The Hype Train Cometh

The orchestra trailer features Sora talking to Ienzo about building a new body for Roxas out of data using Ansem's computer and the data he left within Sora from Dream Drop Distance. Several questions come to mind. First of all, where do they draw the line? If they succeed, who else can they build a body for? Who would need it? It certainly can't be done to bring just anyone back, so how will it work with Roxas? Does that mean they can use it on the Lingering Will to bring Terra back? We know they aren't talking about replicas necessarily since Even doesn't have a speaking role and he would be all about that plan ("I'm all over it! You can't stop me!"). If it does involve replicas and Even's just out of commission, he's going to be pissed that the kid did this without him. In addition, we don't know the context of Aeleus saying that something doesn't feel right. Since Sora's asking Ienzo to do this, and Aqua has been turned by Xehanort, does that mean something happened to Ansem as well? While I'm glad Ienzo's going to be useful, I feel like Ansem should be around for this too, and if he isn't, something has gone horribly wrong (although that might already be apparent in Aqua's case depending on how that went down). Does helping Sora redeem them for what they've done? Because Sora has never met Ienzo, he would've had to have been referred to him by either Lea or Leon: Lea because he would be all about getting Roxas a new body and knows that Ienzo could help, and Leon because that's who Sora would go see in Radiant Garden as any sort of authority figure or primary contact. I'm also a little worried about Braig. He's still openly defying Xehanort by talking to Sora, which is what got Vexen killed. I'm afraid that Xehanort will have had enough of his shit and have Isa take him out (unless Lea can get to him first). The only thing that would make this better is to find out which side Demyx and Luxord have ended up on.

By now more people have figured out that "Escapism" is a Pink Diamond song. She grew to hate the diamonds and being a diamond herself. Her fake shattering, while also a ruse to get the Diamond Authority off her back, was symbolic of destroying her old self and embracing her new path in life. I'm enjoying the relationship between [Pink] Diamond and Pearl and especially Ruby and Sapphire, as I'm sure they are in reference to the Pokemon gens of the same names. Pink/Rose is still selfish and doesn't consider the feelings of others (like Pearl and the other diamonds), but I think Greg's a cool guy. I saw a clip of Peridot saying that Pearl was a servant, and coming off of playing Detroit: Become Human in a group, that made me uncomfortable. That seemed to insinuate that pearls are like the androids from that game.

FNAF just got more confusing. The Crying Child is Michael Afton, and he was rebuilt after his death to continue in the other games. Golden Freddy was possessed by a girl named Cassidy, and she and all the rest were Michael's friends. This seems even more messed up than I thought and raises a lot more questions (although Fritz and Jeremy were two fake names he used in honor of his friends - that makes sense).

Underwhelming and Unresolved

The finale of Clear Card was crap. Nothing was resolved, and Kaito just decided not to go through with his plans and rewound time so the fight never happened. It was really disappointing because just when there were stakes and it was interesting, he gave up (granted, Sakura and Akiho were about to fall to their deaths, but still). It really could've used a couple more episodes. I'm still looking forward to reading the manga to see it unfold that way.

The Mean Six was a lot like the comics in which the group gets split up with their doppelgangers, except that story was epic. The episode was just a mid-season finale with the mane six being none the wiser (seriously, did none of them notice that AppleJack's cutie mark was a different color?). They didn't know why they were fighting, but they wanted to stop, so they did. I didn't find it that compelling, and I'm actually sick of seeing the discordant six.  Better luck next time, Chrysalis. You're lucky that good is dumb because that's all you had going for you.

The release date for Kingdom Hearts 3 has been revealed to be January 29, 2019. What happened to 2018? It's only a month off, but that's not the same thing. Did they need more time? The fans at E3 say it's because of the feedback they gave of the playable demo before. At E3, they got the trailer with the new release date and the Frozen world (featuring Larxene!). There is also a clip of Riku and Mickey in the Realm of Darkness with a yellow-eyed Aqua telling them they're too late. If this isn't an illusion or trick of some kind, this may be part of what will be hard to accept. Maybe in the end, not everyone can be saved. Maybe no one will be saved, but they'll probably manage to save at least one person. Speaking of which, we last saw Aqua and Ansem the Wise together, so what happened to him?

Not Quite Cool

I didn't like the first episode of this season of Camp Camp. David and Gwen did a stupid thing, but I didn't like seeing them get beaten up either. Why wouldn't they have talked to the QM about it in the first place, since he's the only other adult around? This show always seems to reset whatever goodwill there was between them and Max every time. They could've just told at least him what was going on. Sad Nikki covered in dirt and oil was adorable, though. At least the second episode was a lot better. I also didn't really like the episode of Robot Chicken with Bitch Pudding as Maria in The Sound of Music, but it ended with them killing Nazis, so yay? The recent one with the Sailor Scouts was gross but funny. Still waiting for that Yu-Gi-Oh! sketch, but that was probably scrapped or a lie.

Sakura's been the one creating the Clear Cards, including a new mirror card (which is great since Touya was wondering why she hadn't used it when she sneaked out). She didn't want or mean for any of it to happen, but apparently her powers exist to make her unhappy. It's weird since in season two (of the manga at least) Eriol said that Sakura wouldn't awaken to stronger powers if she didn't want to (such as visions of the future, which Tomoyo was convinced would make Sakura unhappy). And now she's in possession of a key-shaped pendant that's probably related the relic Kaito "lost."

I received and read the standard version of Vox Machina Origins. You're better off just downloading it. Downloading it is far cheaper, and this is just the standard version (with shipping, it was just over fifty dollars). The deluxe version is a hundred dollars before shipping, and I don't even care about the extra content (with standard you get a couple character sheets and early artwork). Everything in the Geek and Sundry store is expensive, but it's also high-quality. One thing that bothered me is that Orion wasn't credited in the beginning with the rest of them even though Tiberius is his character. Taliesin and Ashley were credited and their characters don't even appear. As for the story, it was okay, but the first couple pages was like "WTF did I just read?"

All we know about the release date of Kingdom Hearts 3 is that it's in the fourth quarter. I think that's what we were all expecting anyway. It will probably be in November because a) there was a placeholder date given a while ago; b) the 358/2 Days light novel was pushed back until then; and c) Wreck-It Ralph 2 also comes out in November. Speaking if which, I hope the clip we've been shown with the princesses isn't the only time we see them (but I have a feeling it might be).

Cake and Regrets

Well, I've unsubscribed from Channel Awesome. Time's up, Walkers. Keeping your heads down, while from a legal standpoint isn't a bad choice, is insulting and disappointing. You suck.

The roll cake episode of Clear Card was pretty enjoyable the first time I saw it. Then the dubbed version came out this week. I liked the scene with Rika; I think her English voice suits the character (although having a lot of female characters with high-pitched voices annoys me). I don't understand what "appear" has to do with it since they already have a card that animates objects. Tomoyo blocking Sakura from sight in the corner so she could summon snooze was cool. Since this is an anime, people aren't going to be suspicious that they all fell asleep and the roll cakes were gone - they will continue to be oblivious/shrug and move on. Unless Kaito turns out to be a third split incarnation of Clow Reed, this is the first time Sakura is facing an actual threat rather than a test. Or he's just using her because something's going on with Akiho and her book. Maybe she's running out of magic/energy like Yuki was. Maybe her parents don't actually exist like Yuki's grandparents.

Hershey's Flavors of America - this time, instead of strawberry flavored Kit Kats, it's chocolate-covered strawberry flavored Kit Kats, which is all I ever wanted. It's like the Japanese apple-flavored ones only better because it's regular size too. I also got the New York Cheesecake Cookies and Cream bar, but that wasn't great. Real New York cheesecake is, though. The strawberry cheesecake Kit Kats from Japan were better anyway.

I missed opportunity in my lightning round video involves Ryan. I should've given the "they only bring disease and famine" quote to one of Ered's dads in regards to the platypus. Then I could've had Andersmith say "Enjoy Super-Guantanamo." I also regret that nothing Jensen said was all that funny, so I probably could've skipped giving anything to Orf or given her something from another one of Barbara's characters. Cosmo wasn't all that funny either but I wanted to include her too. I broke my rule and gave Taiyang two, one from Church and one from Burnie. And I suppose I could've given Tabii one of Nora's quotes like "I'm queen of the castle!" I haven't decided if I'm making a second lightning round video yet, but I wouldn't count on it.

I've had to watch most of this season's Survivor because whoever was posting the recaps to the CBS web site stopped after March 7. At first I thought it was on hiatus for March Madness, but nope! I'm glad that Wendell won out of the three of them, but I'm disappointed that Angela doesn't have a Ponderosa video. It's PonderOsa, not PonderosA.

No Redemption

Digimon Tri is finally over (?) with its last set of episodes, "Our Future." I added the question mark because the entity shapeshifting between Gennai and Digimon Emperor is still plotting things (unless that was supposed to be a joke). Unless he is Yggdrasil in disguise (and speaking about himself in the third person), he was never dealt with. He instead grew more insane. As for the characters from Zero Two, they were only shown in silhouette and were said to have recovered. I have no idea what happened to their Digimon, since we saw Paildramon under control of the not-Digimon Emperor and then never again. I really hope this isn't a sequel beg because I don't believe it deserves one. I feel bad that Derek Stephen Prince is being left out of this one too since both real Ken and real Veemon don't feature.

The Teen Titans Go movie has Will Arnett voicing Slade. While I'm unsure if Ron Pearlman was available or asked, it's weird to hear a Deathstroke that sounds like Bojack Horseman (not even Lego Batman - all I heard was Bojack). That and maybe the movie producer being Slade's sister Jade Wilson with the same hair color as Rose has me perplexed. Surely someone who reads comics would know if Jade exists or if they invented her for this. Or it could be nothing.

So I found out from a WatchMojo video that Chris Bores rebooted his show. I watched the handful of videos at the time this was written and I only really liked the Deadly Towers review. The rest seemed too tame and boring, which is why I didn't watch his tech reviews. Then I went back and saw his Archfiend Response video from a few years ago and looked at the comments. This is just as much drama as Channel Awesome with cliques and factions. Some say Chris is lying, some think the Nerd has become a horrible person. I don't know what to believe. Similarly, the comments on current Nostalgia Critic episodes are demanding answers or demanding that people shut up about wanting answers. Have Doug and James gone Hollywood? Is Chris just a hack? It's funny what'll blow over and what won't.

Do You Believe?

I've been thinking more about the fact that people have powers in Kingdom Hearts not just as Nobodies but as complete people. Braig is undeniably already using his space powers, but the sixth sense shown by Ienzo could be written off as an artistic choice just like Even saying to Ventus that they'd meet again. However, given what we know about the nature of their experiments, Even probably intended on kidnapping Ven later, only Ven doesn't live in Radiant Garden. As for Ienzo, he probably did have the power to smell darkness and sense presences. Thus, his role in the experiments (in addition to requesting the lab be built) was probably as lookout since they knew Ansem didn't approve of what they were doing anymore. It's a job he continued to have as a Nobody, standing in the corner of a darkened room and sensing the goings-on of Castle Oblivion (except he couldn't sense Diz or Ven). Dilan and Aeleus probably reserved their powers over wind and earth respectively for when they really needed it, when their weapons and strength weren't enough (or else they could cause some collateral damage that way). We know Even hates witches and magic, so it would make sense that he'd barely make use of his ice powers.

I finally got to listen to the Vox Machina version of Hamilton and it was definitely worth listening to all at once. Then I did the same thing with the original soundtrack, and it was like listening to the Weird Al parody of a song before the song itself, which is something I do sometimes. History is depressing, though; D&D is more fun.

Despite Tony Goldmark (SomeJerkWithACamera) mentioning on Twitter that the Walkers lawyering up and Doug's employment status changing to the past tense on Facebook, it appears Channel Awesome still exists with just the Nostalgia Critic crew, who are as of yet unrepentant and never looking back. Michaud must have them by the balls.

The Unexpected

I don't know why people are saying the Persona 5 anime is a waste of time. It had only been three episodes in at the time of these videos' release (Glass Reflection and Mother's Basement). Granted, the Kamoshida Palace took up the first four episodes of a 24-episode run to set things up, but I think it's still way too early and that we should reserve judgment until the end.

"Sakura and Meling's Friend" was the latest stupid title, as well as how it was presented. The Clow Card they compared it to was The Twin Card fought by Melin and Syaoran. The Struggle Card is obviously a recreation of The Fight Card, which was from Meilin's first episode. She fought it by herself only to fail, and Sakura beat it with The Power Card. The Swing Card was also a weird name, as it doesn't really call to mind anything earth-related like The Earthy Card. Kaito slips up and mentions a detail about Sakura's dad that Akiho never told him, so he has to rewind time a little bit to undo his mistake. It's like what Whis does but with a pocket watch and a glyph.

I'm disappointed that Derek Stephen Prince announced that he hadn't been asked to record Even for KH3, which means he's probably still unconscious or doesn't have a speaking role (which also means he might appear during the end credits). Larxene is going to be there, though. It would be cool if the rest of the clip where Marluxia confronts the heroes includes her joining him. Others had signed non-disclosure agreements and can't say if they're in it or not.

I gave in to curiosity and tried Hershey's Gold. It was surprisingly really good, like caramel ice cream with pretzel bits and nuts (things I usually don't like). It's probably better than the caramel pudding Kit Kats because of the stronger caramel taste.

I feel bad that Grif didn't get his pizza. This is what happens when you repeatedly ignore a call to adventure - it blows up your favorite pizza place and forces you to answer.