum-flavour a jelly-like interior instead of fondant, and the jelly - vegetal uwu - actually does a splendid job of embodying the rum tang and balancing it with light sourness! A feat considering that Liou is not normally into jelly type sweets.
*claps hands* water break! hydrate yourselves! clear the taste buds!
Let's go.
Aaand jogging up in third place comes Maiuspala! Praline is an old favourite, and while rum is not our top choice for something to pair it with, it does, in fact, work! You rock this, champ!
Ooonly two contestants are left vying for first place! They are neck and neck, dear audience! That is a very tight race, especially when you consider that little chocolatey wafer bars do not even have necks! Who will be gobbled? Which forumer will have their personal favourite validated as the bester of the two? Who will be crumched? Who... is a snack???
They're closing in! We're getting hungry! Aand we see! a! winneeeeerrrr!
Congratulations on reaching a most admirable, nearly-tied second place, Kaseke bar! With layers of creamy sweet chocolateyness, and a crisp, but overall melty mouth-feel, somewhat reminiscent of speculoos, it is a simple staple and pillar of this family. Well done!
Finally, dear audience, we meet our champion!
The Tallinn rum flavored wafer! This little beast is an explosion of layers of crispy wafer, a little bit airier than the rest of its family, with a more tangible rum flavour. It is almost too much, but all these muches balance each other, and win this contest in a "more is more" fashion.
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Post by Liou on Jun 25, 2022 13:35:53 GMT -5
Liou Reviews the Cabbage Family
Hello my name is Liou and today I will be reviewing vegetables from the genus Brassica, as the official authority on all vegetables. All the research done by staring into space and thinking about plants has been carefully analysed and sorted according to how good of a mood I was in at the time. Once you have read this post you will finally know which Brassica is the ultimately superior Brassica and you will implement that into your lifestyle. The Cabbage Inquisition will check in.
14) Brussels Sprouts They're small and cute and grow on the stems and look funny and all! Don't care, not interested. I guess they taste fine probably maybe sometimes. Superpower: being the right size to disguise as Ferrero Rocher for pranks.
13) Kohlrabi Are you lost, weird child? You followed the instructions wrong. Why are you being sweet? That's not our business today. Please re-read the assignment and try again. And tone down that fibrous texture, will you. Superpower: looks like an alien. Sometimes purple.
12) White Cabbage Yes, THE cabbage is this low on the list. And no, I will not be ranking specific cultivars, what do you think this is, a foodie blog? I will be lumping the cabbages into broad colour categories. White cabbage is this low on the list because it's not that tasty and it's a long hassle to chop and cook. "But Liou, you can have it raw instead!" You FOOL. Raw cabbage doesn't agree with my stomach. How dare you not know that already. For your insolence and for its own hostility, white cabbage gets kicked down the list like the leafy football that it is.
11) Green Cabbage Green is a very cool and underappreciated colour. Green cabbage is like white cabbage's prettier, more successful sibling that keeps getting more praise during family dinners. It has a much nicer texture. Still a hassle to cook and still dangerous when raw. But it has mighty potential and can be turned into some pretty fantastic dishes.
10) Red Cabbage I must tell you a very harsh truth about this cabbage. I'm sorry to be spilling tea like this from the get go, this wasn't meant to be one of those drama posts, but this is a hurdle we must get over if we want to continue down this path. So please, take a deep breath for the next. Are we ready?
It's not really red, honey.
No, I do not want to hear anything about wine dark seas or rich shades of antique purple or violets being blue. Anyone who brings that up will become the lowest ranked vegetable on this list. Any toddler with a thick reinforced picture book teaching them to identify colours will be able to confirm. They know what red is, and it's not the colour on that cabbage. This cabbage is a lie. We here at the netwaffle do not condone this kind of dishonesty, so this cabbage is immediately getting docked many points. In terms of eating, this one gives me less stomach ouchies than its fellow colour-named cabbages, so I guess it climbs a bit higher on the list. Superpower: turns water blurple when cooked. It's pretty too I guess, the inside gets all white-mottled when you chop it.
9) Bok choy Have I ever tasted bok choy? I'm sure I have. But I can't for the life of me remember tasting bok choy. Must be pretty forgettable. But there are lots of people who speak favourably of bok choy and they are pretty cool, so I will take these cool people's word for it and save a few points for bok choy in this ranking. Superpower: what was it again? Memory erasing vegetable.
8) Cream puff / Chou à la crème Wait, what is this doing here? INTRUDEEEERRRR
8 again) Colza / Canola / if it had another name that other name would be a very poorly thought-out and tasteless use of etymology Surprise, you don't eat that one as a vegetable, you get the oil from its seeds! Superpower: the most blaze-a-licious, eye-sating yellowsplosion when it flowers. Like, you have to see the fields. The sight alone has nutritious value.
7) Turnip Turnip is my friend. Turnip is a style icon. Turnip has been with us all our lives, its gentle purple and white presence recognisable and comforting in any illustration meant to depict vegetables. Ah, yes, we know. We know from the purple-and-white blob that these blobs are meant to represent healthy food. Turnip practically raised us. Here's some credit. Superpower: comes in golden yellow sometimes, did you know?? Points docked for: fibrous texture.
6) Kale It's okay.
5) Rutabaga Without neeps, there would be no Neeps and Tatties! Rutabaga has been with us when we needed it most. It has a funny and pretty unique taste. You're a good friend, rutabaga. Points docked for: attitude. Does not cooperate when peeled.
Now roll out the purple carpet and make way for the popular kids.
4) Cauliflower Did you not expect it to be ranked this high? Honey, cauliflower is the smooth operator of the family. Cauliflower is a suave, sweet-talking charmer that will butter you up and give your soups a rich, unctuous texture before you can take your eyes off the voluptuous round forms of its vegetal cloud. And if you bite this fresh, crunchy snack... oooh, cauliflower bites back. Superpower: somehow disappears before it gets cooked?? I do not know who crunched it all up.
3) Romanesco When magical girls level up they go through a new transformation sequence and receive new ornaments and even sometimes a general costume upgrade. When that happens to cauliflower, it becomes Romanesco broccoli. The power of those tender, crisp, nutty-flavoured logarithmic-spiralling chartreuse inflorescences will heal the world. Superpower: has a maths degree.
2) Broccoli Every magical girl squad has a leader who deals the final world saving move and that heroine is broccoli. "What, because it's healthy-" No, not because of the healthy. I don't know who pegged broccoli as the Healthy Vegetable. All of the vegetables here are good. Broccoli is just the most delicious one. It's versatile and blends well while retaining its own fresh fluffy bitterness. It's not its fault it's just so tasty, you know? Taste the tiny tree. Superpower: also comes in PURPLE!
And thus, the goddess queen of the cosmos who is summoned by this magical girl squad is, of course
1) Mustard Thank you, mustard, for my life. All Hail. (And don't you dare put any sweetener near her.)
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Post by Thorn on Jul 24, 2022 1:27:25 GMT -5
I saw Thor: Love and Thunder. It wasn't amazing, but it was okay. But I've seen a lot of negative comments about it and its director that that are really uncalled for, so I want to gush about the things I actually did like. (Minor spoilers for Endgame and significant ones for No Way Home.) *Valkyrie is amazing in this movie. My heart. My soul. My space wife. Tessa Thompson is an amazing actor and I'm glad we got to see more of Val here. Such an epic King of Asgard. Also I love her little moment with the portable speaker, still as into her music as ever I see!!!!
*I appreciated the queer elements! Korg having two dads and then making a kid with another man himself, and the mentions of Valkyrie's dead girlfriend, were about as much as I'd hoped for from a Marvel film. What I hadn't expected, and was pleasantly delighted by, was Miek using different pronouns than in Thor: Ragnarok, and presenting as feminine.
*The story is ultimately about love. I am always down for power of love stories. They're one of my favourite types. Jane choosing to love over prolonging her own life? Painful (especially on a personal level, cancer has impacted many close to me lately), but beautiful. Those mirrored scenes of Jane dying while Thor holds her, and Gorr dying while held by his daughter? Exquisite. As is a theme throughout the film; love can be painful, but it's better than never loving at all!
*One big issue I have with the storytelling on reflection: I wish Gorr had survived. There are so many 'redemption equals death!!!!' stories out there. I much prefer stories where characters heal and live on. I loved that in Spiderman: No Way Home, Peter Parker fought to save those people. They were treated as though they were mentally ill and needed help which, especially in the case of Doc Ock and Green Goblin, is very much the case. Meanwhile in Love and Thunder, we learn that Gorr is being corrupted by an evil magic sword. His moment of grace is when he decides to use his wish to bring back his daughter, rather than kill all the gods. But then he dies. It would have been nice if they could have broken the curse and allowed him to raise his daughter.
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