Overplaying Your Hand

I think it was a bit of a missed opportunity not to have Matt Mercer voice Ambrosius, the spirit of creation. Loved Marrow and Winter in episode 12 - they're sassy. Penny's human now, but she's missing her boots and gloves. I expected Ironwood to go back to normal in episode 13 once his semblance was broken and he shouldn’t have been hyper-focused on his goal, but he’s still cuckoo for coco-puffs, blasting Jacques and trying to do the same to Winter. Vine was the next one to nope out of the plan, nearly getting killed for it as well. Harriet is dead set on killing Qrow and blowing up Mantle because “it’s what Clover would’ve done." If that’s true, then Clover was an even shittier person than I thought. Cinder apologizes to Neo and says Watts is getting what he deserves when he stays behind to sabotage comms and presumably kill more people. I don’t know, Cinder being nice just feels wrong. Next time, I guess we’ll see what happens when you fall off a platform and disintegrate. Really wish someone would’ve asked Ambrosius why they shouldn’t fall, because people did and are still going to. It was already enough of a problem landing in Vacuo and instantly hitting a sandstorm and attracting Grimm there, we didn’t need a bottomless pit too. We could’ve ended the volume with the Grimm showing up in Vacuo and having the showdown with Cinder there, and then started the next volume with Team SSSN and Team CFVY showing up to save the day and have part of the volume be about them (without repeating everything from the books, of course). 

The Fruits Basket dub season 3 episode 1 dropped early, followed by a 10-minute Q&A with a few of the voice actors. Akito really went for it when she choke-slammed her mother, Ren. I didn't think they got that much air in the manga. I never thought about who might voice Akira (there will be another flashback with him, I'm sure), but it was Chad Cline, the original male voice of Akito. And Katelyn Barr (who voiced young Ritsu) voices Ren. Now that she’s had more lines, she doesn't sound as close to Akito’s voice as I’d first thought. Hanajima to the rescue - da da da da! Megumi has some good insights, even though he still feels the need to fake-perv on his sister's friends.
 

The DuckTales finale was kinda weird, but it made sense that they were building up to that. The end credits reminded me of the Kingdom Hearts end credits with all the characters doing things off to the side (in this case, free-falling from a plane). Speaking of Kingdom Hearts, that new version of the Final World cutscene from Melody of Memory. What purpose does this serve? I'm happy for them, of course, but they got them in the booth just for that? Well, they're all recording from home still, I'd imagine, but for one line each? They didn't even have to animate it because it was just static. Could they not see what was happening and that's why the debriefing became necessary? I would think the debriefing would have happened regardless. It's not like we see them waking her up. I also thought that Ven would've been normal, but it looks like he's been pure light all along. Can't wait to see how things wrap up next month, if they do at all in a satisfying way.

Appearances

Just a thought, but if you put a blue anime wig on Joseph Gordon-Levitt, he could play Zexion. I was also thinking more of the staircase scene in KH2 Final Mix. It could’ve been done with Zexion sitting and reading in the common area when the other two came in and bothered him, but instead it showed them using the stairs instead of corridors of darkness to get around. It shows they value cardio, or maybe someone just wanted a more dynamic scene. In fact, since Axel and Larxene are having a conversation at the bottom of the stairs in the book, it would make even more sense for this to take place in the common area since other scenes of the sort take place there. Then have Zexion say he should go someplace quieter to read.

After hearing a scathing review of the Pride and Prejudice musical, which was an Amazon production apparently, I found the soundtrack posted to Youtube. The review wasn't wrong, but if you can get past the first twenty or so minutes, it's not that bad. The beginning is rough, but I enjoyed the parts with the Gardiners and Lady Catherine. Lady Catherine's song sounded like it could've been sung by Eartha Kitt. I would've loved to see that. She is like Yzma, scary beyond all reason. Then I found the Bob Jones University production on Youtube, which is also rough in spots, but also interesting. If the whole play had been Mr. and Mrs. Bennet's opening scene with the rest of the story playing out around them, I would've still enjoyed it. The actors playing them nailed their personalities (Mrs. Bennet’s nerves and Mr. Bennet’s chill attitude), and I could've watched them all day. Mr. Collins was another highlight; the actor really brought him to life in a way that I hadn't gotten out of the book. The actor playing Darcy could've just as easily been portraying Snape. The runtime is just shy of two hours, so they condensed things a lot more than I would've liked. Having Collins there in the beginning worked, but having Bingley announce that he's leaving at the first ball is moving a bit too fast. Bitch, you just got here. The set was simple and unchanging, but I enjoy the fact that it was two giant books and a sealed letter. The addition of swings in one scene surprised me. Overall it felt like a high school play with a little more production value, as some of the actors weren’t up to snuff, mistakes aside.
 

Sad that DuckTales is wrapping up next week. I just saw the one with Kit and the Sky Pirates. All Sam got to do was scream as the pirates got turned into chimeras. Now he IS Bigby’s Hand.

Mental Health Break

I wanted to start off by saying that I was kidding about the karmic victory. Obviously, that went out the window once the infrastructure started failing. Cold weather was the karma, not everything else. I fully expected to send plows and salt trucks (if their dumbass government officials would allow it), but everything else that happened with the electricity was astounding. I’m glad Beto and AOC stepped up where Cruz and Abbott failed.
 

Depending on what Xigbar does as Luxu, I’m starting to think it’s less like Ozpin possessing Oscar and more like Molly having been a part of Lucien. The Mighty Nein want their friend back, but he may not exist anymore. Braig may not exist anymore, and no one who knew him as such may choose to speak of him again. No magic or whatever involved, it’s all up to him. Additionally, the more I learn about WandaVision, the more I realize that Wanda is the Marvel equivalent to Raven. The Teen Titans episode “Fear Itself" is sort of like that (except as a horror movie instead of a sitcom), and Injustice would have pushed Raven all the way there instead of just turning to her father. Both of them struggle with loss and mental health issues, but what hero doesn't these days?
 

Speaking of loss, Hazel. It hurt when Emerald said his name. She is now the Gohan, as Oscar wants to keep her around, which Jaune and Yang aren't okay with (although, aside from fighting for Cinder and losing her mind when she thought she died, all she did was cause Phyrra to kill Penny and had nothing to do with Adam's actions and hated seeing the fall of Beacon). Ironwood is a monster. I would've liked to see Glinda take him down, but we’ll see what Qrow and Robin end up doing. I appreciate the Archer references - Elm yelling “WHAT?" after the explosion and Cinder just sitting and pouting after Watts took her down verbally. I can't believe that worked. Watts misunderstands Salem's intent, though - Cinder was racing the Hound to Penny, and she thought she would need to break him out to get control of her. Salem had left him to his fate. The Hound is the reason Penny hasn't reached the Vault yet, as her still unconscious body is shown lying next to Nora's bed. As for how Cinder's supposed to get the maiden powers once Penny's dead, she may not have absorbed any of it for the rest to come to her or she wouldn't be in Penny's final thoughts. If Penny had died thinking of Ruby, then Cinder would have to fight Ruby and keep her promise to Neo. We'll have to see what, if anything, gets sorted out in the next four episodes.